Of zentangles, tribal tattoos and some doodling!

I love to doodle. I make patterns because they are soothing and I love to look at a blank sheet of beautiful paper turn even prettier with every trace that I get to make. The whole process is so comforting that I sometimes don’t realize that I have doodled away on a big drawing block with a micron pen. And then later when I look at it, I get amused. Do you know what  I mean?

Let me go on.

For a while now, like a few years, I had this habit of doodling and filling strings of lines with patterns and just “go with the flow”. A few months back I realized that what I was doing was actually a form of art! It is called Zentangle. You can google it and you will be amazed at the patterns you find. I was overjoyed to see that there are so many people who have formed clubs and have actually started doodling with a purpose. Err. I know that sounds funny and majorly oxymoronic but it is true!

And the best part? I had been drawing some patterns unaware that they are some of the patterns that are found on the web as well. It is amazing how there are so many zentanglers out there who have similar ways of doodling. Incredible, isn’t it? And just looking at a pattern will make you want to build on it.

 

 

This was something I made when I was idling in the MRT station waiting for a friend. I love black and white. And I love the way I can just do anything and still feel happy about it. Much as colours add spice to life, I can’t stop loving black and white. It is clear; it is vintage and it is beautiful.

And then I got fascinated with straight lines without using a ruler –

 

 

You can kind of make out that I haven’t used a ruler but that makes it look “authentic” 😛

 

 

Those circles reminds me of one of the first things my mother taught me to draw using a compass 🙂 I now have a bunch of pilot pens and other microns.

 

Though I love drawing landscape and favourite characters by memory and with some help from the right hemisphere, I cannot draw a lot of caricatures without a model or another drawing as reference. So the above ones are drawn by looking at a model. That yellow guy says “Think before you trash” and I had half a mind to put it up near some dustbins where people seem to throw everywhere except the dustbin. I love drawing these little funny guys who say and convey messages.

And then I started developing this interest in tribal tattoos. I don’t have one but I love tattooing my drawing block and someday someone will be so impressed that I will be doing it on real unforunate people as well!

Some of the first tattoos I did:

 

Sometimes the prospect of doodling without the intention of creating something beautiful (not necessarily) is itself very endearing. Mechanical, creative, engaging and perceptual, all at once, they surely add beauty around. I like art when it leads you to what it wants to be. At the same time, being inspired by something around me is equally stimulating. And that for me is a perpetual mystery.

Let me go back to finish up my inspiration board.