Several months ago, I came to the conclusion that I was going to start make one drawing a day, so that by the end of one year, I would have 365 little creations. To alleviate the fear and pressure (which we have enough in our daily lives already), I decided that to do this, the drawing would be done on A4 paper, nothing intimidating.
Then several weeks in, a friend of mine posted on an event called 1000 Drawings, whereby guests came to doodle, paint or draw on A5 sized paper. When the organisers collected 1000 drawings, it would then be sold for a nominal price of HK$80 (about US$10) I went to the first one and created 3 mini-doodles. The event was a blast!
People came around to me and thought my work was so creative and cool, and asked what I was thinking of. I said I was thinking of nothing. I don’t think about what I’m creating, but to let the pen just move or guide itself. I call it ‘unconscious creativity’. What surprised me even more was that the creativity or ‘wilder’ side became more apparent on A5 paper than on my usual A4 paper, as I could get something out faster, and faster means less thinking! A5 and doodling is the perfect combination. What’s best is not even think about anything while doodling. Let it just happen. You are not trying to make anything pretty or cool and you are not looking for approval. It’s just putting pen to paper.
When you think of it, doodling is exactly just that. If you have ever doodled or scribbled little drawings onto paper when sitting in a conference or classroom, that is the kind of non-thinking behaviour that is akin to what I’m doing here. It’s mindless, or MIND LESS. Move the mind out of the picture, literally, and let go.
Have a cup of tea and doodle away. Maybe buy yourself a simple doodling pad. It doesn’t even have to be a nice one, preferable A5 size and just let go. The 1000 Drawings HK event augmented by own doodling path and have started a mini-collection I call MISHMASH.
Last week, I held a small doodling session in my studio and invited anyone to drop by to have some fun. What I found when observing people get into their doodling, was that they became very focused and drawn INTO their drawing. I recall the room becoming very silent, although there were about 12 of us. The doodlers became intensely present, which is what I feel and experience when I become thoroughly involved in my own painting or drawing. And when one is in that mode of experience, nothing else matters. There are no problems in life, no fears, no obstacles, no identity. You just are. This is why many of the best and greatest artists become entranced by the profession. Money, relationships, identity become secondary elements to the experience of creating, which to them, is life.