I am discovering simultaneous, two handed drawing techniques through my own individual style of art creation. Every time I create new artwork, I find my hands making similar movements while drawing.
I have been heavily inspired by Polynesian, Samoan, and all forms of tribal art. I’m not the first person in the world to draw with both hands at once, but I have discovered and documented several drawing techniques to make the process easier to describe and teach to others.
I have not always drawn with two hands at once. Simultaneous two handed drawing is the next step in my individual creative process. If I never learned how to draw with one hand, I could have never taught myself to draw with two hands.
It feels much different to draw with two hands than with one. When you draw a line on the paper with one hand, it’s the equivalent of having one personality in a room. When you draw a line with two hands, it’s like have two personalities in a room. These two personalities can either talk with each other, or they can go off and “do their own thing”.
I created the term “Hand Mirroring” to describe when both hands are simultaneously drawing two similar lines or shapes. Imagine one hand is drawing a circle, and the other hand drawing a circle as well. This is like both hands are talking to each other. Whatever one hand does, the other does. If one hand draws a line, the other hand is also drawing a line. This is an easy concept for us to wrap our brains around. Mirroring = mimicking.
Where it starts to get convoluted, is when we try to allow the hands to have their own personality and each “do their own thing”. Imagine one hand drawing a circle, while the other is drawing a square. I refer to this type of drawing as “Hand Independence” and “Detachment”. With Independence, the hands are detached from each other’s movements so they can function Independently from one another. As opposed to Mirroring, where they are functioning dependently and opposite of each others movements.
Detachment begins in the mind and ends on the paper. It’s the mental and physical process of separating the hands from one another so they can function as two individual artists. Independence is the act of drawing with two hands at once. First we must detach from our hands, so they can detach from each other and act independently of one another.
In music, tempo means speed. In Simultaneous Two Handed Drawing, tempo means the speed at which the hands draw in relation to each other. The speed of drawing is an important part of detachment. Typically with Mirroring, the hands also tend to mimic each other’s speed. Learning to detach the hands from each other’s movements allows each hand to achieve maximum potential.