Forgetting words when drawing

[mtw]

Today I was reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and I was working on one of the exercises to help you make a switch from using your left brain to the right. It worked on me and I noticed some changes. Right after completing that exercise I went to Subway to get a sandwich. I've gone there before quite often when staying late at school. When I was there, I looked at the price for the sandwich I normally order and tried to figure out the price with tax. Getting the tax was easy because I can just move the decimal place over one spot, but when I tried to add it to the price, I was like, "How do I add?" I managed to get a close approximation by visuallizing a small piece of something being attached to a larger piece. Then when I ordered my sandwich, I said, "I'll have a footlong BMT on, um...hearty...um..." and I had trouble remember the word for the bread I always get.

I didn't expect something like that to happen even though I had read about how the left brain is used for words and numbers and right for visual things.

Does this happen to anyone else when they're drawing?

[ZippZopp]

wow...sounds pretty crazy to be honest...pretty trippy experience! i might have to give that book a shot to set my mind into a different zone! i'll let you know the results when i get the book

[jester]

I can follow you in so far as I can't talk while drawing. So I can't explain what I'm doing. Might be related.

Jester

[mtw]

Originally posted by jester
I can follow you in so far as I can't talk while drawing. So I can't explain what I'm doing. Might be related.

It is related in that talking is a left brain function. So you must be drawing on the right side of your brain, which is a good thing.

[rimwalker]

Sometimes I can be talking to someone but as soon as I begin to draw, I can hear them talk but I can no longer understand the words. I have to "disengage" in order to figure out the meaning of the words. (However, now that I think about it, this may be a result of my attention being placed elsewhere and not really any neurological effect.)

This doesn't always happen and most times I can still talk while drawing.

Maybe it's because I'm left-handed and slightly ambidextrous? I learned in my college psychology class that left-handed or ambidextrous people often develop speech centers in both sides of the brain.