Doodling

I like to doodle. I do it frequently, mostly in meetings.

Just to clear the air, my doodling during meetings does not mean that I’m not paying attention. In fact, it’s the opposite. (I’m apparently not alone in this: there was a study a few years ago which demonstrated the phenomenon).

But this post is not about defending my doodles. It’s about sharing them with the world.

The Tools

First, a quick sidebar on the tools I use to doodle. Once upon a time, pen and paper where my tools of choice. It was fine for a while, but the magical device that is the iPad changed all that.

More specifically, the tool that really took my doodles to the next level is an iPad app called Noteshelf. I’ve blogged about it before, but basically this app gives you a simple, yet powerful interface for taking notes:

It also happens to be fantastic for creating doodles.

The Work

My doodles normally fall into one of two categories: abstract art or cartoon animals. I don’t know why that is, it just happens this way.

Anyhow, here’s a sample set of doodles from my Creepy Color Lines series:

And here we have a set from the Pensive Looking Animals collection:

In case you’re wondering, it usually takes up to 10 minutes per doodle and I usually bounce between actual note taking and drawing.