19 Letting The Hand Lead
Doodling begins with the movement of your hand across the page. Something emerges out of the movement. One line or shape may suggest another. Repetitions become patterns. Something emerges onto the page that you may not recognize or have conceived of until the doodle is finished.
How do you know when a doodle is done? Without a reference point in the outside world, its more intuitive, a decision you make based on what feels complete.
Drawing, on the other hand, you begin with an idea of what you want to draw before you begin. The movements of your hand are secondary to the dictates of your mind. You mind leads and your hand follows, attempting to approximate the image in your mind or the object or landscape or person before you. Learning to draw more than anything is learning to see and aligning your eye and it’s observations with your hand’s movements.
Doodling is much closer I think to abstract painting. I began with a blank page and let my hand lead. Often I began with a spiral. My hand, always eager, moved ahead of my mind and seemed to know much more than my mind about what wanted to be created.
I noticed that when my mind took charge, with its anxious notions about what good and acceptable and desirable, the movements of my hand became halting and tentative. My mind feared the unknown, feared getting it wrong, doing it badly and especially, it feared the judgements of others.
There was something relaxing, meditative about releasing the mind’s control over the process. It was as if my mind were a spectator watching to see what my hand would do next.
Letting impulses that emanated from my body was new for me. It meant being willing and able to delve into the unknown and to stay there for awhile.
My hand enjoyed making certain shapes: spirals, seedpods, roses. There was a certain momentum that overtook me, an eagerness and enthusiasm I remembered from drawing pictures when I was five.
Letting impulses that emanated from my body was new for me. It meant being willing and able to delve into the unknown and to stay there for awhile.
When I let my hand lead and allowed myself to go on a journey to see where my hand wanted to take me, I began to play.