I'm not left-handed

[redbird]

I was looking at GIMP tutorials, and this one seemed suitably simple. (The writer clearly isn't a native English speaker, but that's okay.)

And I was having trouble drawing a stick figure. Unlike the characters in The Princess Bride, I'm not even close to ambidextrous: I can do ordinary computer stuff with the mouse set for left-handed (point and click, move a scroll bar up and down, even type on one of those stupid virtual keyboards that banks think provide security). Drawing a circle, or any smooth curve, is another matter.

So, my options seem to be: give up on computer graphics, or go back to working right-handed. If I do the latter, I should probably set things up so I can switch back and forth, and only work right-handed when I need the fine motor control, lest I re-injure my rotator cuff.

Or I can go play with wire, or read my book.

Comments

[redbird]

My goal is to get to a level of proficiency that will allow for a little photo manipulation: something beyond just cropping the edges of an image. The place where drawing seems to overlap with that is that I was having trouble selecting object-shaped pieces of the photo, rather than rectangular ones.

That doesn't mean this isn't a hardware problem.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

it is both a hardware and a wetware problem: the mouse is not the input device of choice for anyone serious about either photo manip or digital drawing, and without practice the other hand is nearly worthless at the start.

is there any way you could try a wacom tablet and stylus? i do a lot of graphics work, and even with my non-dominant hand i can do better with the stylus than with my trackball -- mostly good enough for selecting irregular objects (magic scissors also help with that). but the stylus is harder on my much worse RSI-afflicted dominant hand.

i keep meaning to practice, practice, practice with my other hand because i'd love to be ambidextrous. wonder how long one would have to practice. longer than i ever have, *snrk*, but realistically.

[mneme]

Spefiically for photomanips, The Gimp -is- the right tool for the task.

The key (especially for uncoordinated, disgraphic, left hander mousing right me) is to use zoom liberally. Tasks that are difficult to impossible when mousing around at "fit to screen" become downright trivial when you've switched to a 4/1, 8/1, or even 16/1 zoom.