Doodle Your Way

Do you remember your school days when the favourite time used to be to run away from the boring lectures? Do you remember your parenthood days when your toddler deteriorated her favourite cranny at home? And today while working from home during these unpreceded times, how boring it is getting to spent time alone when you’re by yourself day in and day out? Whether you’re attending a webinar or a tedious lecture, having a creative muse can be an invaluable tool for enriching your thinking process.

“Doodle Art” is one such art form that isn’t methodical or strategical; one can just start it from any point on a page effortlessly. Although doodles may look like a scribble, random words that make no sense but they are free flow of one’s ideas and emotions. In a nutshell, it is unconscious creativity that exemplifies storytelling, comics, emotions, and imaginations in an inventive manner.

Doodling and History

Although doodling has a history dating centuries, its prevalence is unknown (about 40,000 years ago). And it has come a long way since then. Back in those days, prehistoric men made chicken-like etchings on cave walls to communicate a story. Cavemen often used stones and stick to draw abstract patterns, human hands, and wild animals to convey. The closest definition of the term Doodle is “scribble.” However, this scribble comes with a twist as this echoes one’s views, thoughts, and imagination in a creative way.

Doodle art has emerged as a popular form of art around the globe. In India, doodle has varied facets- for instance, in form of Madhubani paintings to doodles that are inspired by nature, trees, and leaves. Each style has its own specific characteristics and forms and all are equally beautiful. Mandalas is another doodle form which is traditionally used for meditation or as a spiritual tool.  In our country, doodles are devised in a traditional form to abstract patterns that are interwoven in the contemporary art forms. These creations resonate with the creeds, practices, know-hows of Indians – thereby making it as an art form of culture – that will stay.

However, with the paradigm shift in the modern art, the conventional doodle is changing too. As technology makes our lives bigger, better, faster and stronger, it seems even the doodle is keeping up with the times as an artwork. Since the first doodle went live in 1998, people are using it as a tool for celebrating anniversaries, visionaries, occasions, thoughts, and emotions. Further, from interactive games to meticulous drawings, the range of doodles is slaying the digital world.

New Era of Doodling

The lockdown phase has given people the advantage to utilize this time to polish their skills and try something new. They are shifting their perspective from constant fears, brooding and contemplations to triumph, optimism and eureka via doodling! This is helping them to vent out that extra mental baggage, whilst letting the creative juices flowing. Various studies have shown that doodling is meditative and enhances your concentration. Also, it helps improve people’s memory while helping them grasp new concepts and retain information. A blank page can also serve as a stretched playing field for the brain, allowing people to review and improve on creative thoughts and ideas.

Fujifilm INSTAX believes that doodling not only helps one relax the state of mind but also helps them express their ideas in a more creative way. Keeping in mind the coronavirus lockdown, the INSTAX team decided to unveil an interactive & captivating Doodle Art Contest on their social media handles. The contest was well received by doodlers across the country, with more than 200 entries.

“Everyone has creativity inside them, they just need the right tools to express themselves. INSTAX recently conducted this contest to keep the community entertained during this period of quarantine and social distancing amid the global pandemic. We just wanted to reach out to as many people as possible to help them deal with the situation in a creative way.

Are you too getting inspired? Then get ready for doodle expedition and tirelessly drift away from the chaos that you have.  Time to take a pencil and doodle away your fears, emotions and lockdown blues!