TIP: Explore your dominant side
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Of your vision!
It is thought that 96% of the world’s population has a dominant eye. Here’s how to find yours.
- Make a triangle with both hands by overlapping your thumbs and the top half of your fingers.
- The triangle should be small enough so that you can see with only one eye when your hands are next to your face.
- Pick an object 10 feet or so away and look through the triangle at your target.
- Keeping both eyes open, SLOWLY and deliberately move the triangle towards your face while looking at the target object.
- When your hands touch your face, the triangle will be over your dominant eye.
So what’s going on here?
Our eyes have overlapping visual fields in which our brain takes two images, combines them to form a third image. This is the basis of our depth perception, or stereopsis.
But one eye obviously works harder than the other.
Scientists have determined that our brains are functionally asymmetric. Our left hemisphere is mainly connected with abstract logical thinking and speech, and our right hemisphere is associated with image sensitivity. It’s not known whether there’s a correlation between dominant eye and brain hemisphere dominance, but we do know that our dominant eye is our “working eye”. This eye processes information 14 to 21 milliseconds faster than the other eye. Using the line of sight from the dominant eye tells you where things are out there in your visual world.
So why should you care which of your eyes is dominant?
The simple answer is - to know where to place your easel.
Dante Gabriel Rosetti: Elizabeth Siddal Seated at an Easel
If you are left eye dominant - your easel should always be to the right of whatever you’re painting, and vice versa. Thus your dominant (working) eye is the one doing the looking. If you want to accurately portray spatial depth and realism in your work, you need to ensure that you are taking full advantage of your dominant eye.
You already subconsciously know which eye is dominant. Don’t believe it? Pick up your camera and pretend you’re going to take a picture. Which eye did you use to look in the viewfinder? Right! Your dominant eye! Try using the other one - it feels weird, doesn’t it?
Just for fun - I’m adding a pseudo-scientific poll about eye dominance. Let’s see if we can draw some conclusions from it. Before you take the poll, here are two facts:
- Approximately 65% of the world’s population is right eye dominant.
- About 80% of us have both eye and hand dominance on the same side.
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Thanks for the idea of paying attention to the dominant eye. It sounds important, but I don’t get your reasoning on placement of the easel. Here’s what makes sense to me.
If the artist’s right eye, say, is dominant, then facing the model so that the model is in the right half of the field of vision optimizes use of the dominant eye. Placing the easel ALSO on the same side makes both of the important things the painter is looking at in the field of the right eye. Placing the easel on the left requires the painter to turn in order to place the easel in the field of view of the right eye.
What am I overlooking?
I dunno, Decker. How can you place the easel AND the model on the right side?
If you’re right eye dominant, as you’re facing your easel your model should be just to the right of it, so that the right eye can better focus on the subject.
If you’re left eye dominant - as you face your easel, the model should be just to the left side.
Hope I’ve made that clearer.
thanks for the information , I am going to change my easel position , I had it in the wrong place. Very interesting concept
You ask: How can you place the easel AND the model on the right side?
Easy. Model is just to the right of your centerline and the easel is just to the right of the model in your field of vision. That way, by leaning back you can see both in one glance and both are in the right of your field of vision. Nothing relevant to the painting is in the left field.
Make sense?
I’m right eye-right hand. I’ve experimented with easel placement a bit and found that I like to have the easel on the right so I don’t keep looking over my right shoulder at the subject. I’ve always felt a little more comfortable, visually, with the easel on my left and my tools and setup to the right, but I always felt it was very inconvenient to reach across me if I look at the setup and have my hand toward the easel.
In my home workspace it’s also nearly impossible for me to set the easel up to the left most of the time, if I’m using a French easel, due to the layout of my rather limited space. I’m going to have to keep experimenting with it. I like your reasoning, but over the years I have found my way easier, physically. This is the first real practical advice I’ve ever had on the subject. It’s always been something I’ve wondered if I was doing “right.”
Fascinating! Thanks! Due to a small studio I work backwards and lefthanded. This might explain some of my vision problem, though.
Decker, I think basically you’re talking about standing way to the left to paint. This seems counter-intuitive to me.
It’s not about excluding the non-dominant eye - it’s about maximizing the effectiveness of the dominant one.
Can’t hurt, Jesus - but it’ll take some getting used to.
Jake - I learned about eye dominance when we had a birthday party for my son at an archery range. The instructor had everyone hold up their hands as shown in the diagram and look at his nose. He pointed at everyone in turn and said Right Right Left Right Left etc etc. I was shocked that I was left eye dominant. What that means in archery is that I had to shoot left handed (pull the bow back with my left hand.) It was awkward as all get-out - but I tried it with my right - and I was way more accurate with my left.
As for your tools, palette, etc - you could always try putting that directly in front of your easel. Makes it easy to access, and keeps you from getting too close to your painting (and choking up on your brushes).
But ultimately - whatever works best for you is the “right” way.
R Garriott - are you saying you work lefthanded but you’re right hand dominant?
Good grief - I’m left eye dominant - but my palette is in front of me and the still life is set up to the right. I’m right handed, but now that I think about it, when I squint I look primarily through my left eye. I always tossed that off to one eye having better vision than the other. I’ll rearrange things and give it a try, see if it’s any easier setting up to the left.
Well, it’s good that you have your palette right in front of you - that means you’re not getting up too close to your easel.
If you move your set up - you’ll probably find it a bit wonky at first, but I’ll be interested to see if it affects any change.
I’ve always known that my left eye is dominant, so I’ve always tried to strengthen my right eye with little exercises. Whether we choose left or right in circumstances like clasping your hands and crossing your thumbs allows you to see which side of the brain is more dominant. I find using the side which is weaker improves co-ordination and stretches the brain. For example when reaching the supermarket, do you usually park on the left or the right, when getting onto a train do you take a seat left/right. Facing your weaknesses, not avoiding them improves overall performance.
really interesting read. thank you. my right eye is dominant. i tried out the placing the easel to the left. doesn’t seem to work for me either. other factors must be at play too. just like i bring the camera to my right eye when i’m taking a pic, the easel gets put on the right when i’m drawing or painting.