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Doodling and Noodling
Generating and Transforming / Doodling / Noodling / Drawing With Letterforms / Inventing Icons / Mixing and Matching
Most of us doodle. While on the phone or in a meeting, we make squiggles or geometric shapes or sketchy images. The fact that we can do this while carrying on a conversation shows that doodles don't require much thinking. We move our pencils naturally and spontaneously, and we also don't worry a whole lot how our doodles look. This frame of mind — spontaneous, nonjudgmental, relaxed — is what runners and tennis players call “being in the zone.” This is the ground state for creativity. It is home for the creator.
In this chapter I introduce a two-step process that will help you unpack your natural creativity. I call it doodling and noodling or, more accurately, “doodling and then noodling.”
Think of the doodle as the first stage — the generating stage. To doodle is to get something on paper, no matter how rough, incomplete or simple.
The second stage, which I call “noodling,” is the transforming stage in which you tinker with your doodle. “Noodling” is an old illustrator's expression. If an illustrator was particularly good at precise and detailed work, he or she would be called a “noodler,” as in “He can noodle like a madman,” or “Don't noodle it to death.” Noodling includes such operations as shading, silhouetting, reversing, repeating and many others. These operations refine, develop or radically change your original doodle.
By separating these two functions you discover that each involves different attitudes and different mechanics. You can actually feel a shift as you move from doodling to noodling. Doodling is pure play — often aimless and free. Noodling operations are more often rule-based, involving a set of discreet steps. The steps may be simple, but the results are often complex and surprising.
Principles of Doodling
1. Suspend judgment. Doodling isn't art. It's just doodling.
2. Vary your doodles. If you're like most people, you tend to doodle the same thing over and over. Now it's time to expand your repertoire.
3. Practice. Every new skill is first learned consciously. Then, over time, the operations are passed to the subconscious as they become automatic. That's when you're actually doodling.
4. Doodle on old envelopes and scrap paper rather than “nice” paper. You'll feel freer and more willing to experiment.
5. Save your doodles in a large envelope. Now and then, go through them and pick out the most interesting or unusual ones. Put these in a second envelope. These may be source material for later work.
the two-step “doodling and noodling” process
Swiss artist Paul Klee sometimes began a drawing by moving his pencil in a free, semi-random manner that he called “taking a line on a walk.” Let's start with a simple example based on that idea.
1 DOODLING
You begin by letting your pencil go in any direction it wants — but taking care to end up where you started, so that the line encloses a shape. A doodle produced in this spontaneous way might look something like this.
2 NOODLING
Next, you “decorate” your original doodling in a deliberate and controlled manner. A doodle can be transformed in any number of ways by various noodling operations, such as the examples shown here and on the next page.
PATCHES
Straight, parallel, evenly spaced lines laid down at different angles
CONCENTRIC
Lines are parallel to the outer edge of the doodle, creating progressively smaller concentric shapes.
UNDULATING
Semi-parallel lines are drawn widely spaced initially, in graceful curves; then they grow closer together as they turn sharply, creating a 3-D effect.
DOTS
Dots with variable spacing are laid out in rows or other patterns.
PINWHEEL
Stripes radiate from a point on the edge of each shape; alternate stripes are filled in.
CACTUS
A prickly series of parallel short strokes and dashes grows along every line, both inside and out.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DOODLING AND NOODLING
The doodling stage is different from the noodling stage. Doodling is typically free, loose, spontaneous, vigorous and fragmentary. The noodling stage is often controlled, patient, mechanical, repetitive and complete. But these neat categories have a way of spilling into each other.
SHADED EDGE
The shape is shaded smoothly from dark to light with a soft black pencil.
STRETCHED CHECKERBOARD
Semiparallel lines (vertical and horizontal) curve in rows; alternate squares are filled in with black.
WATER
Irregular shapes, pointed at the ends, become smaller toward the top to create a sense of depth.
exercise 1
Take a Line on a Walk
Do six of these “line on a walk” doodles, making sure that your pencil winds up at the starting place. Then decorate each doodle with a different “noodling” operation. You can try your versions of the examples shown here, or you can invent your own algorithms — completely different from those shown here.
noodling to transform a doodle
The word transformation implies a significant change, a caterpillar- into-a-butterfly kind of change. This is the sort of change to aspire to when noodling. The key here is recognizing the two-step process: You begin with a doodle (the original marks, squiggles, lines or motif), then come back and add the algorithms, procedures and happy accidents of noodling to transform the doodle into a more developed drawing.
THE DOODLE
Let's call this original doodle — which is all straight lines and angular shapes — Maze.
THE NOODLE
Give the shapes some thickness and fill in all the planes on one side to indicate shading. Also add some cast shadows. Now we have Maze in the Shade.
Doodling and noodling are separate functions — doodles are spontaneous and largely mindless, while noodles are deliberate and planned. When you begin doodling, it's not necessary to know how you're going to noodle it. In fact, it's better if you don't know.
CREATING THREE DIMENSIONS
Here's a sample nooding procedure that transforms two dimensions into three.
Start with a geometric shape.
Draw vertical lines at each corner …
Connect the vertical lines …
Fill in all the planes on one side …
… and add cast shadows.
ANOTHER DOODLE
Here's another example that I got from an artist friend. It's just a repeated spiral. I call it Loopy.
ANOTHER NOODLE
Let's noodle my friend's doodle by adding a few twists and turns to give us Loopy, Twisted. This drawing also incorporates a new noodle technique, overlapping. Overlapping makes some shapes appear to go behind others, which conveys a sense of depth.
TAKING THE NOODLE FURTHER
Noodling can lead to further noodling. The squiggly lines look a bit like the springs that support Jack-in-the-box faces, so I added these clown heads. Because the result looks a little sinister, I call this noodle Loopy, Twisted and Weird.
OVERLAPPING FOR DEPTH
When one shape goes behind another, or a shape circles around behind itself, it clearly places the shape in space.
Shapes without overlapping tend to appear flat.
Shapes with overlapping appear three-dimensional.
doodling ideas: geometrics and waves
Even though we've characterized doodles as “mindless,” a doodle is often drawn in a sequence of simple steps. Sometimes these steps are so simple they're performed unconsciously. The doodles on this page require a bit of hand control, but after you've done one a few times, you'll be able to do it in your sleep. It's at this point that you're ready to move on to something different, some new variation.
There is a creative sequence here: (1) learn a new doodle, (2) practice it until it's easy, and (3) introduce your own variations. You'll notice that the doodles on these and subsequent pages are grouped in categories: geometrics, waves, tangles, shape clusters, building blocks, etc. Try the ones that appeal to you and even some that don't. Inspiration is often found in the untried and the unfamiliar, and sometimes in the uncomfortable.
Outer lines are short and closer together.
Center lines are longer.
SEEING THE PATTERN
This doodle, Starburst, is executed in a series of triangular patches radiating outward from the center. Each patch is made of straight lines, long in the center and gradually shorter and closer together at the ends. Like many algorithms, it's actually easier to do than it is to describe.
Geometrics
CONTINUOUS LINE
Without lifting your pencil, make a zigzagging line that attempts to maintain an even spacing between lines.
DUCTWORK
Make parallel lines that grow progressively closer together to suggest depth.
CITYSCAPE
Draw a cluster of closely packed rectangular shapes, then apply the three-dimensional thickness algorithm (see page 14).
Making Complexity Easy
The beauty of algorithms lies in the way they produce complex results by very simple means.
Start with this simple shape …
… and repeat.
CREATING THE ILLUSION OF COMPLEXITY
This doodle, Floral, looks as if it were all planned ahead of time, when in fact it was done by repeating a simple curve in clusters.
Waves
CURLING WAVES
Starting with the first row, strive for evenness and consistency — but not perfection. Note how the rows line up.
FOAMY WAVES
Try this variation on the doodle above, giving each wave this stylized treatment.
RHYTHMIC WAVES
Here make the rows irregular, and the troughs and crests staggered.
ROOTS
Semi-parallel lines widen across the top and converge along the sides. With practice, you can make the sections branch into smaller forms that grow in new directions.
doodling ideas: tangles and shape clustersdoodling ideas: tangles and shape clusters
Strings, ropes, spaghetti, worms and meandering roads all belong to a class of doodles I call “tangles.” The algorithm for producing them involves drawing a small section, stopping, drawing an overlapping section, stopping, etc. The sections should twist and loop in various ways, but the real key is stopping often.
HOPELESS
Start with a little double-line loop …
Add a second that touches the first …
Continue the first loop so that it appears to go behind and then in front of the second …
Repeat, with variations.
FETTUCCINE
HEADLESS SNAKE
Draw objects first …
Then wind the road around them.
FANTASY ROAD
CLOVERLEAF
FLORAL
FLORAL, SHOWING UNIFORM BACKGROUND SPACING (IN GRAY)
Shape Clusters
The idea behind “shape clusters” is keeping an even spacing between the shapes you draw. Begin with any kind of shape.
Draw the next one as close as you can to the first, and so on. You should end up with a more or less uniform area between the shapes. Each shape you add is influenced by the shapes already there; this can mean you have to invent a shape to get a tight fit.
The fit you achieve is not exact, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, but more like chocolates in a box with dividers. Doodles like these help your sense of design — they make you aware of the overall pattern.
MACHINERY AND STUFF
LIMBER PEOPLE
exercise 2
Doodling Algorithms
Pick one of these categories — geometrics, waves, tangles or shape clusters — and do a series of six to ten doodles using that algorithm. Make each one different from the others (if only slightly).
Now look at your doodles. Pick the one that seems the most different from the rest. What makes it different? Do a new doodle that emphasizes and exaggerates this difference.
doodling ideas: building blocks
Building shapes out of strokes is both a very simple idea and a good one. It can be as easy as dot dot dot dot — and with a little directed luck, an image emerges. It's best to do these without much planning and just let the image appear.
The type of nib you use will affect the look of your shapes. Markers make dots that are crude and funky. As the strokes (or dots) get smaller, the results get more subtle. Stippling can yield incredibly soft effects if you use a very fine nib. When you try this technique, practice gradation — change the strokes seamlessly from densely packed to widely dispersed.
Use a repeated stroke or shape and build it into an image.
MARKER DOTS
These two doodles were made with the nib of a thick, felt-tip marker.
STUBBLE
This was done with short dashes, like whiskers.
STIPPLE
These were built up with repeated pen marks. Spacing is close for the darks and wider apart for lighter areas.
Building With Recognizable Shapes
The building blocks on this page aren't just blocks; they're shapes in their own right: bricks, stones and strips. Fantastic, impossible-but-nearly-believable structures can emerge from this kind of doodle.
When you begin one of these, you may have a vague vision of your complete structure, but you don't need to sketch it all out ahead of time. Just keep adding bricks until you have something. This helps you appreciate a fundamental paradox about creativity: You don't always know what you're doing until you've done it. This is why we place so much emphasis on process.
exercise 3
Building Blocks
1. Make a page or two of building block doodles using each of these techniques: marker dots, stubble and stipple. Try at least some versions without a fixed plan. Just start making dots and see where they lead.
2. Do six to ten imaginary and improbable structures made of bricks, stones or curvy blocks. Again, let at least some of these just happen. Start at the bottom and build as if you were laying actual stones or bricks — but imaginatively.
FALLING BRICKS
BRICK TREE
STONE ARCH
BRICK WALL
Bricks in straight rows are easy, but bricks flowing around curved surfaces take practice.
STONE “S”
A certain precariousness makes these structures more interesting.
STONE COLUMN
VERTEBRAE
IGLOO
These building blocks of different sizes that bend and curve create an organic, naturalistic feeling.
noodling ideas: silhouetting
Generally speaking, when you doodle, you're making a map. When you noodle, you're enriching and embellishing that map. The creative power of this combination will become apparent as you work with it.
Silhouetting is the most obvious example of this mapmaking. It's also the easiest algorithm: Simply fill in the shapes that you draw. The shapes can represent things, like ducks, spoons or keys, or they can be abstract shapes. I like to mix the two. I also like to gather them close together in shape clusters as if they were slightly separated puzzle pieces.
There are lots of ways of filling in your shapes, each with its own charm and character. Felt-tip markers or india ink will give you strong, solid blacks. Ballpoint or rollerball pen shows the patient buildup of strokes and the little white spaces between them.
Draw a shape.
Fill it in.
SILHOUETTE CLUSTER
The idea here is to keep a uniform distance between the shapes.
JIGSAW GATOR
Here's a variation on the shape-clustering idea. This started as some filled-in geometric shapes doodled around some phone messages. At some point it started to look a bit like an alligator, so I added the tail, feet and snout.
MIGRATION
Reversing the black/white pattern can also be interesting. This bird doodle was drawn with all shapes touching. When I filled in the background, the birds became slightly separated.
JESTERS AND STRANGE OBJECTS ON THE BACK OF AN ENVELOPE
In this doodle, I used a ballpoint pen and coarse crosshatch to give a hint of gray tones. I also like the ragged edge where the strokes go past the line.
B-BALL
exercise 4
Silhouetting
1. Do a few shape-cluster doodles, then fill in the shapes with solid black.
2. Do a shape-cluster doodle. Make all of the shapes touch in at least one place. Put a border around the doodle and fill in all the background shapes with solid black.
noodling ideas: shading
Nothing imparts a sense of three-dimensionality to a drawing like light and shadow. And after some practice, it's very easy to do. Simply imagine a light source, and logic will tell you where to put the shadows.
An object will have a light side and a shadow side. It will also cast a shadow where the light is blocked. The cast shadow is usually darker than the shadow side. The lower the light source, the longer the cast shadow. It helps to place objects — particularly cubes, cylinders and spheres — under a strong light and observe how the light and shadow falls.
3-D CLOVERLEAF WITH SHADING
ROCK COLUMN AT NOON
Top lighting (light from directly above) leaves a thin ridge of light along the upper edge of each stone. Because the stones are rounded, the shadow edges are somewhat soft.
SUNLIT GRAPES
Compare these two drawings of grapes. Notice the definite light and shadow pattern on the drawing with the clear light source, and see the way the shadow curves on the spherical surfaces. It has much more depth and realism than the other drawing.
Creating Three Dimensions
These rules, once understood, allow you to draw convincing three-dimensional objects with ease. Each of the examples below is accompanied by a little sun and arrow to make the direction of the light clear. You might try in your own drawings to pencil in a similar directional arrow. Once you've established this, you'll know just where to put the shadows.
When filling in the shadow side, make the greatest contrast between dark and light just where the form turns. Also notice how the shadow edge is soft on rounded objects and sharp on objects with an edge.
exercise 5
Shading
Copy or trace the six doodles you made for Exercise 3 on page 21. Add light and shade to them, as well as cast shadows. Be sure to imagine the direction of your light source or indicate it with an arrow.
Make your cast shadows blacker than your form shadows. On rounded forms, soften the shadow edge (where light meets dark).
SOFTLY SHADED TANGLE
ARCH, EARLY MORNING
“ET,” SHADED
SHADY GATOR
noodling ideas: multiplying
A surprising range of creative possibilities opens up when you make multiple copies of an image. I don't mean simply repeating the exact same image over and over, but repetition with variation. Repetition gives an overall pattern, while variation provides individualistic detail. The natural tension between these two opposites will frequently produce satisfying results.
Draw the same object from different angles, in different positions or in different sizes.
PUSHPINS
In this example, I drew the pin from many different angles.
SHADED PUSHPINS
In this more dramatic version, I added some strong black shadows.
SUSPICION
SUSPICION MULTIPLIED
TOOTHBRUSH AND TOOTHPASTE
Multiple as depth
This image started as a simple character. Because I like doing objects receding in space, I began adding rows, each progressively smaller. Diminishing the size of an object as it gets farther back in space creates the illusion of depth.
TOOTHBRUSH PROPELLER
Multiple as pattern
I slipped this doodle under another sheet of paper, and then retraced it multiple times in a pinwheel design. Placing the object in a symmetrical arrangement invites the viewer to see the doodle as an overall pattern.
reversing, inverting and mirror imaging
This algorithm is about opposites. If something is white, make it black. If it's right side up, make it upside down — or backward. I know artists who look upside down at their subjects or hold a mirror up to their work to get a fresh view. Creativity begins when we can look at something familiar in an entirely new way.
All of the examples here required retracing the doodle on a light table — in some cases, multiple times. The drawing Ductwork Multiplied involved tracing the original five times, including flopped and upside down.
exercise 6
Multiplying
1. Trace multiple copies of a previous doodle, arranging them into a radial or otherwise symmetrical pattern.
2. Do a mirror-image drawing, placing one image right side up and the other, its duplicate, upside down. The two images should touch in the middle.
1 START WITH A CHARACTER
Draw a little character.
2 Trace, Flip and Trace Again
Trace it on a light table, then flip it over and retrace it facing the other way.
3 Repeat and Fill In the Background
Turn the pair upside down and trace it again, then place them inside a circle and fill in the background.
TREE AND REFLECTION
As well as looking completely different from each other, these black-and-white trees were drawn in very different ways. The black tree was traced in bold marker strokes, while the upside-down tree was traced with a fine-tipped marker. I then carefully filled in each of the little black shapes between the leaves.
DUCTWORK MULTIPLIED
Rotating and repeating the ductwork element creates a strong sense of three-dimensional space in Ductwork Multiplied.
inventing iconic characters
Doodlers often invent little characters to inhabit their work. I call these characters “iconic” because they're usually simple, stylized and easy to draw. For those of you who feel inhibited about drawing figures from imagination, doodling is the perfect place to challenge that fear. After all, the idea is not accuracy, but simplicity and expressive charm.
Adding a character to a doodled landscape immediately suggests a story of some sort. Repeating one over and over allows you to doodle crowd scenes, parades and dances. Once you're able to represent a figure with a few lines, you can branch out — change the action, viewpoint, anything you'd like your characters to do.
A CREATIVE SEQUENCE FOR CHARACTERS
1. Develop a shorthand way of doodling a figure.
2. Practice drawing that figure in action until you can do it easily.
3. Move on to another way of representing the figure.
THE MUCH-MALIGNED STICK FIGURE
If you're new to drawing and have never drawn a figure in your life, you can always start with stick figures. However, even with simple figures like these, strive for action and variety.
THE MODIFIED STICK FIGURE
Giving the body a little dimension allows more flexibility. These “rubber band people” have a more naturalistic look than stick figures do.
SIMPLIFIED FIGURES IN ACTION
The best way to show a figure in action is to feel that action in your own body, and then execute it with exaggeration.
SHADED
SILHOUETTED
SKETCHY
CAPES AND CLOAKS
BALLOON PEOPLE
SIMPLY STRANGE
letterforms
Many of us regularly write notes and phone numbers on whatever envelopes or scraps of paper happen to be around. Once they've served their purpose, I enjoy decorating these letters and numbers, often beyond recognition. There are almost countless ways of playing with the letters and shapes of old notes.
LOOPY LETTERS
Try drawing connecting lines between some letters so that they enclose spaces. Then fill in all of the enclosed shapes.
BALLOON LETTERS
Give your numbers and letters a rounded thickness, then softly shade along the bottom edges. The effect is puffy, as if the letters were made of marshmallow or cookie dough.
MIX AND MATCH
This doodle mixes modified letterforms with weird objects and characters.
noodling ideas: mixing and matching
Creating is, in part, about finding relationships between seemingly unrelated things. It's about putting things together that don't seem to belong with each other — at least not until you do it. The more unexpected and improbable the pairing, the bigger the creative leap.
We will discuss this idea at length in later chapters, but for now, let's begin by simply taking an iconic character and combining it with another doodle. For example, we might first trace the character on the light table, and then trace another doodle around it as a background. That was the method I used with Flowerdancer.
Sometimes you'll want to integrate the two images in a more intricate way. Notice how in Lost at Sea the waves are both behind and in front of the floating people. To do this sort of thing you need to align both original doodles on your light table with a fresh sheet of paper on top. Even then it may take several tries to get it the way you want it.
In the course of combining images, you may see a need to alter them. In Stone Arch and Archie I was simply going to place the man's face partly behind the arch. As I drew, it occurred to me to make the face out of stone as well.
FLOWERDANCER
STONE ARCH AND ARCHIE
MOLECULE MAN
LOST AT SEA
LACOÖN
TRANSITION
SOCIAL CLIMBERS
PRISONERS OF LOVE
exercise 7
Combining
Pick any two of your doodles and trace or redraw to combine them. The new image may be a simple figure-on-background like Flower-dancer on page 32, or a more complicated intertwined image, like most of these other examples. You could also devise an altogether different way to put your doodles together.
add-on doodles
For two or three years I used this sheet of heavy brown paper to protect my taboret. As it accumulated ink spills, coffee stains and telephone numbers, I also used it as a doodling pad. Layers of marker, pencil, colored pencil and ballpoint pen lines built up over time. Occasionally I would rotate the paper to find room for a new doodle. After about a year of this I began to get artsy, touching up some doodles and obscuring others. I started using white paint to highlight some of the images. (Some images, like the flying crow on the far left, were simply attempts to cover up india ink spills.)
I call work like this “add-on doodling.” Parts are done at different times, some on top of each other. There's no planning, no central theme. The work becomes a kind of tapestry. Its variety derives from the simple fact that it's much easier to think of one image a day for a hundred days than to think of a hundred images in one day.
SPIN-OFFS
What I call a“spin-off” is a new drawing that uses a previous one as its source. The original is often generated out of straightforward observation. This gives you familiarity and confidence with the subject. The spin-off then takes the subject, or parts of it, in a new and inventive direction. The process links, in sequence, two distinct operational modes: observation and imagination; eye and mind's eye.
The central drawing (brush-and-ink washes) was made from direct observation. The surrounding “spin-offs” (pencil with brush-and-ink washes) are playful variations of the hand, food and fork.