Reverse

(For those who were following yesterday's blip, you were correct: I was stretching watercolor paper.)

So 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...

(Link to Finished Piece)