Reverse

 

 

8 x 8 inches
India ink and watercolor on 90lb hot press paper

So this week's theme was "Reverse", and I thought, "Why not do an illustrated text in reverse, like Leonardo da Vinci?" Very clever, right?  Well, I overlooked something rather important. Leonardo was left-handed, and I, alas, am not.  Now I know WHY he wrote backwards: not to keep his information secret, as some have presumed, but simply to keep the ink from smudging. He used a dip pen, you see, not a modern ballpoint. It took several awkward attempts to get the technique down, and the end result wasn't pretty.  No wonder Leo gave up on writing his personal notes left-to-right like everyone else.  He wasn't being odd; just practical.

I read in a scientific study that only one in 6,000 people can easily read and write in reverse from the lettering system they grew up with, which made me feel somewhat special -- but this still doesn't change the fact that I now have ink all over the place...