Doodling has its benefits. If you ever remember scribbling within the margins of your notebook, textbook or even scratching across the classroom tabletop, then you know what I'm talking about. During boring lectures or when you simply aren't on the same planet as the teacher, doodling is your escape into a private playground. Weird and random shapes take form with the first few strokes of your pen or pencil, slowly evolving into something you can associate with an idea or a real-life analogy.
My own doodling culminated in a feverish quest for symmetry and contrast. I would fold, crease and unfold the edge of a sheet in any notebook at hand and draw half of a random shape (tended to be just an eye at first), and then in stages fold the inked bit over. Eventually I got better at mirror symmetry and moved on to more challenging pursuits. Here are two early drawings and their evolved forms after using the pen-tool in Photoshop (plus a bit of dull imagination).
The Fish
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| The Fish |
The Fish is quite simple - depicting a fish chasing something (I honestly don't remember what it was supposed to be!). The original doodle measured hardly 2 cm across. When I began clearing all my possessions from my old room, it struck me to photograph all the doodles of significance with a hope that one day I could build upon that body of indulgent art. This is from one of those salvaged (pseudo) macro photographs taken using a (now stolen) Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
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| The Fishy Spots |
After tracing out the drawing using the pen tool on Photoshop, I added a few inspired touches to the whole thing to reach the 'The Fishy Spots'.
Beakman and his Antithesis (?)
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| Beaky Two-face |
Sub-consciously, it could have been Two-face from Batman, or Nina from Black Swan that got this down on paper. But on further thought, it could be taken to depict a lot more than just the opposites, Yin-Yang or the symmetric rise of good and evil. This was one of the first few symmetry based doodles of mine that I started to digitize and experiment with.
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| Moiré Fringes: Opposites Shred |
I remember having seen some Moire fringe-based art (I think at the MK Gallery), and thought of taking Beaky Two-face to the shredder. Same initial technique with the pen tool, then worked out the ideal fringe width and contrast colours. Black and white seemed to be the best representatives of contrast, and hence it is here in monochrome.
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