Doodles are awesome. I love seeing other people’s doodles. The way I feel about doodles is much like how I feel about people’s journals, except even more so. Because when we doodle, I think we truly turn our conscious brains off and go on autopilot. And so what comes out of is actually tapping into some pretty deep stuff. For me, doodling turns off the noise in my head, and allows me to focus on one thing at a time. If I’m in a business meeting, on an important phone call, in a lecture, or anything where I have to listen and retain information, I am frantically doodling. My notebooks and correspondence are always a mess of dark, chaotic ink or faint lines that look like they’ll float off the page, rarely finding a happy medium. I’m sure I’ve had my share of co-workers and professors that thought I was being rude as my pen flew while they spoke, but doodling honestly helps to streamline my brain, listen better and get the job done. Plus, I’m betting I’m not the only one who utilizes doodling in this way, so they can all just get over it.
Here’s a random sampling of some of my doodles from the notebooks nearest me as I sit here
(I think I doodled Rhianna)
(apparently when I’m sick, I rebus)
And the good news is, I’m not alone in my love of the doodle. I came across this great site, Doodler’s Anonymous, and I’ll let their mission statement speak for itself:
“Just an idea.
Doodlers Anonymous was founded to celebrate our addiction, and like any other, we’re hooked. The need to draw, sketch, and doodle is constant. We doodle on almost anything we can find — pencil in a moleskine, marker on a napkin, ink on a torn receipt, sharpie on concrete. And we do it habitually — while on hold, in a meeting, during class, or while we should be sleeping.
This is a permanent home for spontaneous art. There’s a blog, interviews, themed-submissions and a lot of amusing thoughts on paper. ”
Their submissions include such greatness as Doodlebomb!, which asks people to doodle on magazine ads, and Doodle Flix, where people doodle on Netflix envelopes (and the page turns out to be a nice little gallery of really good artwork). I plan on skulking about this site more in the future, and hopefully will submit some stuff of my own. Do join me, won’t you?