Your Go-to Doodle
April 30, 2017 8:40 PM   Subscribe

Do you doodle the same thing? If so, what is it, and do you have any explanation why it's your go-to?

I sit in meetings at work, and some of my coworkers are non-stop doodlers. I asked them what they doodle, and a few of them confessed to having the same type of doodle each time. I was a bit surprised to hear that they all drew geometric patterns (diamonds, 3d shapes, snowflake things -- all things with nice symmetry).

Is this typical? If you doodle, is it something geometric or symmetric?

I understand the reason I'm usually given for "why we doodle" (or crochet, etc) during listening tasks -- needing to move our hands to keep the mind free to pay attention. Is a simple geometric shape just busy enough to satisfy that need without using more mental space than can be freed up? Is this just what doodling is?
posted by klausman to Grab Bag (9 answers total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Hey, sorry, but this is chatfilter -- taz

 
I'd say the reasoning is inverted for me --- I don't so much need to move my hands to keep my mind free as my mind is empty and bored and distracting myself makes it easier to weather the dullness.

I have a rota of probably nine or ten things I tend to draw. Some are geometric patterns, some are tiny cartoons. (Snails, witches, and goofy faces). I did notice a pattern once, in reviewing my college notes --- in math/science classes I tended to doodle cartoons, in English/history classes I tended to doodle abstract patterns.

If I ever got real bored I do this one where I'd sketch a square within a square and then draw lines connecting all the points to every other point, then color it in. You end up with rather pretty pattern, but it's hard to freehand.
posted by Diablevert at 9:11 PM on April 30, 2017


Yes but with no skill and no symmetry but also only when the meeting is tedious or there's information that's not going to tax my mind all that much.

I draw a star. The kind that you draw with two triangles. My mom showed extremely kludgy me that there was a much easier way to draw a star than the way my teacher had shown me that I couldn't replicate.
posted by viramamunivar at 9:21 PM on April 30, 2017


I usually fill areas in (margins, etc.) with triangles. No idea if there's a deeper meaning other than it's easy but also provides a wide range of flexibility in design, if I'm feeling fancy.
Oh and it only happens when people can't see me doodling. Conference calls and the like. I feel too guilty, otherwise!
posted by PaulaSchultz at 9:24 PM on April 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


I often draw dragons. I was obsessed with Anne McCaffrey in middle school and the horse-like shapes of a dragon head come easily. I also draw naked people, and faces. The only geometric thing I doodle is cubes.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:33 PM on April 30, 2017


I do two kinds of doodling - one is something intricate, complicated, and non-symmetrical (always different but in the same style) and is what I doodle when I'm sitting in, for example, an hour-long lecture; and the other is simple heart symbols that show up on anything that has been in my vicinity. No idea why. Hearts seem friendly, I suppose?
posted by aniola at 9:42 PM on April 30, 2017


I do cubes and stars and zigzags and spiders in spider webs, have done for probably twenty years. The spiderweb is particularly satisfying, and I doodle it bc I saw my mom doodle it while she was on the phone when I was a kid and duplicated it.
posted by oomny at 10:01 PM on April 30, 2017


I doodle fractals. Sierpinski triangle, Koch islands, Peano curves.

I also have a goofy face I will draw that's just two eyeballs and a nose, as well as a space-filling curve that's smooth and informal-- like you might do when piping icing on a cake. Oh, and various simple shapes shaded (sphere, cone, cube, ribbons folding back and forth, etc).

I generally doodle to keep myself awake-- which could be during a seminar in which I've lost the plot but could also come up due to jet lag or working on something interesting too late at night or who knows.

I started doodling sometime before high school, and most of these doodles I picked up then-- mom iced cakes, we learned how to shade simple shapes in art class, and as a budding math nerd I liked fractals. I don't know where the goofy eyeball dude came from but he's been around a few decades too. Occasionally I pick up a new fractal (only been doing Peano curves for five years or so), but most of my doodles are things I've drawn for ages.
posted by nat at 10:07 PM on April 30, 2017


Lots of little lady faces if I'm doodling on my own (like at my desk), rows of dots in pyramids if anyone else can see my notes (in a meeting). The lady heads are more fun, but I think they make it look like I'm totally tuned out (maybe not inaccurate), so I do the less fun dots and get bored enough to pay attention to work or whatever again.
posted by circle at 10:10 PM on April 30, 2017


Lightning bolts, diamonds, hearts, stars, and cat heads. Sometimes there are arrows through the hearts.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 10:31 PM on April 30, 2017


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