I painted these two pieces for my mom as her birthday card, and then I taught her some Chinese painting techniques <3 :) (I cut out the written part of the card, so that's why there's an awkward-looking bamboo shoot/branch next to the rock) I'm a leftie, BUT I compose Chinese calligraphy with my right hand. Why? Because Chinese character strokes go from left to right, so the brush would crumple up if I use my left hand. Story time: I once enrolled in a Chinese calligraphy class, and the teacher told me to either switch to my right hand or switch to another course... Thus, I switched to my right hand and attempted to trace Chinese characters like the other students. Weeks passed by and everyone progressed from tracing simple characters to outlining complicated ones: the teacher even signed his name on their practice pieces to show their perfection of the characters (our teacher claimed he was famous and that his signatures were valuable) Yet, I conti...