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Doodling is my favorite pastime. My whole family doodles. The kids doodle. My friends doodle. We play silly doodle games whenever we get together.
What is doodling exactly? It's a form of shorthand drawing, scribbling, if you prefer.
Doodling is a very creative outlet for emotional expression. It releases inhibition and diminishes the fear of inadequacy. People doodle when they are trying to connect to their unconscious minds, to birth an idea, or solve a problem. Sooner or later, the idea will reveal itself in a doodle, and the specific problem will be resolved.
Doodling is one trick that works for writers and graphic artists with writer's block, or designer's block. I imagine musicians doodle on the piano. It's the same basic idea, just using piano keys instead of a pen.
Drawing is a natural inclination in most people. And it doesn't really have anything to do with the degree of artistic talent a person has. This kind of drawing is a form of communication we have with ourselves. It's a way of working things out in a very healthy fashion. It's just the opposite of an idle pastime.
Doodling has gotten an undeserved bad rap.
Sometimes we doodle when we are bored. Did you doodle in school? Can't begin to enumerate the times I was sent to the principal's office for doodling during class.
Doodling in school was considered to be rude to the teacher and inattentive to the lesson being taught.
According to psychologists today, people who doodle during a class, meeting, or lecture, for instance, retain more of the material than people who just sit there. Doodling occupies the "monkey-brain" leaving the other part of the brain free to imprint the data.
My teachers were not successful in discouraging me from doodling. It's a habit that followed me through college and proved to be a valuable aid in my learning. By looking at my doodles, I could remember exactly what the professor said.
Doodling is a good way to develop powers of observation and build your visual vocabulary. What a brilliant way to tap into a deep reserve of ideas that are visual.
Doodling can be an art form. Even Google shows doodlers some love. Take a look at Google Doodle, for instance. Even Apple respects doodlers. There are doodle Apps for the iPad.
If you have a good sense of humor, and like to doodle, you can make a doodle website.
Do you have long winded friends who keep you on the phone for-ev-er? You can always doodle while you're listening to them.
Eventually, your doodles will get more and more involved and become complete drawings.
Public figures are always being scrutinized for their doodles. When Tony Blair was British Prime Minister at #10 Downing Street, his doodles and handwriting were analyzed. The analyst concluded that Blair was struggling to concentrate and that he was not a natural leader. It was later revealed that the analyst mistakenly got a hold of Bill Gates doodles. Bill Gates was visiting #10 at the time. So much for that!
Historians scrutinized John F. Kennedy's doodles. There was something very bizarre in his doodles. On one page he had written "9/11" with a circle around it. In the corner of that same page was written the word "conspiracy", underlined. What possible explanation can there be for that? Guess we'll never know.
So doodles serve as a record of events, even how you felt at the time. They are like a journal, and not for others to look at, unless you permit it.
Doodlers are in good company. Presidents, business moguls, scientists, public speakers, designers, writers, etc, all doodle.
Remember, it doesn't matter if you think you can draw or not.
What is doodling? It is the direct link to your inner-most thoughts expressed in visual terms. And more than that, it's darn fun.
Thanks for sharing about what is doodling! I'm not visual so I'm curious how this may apply to me. Will peek at some pages and see if I doodle... Good job. Fun insights.
Wow Joan, I can so relate to your expressions. You express many things that I kind of think about but would never have expressed like you have here. I Like what you said about how doodling helps diminish the fear of inadequacy. That's a thing I've had to overcome and still have to work on. I visited your website and love your work with patterns and your paintings from your heart:)
Hi Rob, You and I share a love for doodling. When artists doodle, it tends to keep them in the flow. No need to "get under", because you are already under. I think writer's block and/or artist's block is actually fear of not being good enough. When in the alpha state (flow), one doesn't worry about such things. You just get on with it. Thank you for your lovely comments and for reading my thoughts on doodling.
They analyze doodles seriously! That is really interesting. I find that it is just one of those times have you let your mind go and your sub conscious comes out for a play. As the daughter of an artist, dad loved when we did anything artist especially doodling as it is free expression at its core. Thanks Joan
Yes they do analyze doodles, but they won't analyze yours Gayle, if you keep them private. I suppose if a child was having emotional problems and a psychologist who knew how to analyze a doodle, was called in, it could be helpful. Doodling is fun. Thank you for your input.
Thanks for the follow.......it is said that doodling is the purest form of art. Your articles are kind of close to my heart.
Very cool! I doodle all the time never realized it meant anything except I was bored. Interesting. Love your site Joan. Thanks for the article.
Realy interesting article Joan; the story of the Kennedy doodle, weird!
Doodle is such a cool word! Something this ole cowboy has not learned or tried to do. Does that make me weird? LOL Wouldn't be the first time! Is the website yours? My wife is the doodler and a very good one to boot! I will have to show her that site tomorrow!
Oh I am and I know it! LOL You do a great job at writing articles! Keep 'em coming!
Normal...Average? Who would want that! LOL I think that is the problem nowadays! No one has the gumption to stand out from the crowd, be it laziness or not knowing anything else they can do!
Scary that Kennedy might have had a fore sight into the future... we play a game with the kids and grand kids where one starts off with a small sketch and we then take turns in adding our own little doodle... it is surprising after an hour what the picture looks like.. how ones doddle inspires another s... interesting..
Hi Rob, sounds like a fun game. We have a fun one too. We fold paper in four sections, representing the human body: head to shoulders, shoulders to waist, waist to knees, knees to feet. If you have four people playing, you fold four pieces of paper. Each person draws one section, and passes it to the person to his right. Rule is you cannot look at the drawings of the other people until the game is over. Continue until each page is completed. You get some very surreal results. Give it a shot.
Thanks for the share... sounds a good one...could be a laugh...
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