The Art of Doodling
Doodling is often used in conjunction with art, but I actually think it's applicable to all fields -- artistic or not. As an illustrator, I doodle all the time. It's relaxing to just mindlessly drag a pen across the page, sketching out whatever I feel like without judgement. I never scoff at a bad doodle because…it's a doodle. They're meant to be thrown in the recycling bin. It's not supposed to be mentally draining. Whenever I'm feel frustrated with my professional art, a doodle session is often what I need to restore my mood and remember that I illustrate for the joy of it, not for the career success or money.
Seeing how impactful doodling has been to my artistic well being, I have questioned why others mediums don't have the concept of doodling as a part of their cores. For my other interests, I have mulled over what it means to "doodle" in those contexts. For example, as a writer, I feel pressure to compose brilliant sentences that braid themselves into intricate paragraphs, and it's so easy for me to be disdainful of any writing that seems low caliber. As a result, I don't write as much as I should, feeling averse to expending energy on something that won't turn out "good". Viewing writing from the context of doodling has granted me appreciation for nonsense sentences and thoughts on a whim, and how aimless writing without judgement can be absolutely joyous. Imagine if I wrote in the way that I doodled. I would be clocking a lot more hours and experimenting more with the form, strengthening my writing muscles subtly. I suspect when many professional writers advise aspiring authors to "just write", they are encouraging them not to write well, but just to write at all. If there was a doodle equivalent terminology for writing like "babbling", people would feel more inclined to "babble" than "write", because all pressures of expectation are lifted.
Doodling is also amazing for momentum because it warms up the body and mind. I'm much more likely to dive into a drawing workout session if I spend the first 5 minutes doodling. Sometimes I am deterred by drawing practice because I fear the frustration of no progress. However, when I actually start the session, I'm instantly enraptured by the learning and laugh at the thought that learning more about my passion would ever be an unpleasant experience. But that's why I need doodling to catalyze me to do the drawing session, so that I can abate the fears and build momentum that will lead me into the harder task.
There's no excuse not to doodle because it's not supposed to take effort, and that is crucial when defining doodling for another medium. When I'm "doodling" as a motion graphics artist, I often just throw shapes on a canvas, throw random effects on it, and play around with keyframes. Often these session are brief, and I rarely ever save the project files.
Now, I have contextualized doodling for motion graphics, language learning, writing, cooking, etc. Basically for all my interests, I have developed an activity that allows me to briefly explore tha medium without judgement or expending too much energy, and by establishing an expectation for making "bad" things, I can feel accomplished instead of disappointed when I'm done, and rejuvenated instead of drained.
Takeaway:
Doodling is defined by low quality output and low energy expenditure. Find tasks related to your hobbies that have both of these aspects, and you will have a much healthier relationship with that medium