In fact, doodling is a remarkably complex and mysterious process. But what do doodles do? The answer is not that simple. Doodling apparently possesses so many positive benefits it's a wonder that it has languished for centuries in the margins of ledgers and notebooks. (2) When influential companies such as Facebook, Zappos and Sharpie extoll the benefits of doodling for generating innovative ideas, improving productivity and maximizing the bottom line, it is safe to say the doodle has gone mainstream. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about the virtues of corporate executives doodling in a culture increasingly dominated by computers and smart phones. For artists, especially, says art critic Michael Kimmelman, 'The doodle may hasten to consciousness some qualitative thought, spark a bigger idea, which can be developed elsewhere, more formally, in directions far removed from the source.' (1) Yet despite its ubiquity wherever pen and paper are readily available, doodling as an important form of graphic expression has generally gone unnoticed and escaped serious examination.ĭespite the common perception that doodling is a marginal and meaningless activity practiced by the bored and listless, some are now praising the virtues of this once vilified practice.

The doodle is a casual, sometimes spontaneous, sometimes deliberate reaction that may or may not have anything to do with the spoken word or images on the page that initially inspired it. The lecturer's words or the letters and images on the printed page inspire, for reasons barely discernable, a doodling response. You may not even realize that your hand has rendered shapes on the page while your mind is occupied with other matters. The curly cues morph into wild-eyed bats and the bunny rabbits mysteriously sprout long thick strands of hair against a backdrop of oddly shaped stars. Perhaps during an interminably long lecture or an engaging telephone conversation, you find yourself doodling bunny rabbits or six headed dragons or obsessively repeated curly cues.

Doodle art meaning in english