Learn all about Doodle Art NFTs, a surprisingly diverse art form that can benefit your problem-solving skills and create valuable works of art.
The first image that pops into most of our minds when we think of ‘doodling’ is one of our high-school teachers telling us to stop scribbling during their Math class.
While thinking of doodles as scribbles in a school sketchbook is not wrong, it doesn’t do this art form the justice it deserves.
The art of doodling has grown into a field embraced by beginners and pro-doodlers who want to create their doodling styles.
Doodle art NFTS are non-fungible tokens that exist on the blockchain and are visually represented by art inspired by doodles.
This article will examine how doodling works, why it’s beneficial to practice it, the different branches of the art form, and some of the most notable NFT projects based on this art form.
Table of Contents
Doodle Art: Distracted But Productive
The history of doodling traces back to the 17th century from the German word Dudeltopf or Dudeldop, meaning something like ‘fool’ or ‘simpleton.’
The verb to doodle developed later in the 18th century when it was used like ‘to swindle,’ and it later became used as ‘to do nothing.’
Today doodling is no longer associated with being an unproductive simpleton; instead, it’s become a fun way for artists to unlock creativity and for everyday people to improve their cognitive abilities.
The Loose Criteria of Doodling
A doodle is any drawing created by someone who is distracted; if you’ve ever found yourself randomly drawing lines on a piece of paper during a phone call, you have experience as a doodle artist.
Doodles are diverse; they can be abstract shapes randomly splashed on a piece of paper or more concrete drawings scattered chaotically.
While defining precisely what fits into the category of doodling but there are certain criteria to look out for.
When someone is doodling, we expect to find irregularities in the drawing, so unlike traditional art where there is a pre-conceived goal, a doodle is created with more freedom.
A true doodler will rarely, if ever, remove their pen or pencil from the pad while scribbling. This approach starkly contrasts to other art forms where the artist takes several breaks before finishing a masterpiece.
Although most of the world’s doodles are forgotten after being scribbled on notepads and in the margins of school textbooks, some pieces generate more long-term value than you’d expect.
The most significant mainstream success for doodles has come from the Doodles NFT project that has made a splash in the web3.0 community.
Two Succesful Doodle NFT Projects
The doodle style has found a home in the non-fungible-tokens (NFT) community, especially after the success of the Doodles NFT collection. Arguably, NFTs have successfully monetized doodling. We found many exciting and somewhat scammy derivate projects using Doodle art. These are two worth knowing about, although DYOR!
1. Doodles
The most well-known and successful doodle NFT project is the aptly named ‘Doodles’ collection. The collection is made up of 10,000 unique rainbow-colored doodle-style characters.
According to CoinGecko, the Ethereum-based market capitalizes over $230 million, and the cheapest doodle trades for around $20,000, prior to the NFT market crash of May and June 2022.
If you want to learn more about the Doodles NFT project, check out our dedicated Doodles Guide.
2. Doodle Women of Solana
Doodle Women of Solana is an NFT project built on the Solana (SOL) blockchain compromised of a total of 500 unique female-doodle avatars.
The unique tokens are generated with 59 different traits, and there are 13 exceptionally rare Doodle Women categorized as ‘epic.’
The project’s road map states that the team plans to build a thriving ecosystem with solid marketing campaigns, royalties, and merchandising and develop a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for governance purposes.
The project isn’t just concerned with growing the value of the NFTs; it wants to help women worldwide through donations and outreach programs.
According to UpcomingfNFT, the mint price per token is 2.5 SOL, and the project launched in March 2022.
So, doodling has made some people rich and saved many of us from falling asleep in class, but these aren’t the only two benefits of doodling.
Why Doodling Is Beneficial
As we’ve already mentioned, we’ve been told our whole lives that doodling is a waste of time. But, while there is no doubt that if Leonardo da Vinci saw your classroom doodles, he would be far from impressed, there’s growing evidence that your brain benefits from the subconscious scribbling.
1. Memory
There’s growing evidence to support that doodling can improve your memory. For example, a study published in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology found that people who doodled while listening to a phone call saw a 29% improvement in their recall abilities than those who weren’t doodling.
2. Problem Solving
Beyond just improving your memory, there’s growing evidence that doodling can improve overall cognitive abilities. In an article published in The Atlantic, the designer Milton Glaser states that doodling “allows you to really grasp something, to become fully conscious of it.”
The article explains that doodling could well be a trigger for insights into problems and concepts. Sunni Brown, the author of The Doodle Revolution, said, “You can use doodling as a tool … to change your physical and neurological experience, in that moment.”
So, if you’re struggling to figure out the solution to a problem or you want to sharpen your cognitive powers, maybe pick up a pen and pad and just let your mind wander while you scribble.
3. Creativity
Whether you’re a trained graphic designer or an amateur artist, doodling can help you with your next project by unleashing your creative abilities.
A famous example of this benefit of doodling occurred in 1963 when the Polish mathematician Stanislaw Ulam came up with a previously unknown prime number formulae in the middle of a conference.
Alexander Pushkin, often considered the greatest Russian poet of all time, is believed to have often doodled while writing to ignite his imagination.
4. Reducing Stress
If you’re feeling stressed, then picking up a pen and doing some doodling might be able to help you out.
Psychologist Christine Shelby explained in her book ‘Chilling Out: The Psychology of Relaxation’ that doodling serves as a powerful stress-reduction tool.
Shelby recommends drawing lines and curves across a page until random blank spaces are formed that you can then fill in with colored pencils.
5. Think Big
Doodling is believed to help people overcome the issue of ‘tunnel vision’ that often obscures the bigger picture.
Gabriela Goldschmidt, an architecture professor, published a research paper titled ‘The Backtalk of Self-Generated Sketches’ after finding that one of her students overcame their difficulties in designing a kindergarten by doodling.
Gulia Forsythe, Associate Director at the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation of Brock University, claims that doodling allows you to find previously unclear connections and potentially visualize big picture concepts.
Getting Into Doodling
If you’re enticed by the benefits that doodling can offer, you might want to consider picking it up as a new hobby instead of spending thousands on an NFT. We’ve got you covered on how to do that in this section.
Materials:
- Pens and Pencils
- Washable Markers
- Sketchbook
- Eraser
Once you’ve got your materials, you can check out some tutorials on YouTube and then take a look at different techniques.
Consider using basic geometric shapes like squares, circles, or spirals when you are getting started. Of course, the shapes won’t be perfect, but that’s the whole point of doodling; just let your hand do its thing while you distract yourself with some activity.
After you’ve finished doodling some basic shapes, consider using them as coloring pages but instead of worrying about staying within the lines, color them while doodling.
If you’re struggling to develop doodle art ideas, you can get inspiration from checking out doodle drawings on Pinterest.
Zen Doodle
If you’re looking to take advantage of the cognitive benefits of doodling but aren’t sure where to start, then the Zen-Doodle program is an excellent place to get started.
Zen-Doodle combines meditation techniques with doodling to create a state of mind that relieves Stress, improves concentration, calms the mind, and helps you detox from the digital world.
You can sign up for the program to get your hands on a variety of doodle printables which, when combined with breathing techniques, will help you maximize the benefits of doodling.
The Top 3 Doodle Patterns
Although doodling is a free-flowing art form, certain styles have become particularly popular.
Mandala
Mandala doodles trace their origin to symbolism within the Hindu and Buddhist religions. These complex geometric shapes often represent different aspects of ancient Asian deities and the cosmos.
The stunning spirals and flowery patterns have become very popular within the doodle community thanks to their free-flowing nature and complex criss-cross lines.
Zentangle
Zentangles are slightly different from standard doodling as they involve the artist focusing on a fixed format and planners. However, Zentangle art maintains the idea of not worrying about the result when drawing as the artist focuses only on individual pen strokes.
The style combines lines, dots, and curves onto small pieces of paper called ‘tiles’ which can then be arranged into a more significant piece of art.
Kawaii
Kawaii is a Japanese word that roughly translates to ‘cute,’ This manga-style art form has become very popular in the doodle scene.
Although Kawaii doodles can take inspiration from all sorts of concepts, the most common scribbles tend to be of small furry animals like rabbits and kittens.
Final Thoughts on Doodle Art
Doodle art is a strange combination of relaxed scribbling, classroom nostalgia, and deeply complex patterns.
Most art forms derive value from our appreciation of their subjective beauty, whereas doodling offers us other reasons to get into art, including stress relief, cognitive improvement, and emotional exploration.
In addition, doodling now appears to be finding a new branch of interest in the ever-growing NFT space where projects are popping up, having taken inspiration from this once completely infantile art form.
If you like this article, check out our guide: What is generative art?
