Why doodle?

03Nov11

I do not know much about human perception, or the fascinating and wonderful plumbing of human brain. I have no theory to back up what I am going to say. I have just my own experience. And I love what I do.

The thing is: as children, we start drawing earlier than we do writing. Nobody teaches us. It is as inherit as playing, dancing, talking or singing and comes as natural. One would say it stays with us later on in life, and it does. Even if you say – I hear you :) – that you don’t know how to draw. You do. Why? Drawing is first of all self expression. Now, … do you need some special abilities, talent or knowledge to express yourself? I don’t think so. The notion of artistic ineptitude is in this case totally irrelevant. Because if you allow yourself to relax, shed your adult, serious skin, doodling becomes a pure play. Very interesting play.

There are few peculiar things about drawing by hand. Unaffected, relaxed and focused at the same time, it is the opposite of intellectual work at computer screen; working with words, designing or working on a concept for example. It’s simply not tiring at all and as far as I am concerned, it makes me sharp and wide awake. But what is most peculiar: when doodling, I have a feeling I can listen to the surroundings better and remember it with unmatched clarity. Might be a bunch of crap, but if I am not mistaken, it reminds me of some form of meditation. And some meditation is always good.

So … why doodle? Well, you can stop staring at computer screen for a few minutes and do yoga. Or go gazing at stars or have a quickie with your girlfriend. Pretty much the same unplugging magic might happen as with taking a pen and piece of paper and draw. But the answer is very simple though: you can doodle anywhere and you don’t need much. Boring meeting? Doodle it off, you might even realize it is not so boring after all. :)

My doodles on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/majabjancic/sets/72157626753562279/

The FB page Daily Doodles: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#!/pages/Daily-Doodles/262788783756285