电子松鼠琪琪的机能风设计早期版，这张图又进一步发展为机能风定稿版的琪琪。

这张电子松鼠琪琪其实是我首次尝试从起稿到上色全部用左手画完的作品。虽然只是随手练习，但它被留下来展示是因为我想通过它讲述自己重新学习用左手画画的故事。

我小时候是个左撇子，然后被家人强制改成右撇子了。即便到了今天，除了用笔和餐具外，我几乎所有的操作都是左手主导的。2019 年的时候我因为已经多年陷入创作瓶颈，心情很烦闷。在网上看了几个视频就病急乱投医地觉得是不是改回左撇子就能改善我的问题。然后我真的就说干就干了。

尽管一开始连一条长线都画得四处乱抖，但通过一两周的线稿描红训练，基本就能画画了。在“重新学画画”的过程中，凭借过去的经验和理论知识，我也在观察和思考自己在画画时大脑和手在遇到困难时是如何适应的 (因为右手已经成为本能，观察不到了)。

我发现左手重新学画画的过程中最大的阻碍不是手抖或者画不出想要的线条，而是眼睛不知道往哪儿看，不能自动将视野的焦点落在笔画要前进的路径上。说白了还是一个观察问题。眼睛配合左手的习惯训练出来之后，画起来就再也没有什么问题了。

2019 年到 2022 年间我一直只用左手画画，然后就又换回了右手。自由星球 2 封面图还是用左手画的，灵狐阿幸进行二次修订的时候我应该已经换回右手了。

之所以换回右手，不是因为左手不好用，而是左手的无名指和小指发生了弹响指现象，时不时关节会卡住，会痛。换成左手也并没有像我一开始期望的那样改善了创作瓶颈和心理问题，也就是说没有什么收益。考虑到几乎所有的软件的默认界面设计都是以右撇子为前提的，左手反而会造成麻烦。所以我就换回去了。

不过也不能说这个左手绘画的 3 年完全是没意义的。重新学画画让我对绘画的观察问题、全局把握问题等有了更好的理解，在那之后我觉得自己在画画时越来越得心应手了。我在左手画画时训练出来的尽可能画成长线的习惯，在使用右手时也照样继承过去了。所以这还是一次有益的尝试，也向自己证明了即便年龄已经不小，人的适应能力还是很强的，学习能力也是有的。

不过说到最后，画画的问题只能通过画画解决，心理问题只能通过自己想通了解决，不是什么右手转左手这种小伎俩能解决的。

This is a early version of Kiki’s Teachwear costume design. There were a few other attempts until it reached the final version.

This picture was also the first time I created from start to finish using my left hand. It was more or less a random art practice, but I kept it in the gallery to tell the story about me relearning how to draw with my left hand.

I was a left-hander when I was a kid, but my family forced me into using my right hand to write and draw. But even so, I still mainly use my left hand in other tasks. In 2019, I was desperate to get out from my low period as an artist. After watching a few videos about the psychology behind it, I thought changing back to using my left hand to draw could help my situation, and so I did.

At first, I wasn’t even able to draw a long line properly — I had no control of my left hand. But after a week of intense practice by tracing line arts, I began to regain the ability to draw — although it still needed significant effort. The art foundation I accumulated so far still functioned, and I paid close attention to how I was adapting to the new arrangement, how my brain controls my hand (the right hand was too familiar to the workflow, it worked too fast to be noticed).

I found that the biggest challenge actually wasn’t the lack of control of my left hand, but rather my eyes didn’t know where to look at when I was drawing a stroke. The eyes must follow the pen tip and always look at where the stroke is going. It was an observation problem, at the end of the day. Once I retrain myself to look with my left hand in mind, it became much easier for me to draw.

And so I kept using only my left hand to draw between 2019 and 2022. All the way to the Freedom Planet 2 box art. I switched back to my right hand when drawing the second version of Sachi the Spirit Fox.

There were a few reasons for me to go back to my right hand. It wasn’t because of the left hand being bad at drawing — my arts had been steadily improving during the whole left hand period. The main reason was that my left hand’s 4th and 5th fingers had developed trigger finger. The two fingers would stick in place from time to time, and they would snap if I force them to move. It wasn’t very painful, but it was distracting and unpleasant. On top of that, most apps were designed with right-handers in mind, using my left hand was inconvenient. So I decided to switch back to my right hand.

Although I gave up using my left hand at the end, the experience was not a waste of time. I now have a better understanding of how to art, and my observation ability has improved significantly. I also trained myself to draw long and stable strokes. These improvements still benefit when I use my right hand. So I deemed it as a valuable endeavor. It proved to me that I could still learn and adapt to new things at this age.

But at the end of the day, the left hand stunt was a desperate attempt to find a solution of my problems. It helped in some way, but it wasn’t the key. Art blocks can only be solved by doing art. Mental blocks can only be solved by reflection.