Activity: Doodling.

My name is Sophie...and I am a doodlebug. There, I said it. Whether it be my Graphic Design/Illustration education and primary interest, or human nature, I am an avid doodlers- along with thousands of others through the world. Not a day goes by where I won't scribble down something completely mad and barmy, but that mad and barmy drawing keeps my brain and creativity clock keep on ticking.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Sorry trees. Sorry planet. Sorry paper suppliers.

So, here is the complication of my reasons and opinions as to why I think DOODLING is good.

20 REASONS WHY I THINK DOODLING IS GOOD

1. Doodling can inspire new ideas and increase your creativity.

2. Personally, for me, doodling has given birth to plenty of new ideas and creations. Thank you daydreaming...you have served me well.

3. Doodling can increase your artistic ability.

4. Doodling, however silly it may seem at the time can lead onto a life long career...Illustration, Typography, Graphic Design...doodling is BOSS.

5. Doodling cartoon characters is always fun, particularly when they look absolutely nothing like the cartoon in which you are attempting to replicate.

6. Doodling is fun, just admit it.

7. Far from the obvious professions, doodling can lead onto many other career paths...an art teacher, perhaps? Teach your doodling goodness to the masses!

8. Doodling and drawing can help young children, and even adults help to express yourself.

9. I like to think that the invention of Spirograph was dreamt upon by doodlers.

10. Scribbling and frankly destroying paper with your pen is a pretty good stress release, believe me.

11. In my view, doodling is an essential part of the design process- release your ideas whilst they are automatically fresh in the mind, not when they're half-stilted.

12. In the art and design industry, doodles can make dollars. Time to get that pen and paper out then...

13. Want to become a fashion designer? Start to learn to doodle like a PRO.

14. If you must insist on daydreaming in class, surely, doodling is a good way to spend it? It keeps your imagination running, and stops you from looking gormless as you would staring into space.

15. I've found that doodling is a great way to experiment with weight of line and styles of drawing.

16. Doodling helps Illustration skills, FACT.

17. If I ever particularly like a style of Illustration- whether I see it online, in a magazine, journal or book, I always do a quick ten-minute sketch to replicate the style, and see how naturally it comes to me. It's a great way to quickly introduce new methods and techniques.

18. The Japanese restaurant chain, Wagamama's give the younger guests a drawing kit...one of the activities being named 'Noodle Doodle'...awesome.

19. Doodling is a great way to pass the time when you're on the phone...just don't get TOO distracted- particularly if it in a phone interview or such...whoopsie.

20. Heck, if for nothing else- it's always good to know that your pen works just fine.

20 FACTS ABOUT DOODLING

1. A doodle is an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied.

2. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes.

3. Stereotypical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class.

4. Other common examples of doodling are produced during long telephone conversations if a pen and paper are available.

5. Popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes and patterns, textures, banners with legends, and animations made by drawing a scene sequence in various pages of a book or notebook.

6. The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. It derives from the German dudeln, to play (originally, to play the bagpipe or dudel). German variants of the etymon include Dudeltopf, Dudentopf, Dudenkopf, Dude and Dödel. American English dude may be a derivation of doodle.

7. The meaning "fool, simpleton" is intended in the song title "Yankee Doodle", originally sung by British colonial troops prior to the American Revolutionary War. This is also the origin of the early eighteenth century verb to doodle, meaning "to swindle or to make a fool of". The modern meaning emerged in the 1930s either from this meaning or from the verb "to dawdle", which since the seventeenth century has had the meaning of wasting time or being lazy.

8. In the movie Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Deeds mentions that "doodle" was a word made up to describe scribblings to help a person think. According to the DVD audio commentary track, the word as used in this sense was invented by screenwriter Robert Riskin.

9. . Internet giant Google has given a new dimension to the word by having "doodles" in its main page on certain acclaimed occasions.

10. According to a study published in the scientific journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodling can aid a person's memory by expending just enough energy to keep one from daydreaming, which demands a lot of the brain's processing power, as well as from not paying attention. Thus, it acts as a mediator between the spectrum of thinking too much or thinking too little and helps focus on the current situation. The study was done by Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, who reported that doodlers in his experiment recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of 16 total) on average, 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group made of non-doodlers

11. A scribble is a drawing composed of random and abstract lines, generally without ever lifting the drawing device off of the paper.

12. Scribbling is most often associated with young children and toddlers, because their lack of hand–eye coordination and lower mental development often make it very difficult for any young child to keep their coloring attempts within the line art of the subject.

13. Adults also scribble, although generally it is done jovially, out of boredom (as in doodling), or as a form of abstract art, or to see if a pen works.

14. Scribbles are also a kind of web graphics, often associated with pixels and cute websites.

15. They are entirely different from pixeling, as instead of carefully drawing the graphics pixel by pixel, the picture is made by drawing quickly around the outline of object a number of times – this gives the scribbly effect. The result is a very loosely drawn, sketchy artwork.

16. A scribble can also refer to a roughly drawn representation of a design.

17. The term scribble (noun) is often used in software design circles to mean a quickly drawn representation of a computer-program or web-site layout.

18. Etymology: Middle English scriblen, from Medieval Latin scribillare, from Latin scribere to write.

19. To write hastily or carelessly without regard to legibility or form. To cover with careless or worthless writings or drawings

20. A stick figure is a very simple type of drawing made of lines and dots, often of the human form or other animals

20 WORDS ASSOCIATED WITH DOODLING

1. Drawing
2. Illustration
3. Images
4. Ideas
5. Pens
6. Pencils
7. Imagination
8. Daydreaming
9. Paper
10. Grafitti
11. Boredm
12. Colours
13. Characters
14. Feelings
15. Emotions
16. Scribbles
17. Designs
18. Words
19. Thoughts
20. Messy

20 OPINIONS OF DOODLING
(In response to the previously posted question 'Survey: Have you got pen and paper handy, doodle the first thing that spring s to mind. What is it?' by EJ what a liberty xxx via Yahoo Answers)


1. Eyes i usually doodle eyes , sometimes faces but mostly eyes- NUTTYTART, via Yahoo Answers.

2. Yeah, it's meant to be that people who draw houses with a path, and smoke from the chimney shows that they are homely people - you value your family more than work and that. If you didn't do a path, and spent a lot of detail on the door, or crosses on the window, it can mean that you are a private person and don't want anyone intruding in your home life.

I don't know what anything else means, I just remember reading that somewhere because I always draw houses too!- floppity, via Yahoo Answers.


3. Not my usual type of drawing. It looks more like a rain dance you might see on tv or in the movies, but it's somebody with hands raised as if in worship or surrender. Years ago I saw these figurines that represent the inner child. The two I remember are one that was hunched in a ball with its head in its lap probably crying and the other one was standing with its hands in the air as if saying, "Yes! I'm finally free!" :o)- Precious to Jesus, via Yahoo Answers.

4. I took a art class and we were learning how to draw Disney characters and Im trying to draw my favorite characters Goofy from a t-shirt I have laying here.... :o)- tlcaringlady4u, via Yahoo Answers.

5. I also doodle circles. Often I draw hearts- candycane, via Yahoo Answers.

6. Spring flowers:-)- Maureen, via Yahoo Answers.

7. I started with a 3D oblong which turned into an articulated lorry- Quizard, via Yahoo Answers.

8. Those trees and mountains beyond my house, very beautiful sight- Prodigal Son, via Yahoo Answers.

9. OMG
I draw the exact same thing as you.
Just that mine always has a doghouse by the side- Pink Fluffy Unicorn, via Yahoo Answers.

10. Women- Steve E, via Yahoo Answers.

11. Haha, a hotdog!- Jessica, via Yahoo Answers.
 
12. I do 3D cubes!?- Bear, via Yahoo Answers.

13. I drew an eye with a swirly pattern coming from the corner that turns into curly branches. Yes, my doodles are random :P- Kimi, via Yahoo Answers.

14. A face- GIZMO, via Yahoo Answers.

15. An eye- Clueless, via Yahoo Answers.
 
16. I drew a 3-dimensional square - what does that mean?- Baps, via Yahoo Answers.

17. Will microsoft pain work?
  Ithink I might doodle an anchor- The Battenhaus Effect, via Yahoo Answers.

18. I draw a face- must love cows, via Yahoo Answers.

19. Hair :)- Teresa, via Yahoo Answers.

20. My office with a big padlock and a sign that says "closed today, will reopen on Monday"- Miss Suzy, via Yahoo Answers.

20 IMAGES OF DOODLING