National Doodle Day!

Apparently the word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton which is the meaning intended in the song "Yankee Doodle"!  Screenwriter Robert Riskin invented the word in its modern sense for the movie Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Mr. Deeds mentions that "doodle" was a word made up to describe scribblings to help a person think.

Apparently doodling can aid a person's memory by expending just enough energy to keep them from daydreaming, which demands a lot of the brain's processing power, as well as from not paying attention. It acts as a mediator between the spectrum of thinking too much or thinking too little and helps focus on the current situation (perhaps I should stop fiddling with my pen (at the risk of taking my own eye out) in an effort to remain alert and try putting it to paper instead!).

Famous doodlers include;

• Thomas Jefferson
• Ronald Reagan
• Jon Keats
• Samuel Beckett
• Sylvia Plath

I have to admit that I'm a sucker for Google doodles (I REALLY need to get out more!) and was very impressed to find that they have a library of them here ----->  Google Doodle s!

And here are 24 examples of great doodle art!  I did also come across doodle tutorials which I may well pay some attention to in an effort to cultivate this art...

In 2007 during a National Doodle Day charity drive Barack Obama's (then Senator and Presidential candidate) doodle (inspired by the Senate chamber) sold for $2000, nearly triple the second-highest take, a piece by Gillian Anderson, which brought in about $700. Donald Trump came in a close third. Claude Monet drew inspiration for his doodl from his garden in Giverny, Georgia O’Keefe from New York City and the American West. .