I’m a doodler. Always have been since I could hold a pen. I love holding a pen in my hands, and I love writing and scribbling. It doesn’t matter what I’m writing or drawing, I just have to hold a pen in my hand. I also have the largest collection of pens, and I was obsessed with them for many years. I will also draw/scribble/write on anything – nailed down or not. This includes my own shoes. I have drawn all over the soles and sides of them. My teachers used to give me into trouble when I was in primary school (age 4-10) because I would write and draw all over textbooks. My mum used to smack me because I’d write and draw over the books in the house. I’m a compulsive scribbler/writer.
I decided to show some of my scribbles/sketches. They are a nothing. Not artistic, not inspiration, not anything, but I thought you’d like to see what I will draw on and what’s in my head.
Ok, in this first one, at least the writings are art related:
The next one as you can see has some mathematical formulae on it. This is Euclid’s Golden Ratio, phi, or the Divine Proportion. I was reading on the Golden Ratio, the Golden Rectangle, and the Fibonacci Sequence and wanted to understand exactly how they worked. Mathematicians and artists have been fascinated with these mathematical theorems for thousands of years. Given my love of maths they amused me for hours.
It is said that Leonardo Da Vinci used the Golden Ratio in the Mona Lisa, and the proportions of Michaelangelo’s David fit the Golden Ratio. Salvador Dali also used the Golden Ratio in his Sacrament of the Last Supper.
As you can see here, I have further scribblings on the Golden Ratio, and drew the sequence. I also scribbled my hand in oil pastels.
I started scribbling on this sheet but I was also playing Assassin’s Creed 2 on the Xbox 360, and being the person I am I wanted to collect absolutely everything in the game, so I could 100% it. What I have scribbled is the treasures, feathers, glyphs, statues collected, and number of viewpoints climbed.
The jotter that these scribbles are taken from is nearly full, and has everthing from colour studies to Gaelic, programming languages like Javascript, HTML and CSS to Contextual Studies, shopping list to memory training notes, Teeline shorthand to Adobe Illustrator. I scribble pieces of text from the tv to conversations I’m holding on the phone.
This page alone contains stuff relating to my WordPress theme, some web pages that were shown on BBC Click, text relating to my mobile phone plan and some drawing basics.
It’s a pretty varied and random jotter. As I said, it’s a nothing but it kind of gives you an idea of what my mind is like!
I love this post, Heather. I did not take a formal drawing class until the 80's but my Mother presented me with a scrapbook that she had put together, over the years, of many of my drawings I had done while growing up. It was just something I did. Perhaps these scribbles and drawings we did for years was our artistic side of our soul trying to tell us to "get on with it". Signs of an artist? I think so!
Perhaps indeed! It has always been an obsessive compulsive thing for me. Perhaps as you say, it's a side of our creativity. I don't know. I just know I have to do it.
Math, science, video games and art… what more can you ask for in a notebook? I'll ask you to please stay away from my book collection.
-Don
Hahaha. Your books would be safe now, I assure you. I'm a book fiend, and I also collect them, so I like them to be pristine.
My notebook is definitely a proper notebook, though oftentimes I'll look back and wonder what on earth I was writing about because my writings are so random!
Hi Heather, I used to draw, scribble, doodle in my notebooks from grade one to graduate school. I continued to draw when taking notes at work…perhaps once you have the bug to draw, it just doesn't go away so easy! Cool notebook pages and great post!
Hi Peggy. Thanks so much for your comments. It seems that this people really enjoyed this post! You know something? I have wanted to draw my whole life. I have always sat and doodled. I used to do copy drawings from album covers and I would draw flowers in the park. It was done only intermittently though. My cousins have said to me recently, 'you were always good at drawing'. It's not what I remember though. My brother is an amazing artist. Has been since he was a boy. I used to see what he was doing, and I was nowhere in his league. At the time, and until last year, I thought it was because I just didn't have 'the talent'. I now know it was purely down to practice. If I had practised as much as he did, rather than thinking I just would never be any good, I might have become a great artist! Funny that!
Heather! Hello friend I have missed reading and enjoying looking at your posts! Hope all is well "across the pond" as they say. See you later!
Mark!!!!! Hello my dear friend! How are you? It's so wonderful to hear from you. You have really been missed! Things are looking up here, thank you! I hope you are well sweetie. Talk soon