What’s your doodle trying to tell you?
Sometimes a drawing of one thing can turn into quite another. I was in an interview today, and although I was paying full attention to everything that was being said, I was also doodling.
Here is a bit of the page of my notebook. As you can see, I was keeping careful and attentive notes of what was being said, but I was also drawing some rather lovely sycamore seeds I’d seen at the bus-stop earlier.
(Sycamore seeds are a subject I’ve been thinking about drawing quite a lot recently. There’s something very soothing about their little double loop shape).
Anyway, when I looked at the doodle again, it took on the appearance of some trees on a hilltop, and I had a lot of fun developing that from the original doodle back at home. Click on the thumbnail below if you’d like to see the full-size picture.
In short, if you see some other shape in your drawings or doodles, don’t ignore it - it may lead you in unexpected directions. Perhaps the best thing about this sort of drawing is that it breaks you out of habits you don’t even know you have. I don’t think I’ve ever drawn trees quite like this before.
Your task, if you want one: have a little doodle, and keep an open mind. See what you discover.
Posted: July 18th, 2007 under Inspiration, Drawing for fun.
Comments: 8
8 Comments
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I concur wholeheartedly with your love of doodles and the flow-of-consciousness approach. In fact, I actually depend on them to help me focus in meetings. It’s like I have to give that part of my brain something to do so it won’t distract me.
Keep up the great work (and the only so-so work, AND the downright awful work…it’s all good training).
Hi, Mr. Smile! Nice to hear from you. Your doodles are a complete inspiration. And yeah, I’m ploughing through the awful and the so-so work because it’s so nice when you finally do something you’re pleased with.
I have a question - which I only remembered when I browsed your blog. Why do many artists/illustrators/cartoonists draw with a blue pen/pencil first? That has always intrigued me…
I’ve never really done it myself, but my guess is that it’s an easy colour to paint over/make recede into the background? Anyone?
Dunno - I noticed that jaggedsmile had used blue for the first of three images in the post they did on using PS for stippling…
Don’t want to take over your post here, but I’ll answer. ;)
For me it’s-in part at least- actually a holdover from the old days of stat cameras. (I know, I’m showing my age here. For those under 30 out there, stat cameras were what we old-timers used pre-computer and scanner days for reproducing our line art drawings for publication. The base sketches were usually done in what was called non-repro blue ink or pencil. Then you inked over those with india ink or some other dark color. When you photographed your drawing with the stat camera, the non-repro blue would disappear (AAAGGH! DARK MAGIC!) and only the ink would reproduce on the final image.
Now, when working in PhotoShop, I do my base sketch in some lighter color-blue or even pink or green- on a layer I designate as “sketch”. Then I do the inking on a totally different layer labeled, of course, “inking” (I know, I know, you’re thinking “Wow! ‘inking’! Where DOES he come up with this brilliance?”). Using a lighter color for sketching just makes it easier to see your inking.
The cool thing is, if you do your base sketch or doodle on a piece of paper in regular ink or graphite and then want to ink it or paint it in PS, you can simply scan it in and change it to a blueline by monkeying with the color mix. Then just make it a separate layer and proceed with the inking as discussed above.
Hope this was helpful.
-J
Thank you so much - more than helpful, indeed, downright informative! And fascinating!
Absolutely helpful! Thank you for the explanation.
I had some memory that it was something like that but thought that it was about not being photo-copyable - but it is, these days, with colour photocopiers and scanners, of course, and so I convinced myself that I must be wrong.
I should have a little more faith in my memory sometimes, even if I did not remember all of the small-print! ;-p