Your doodles may vary

April 4, 2008 | 4:54 am

I always wished I could draw. Part of this longing came from a desire to be an artist, and thus really, really cool. But a lot of it was boredom. As a biology student, and later as a newspaper reporter, I spent endless hours in lectures and meetings, where bursts of frantic, can’t-do-it-fast-enough note-taking gave way to long sleepy stretches of waiting for the next interesting thing. If only I could draw, I thought, I could replace those squiggles in the margins of my notebook with fantastic creatures or rude portraits of the guy behind the podium. Waiting would be fun.

Chris Ing, a computational physics student at the University of Waterloo and half of the Jacks of Science blog, has no such problem. His third-year physics notes are full of whimsical drawings, from a lollipop dog to a pig-turtle hunter, a gambling bear, his PHYS359 prof, and birds describing strange formulas.

Ing wrote:

Even in my mathiest courses I find it irresistible to doodle in the margins of my notes. I like to think of it as balancing the left and right sides of my brain but that’s just sugar coating my short attention span.

My first reaction: This guy has a whole lot more spare brain power than I do. My second: Mathiest? What a great word!

My own doodling opportunities aren’t what they used to be. I sit in fewer meetings and take notes almost exclusively on my laptop. But a week or so ago, well into my fifth decade, I started taking drawing lessons from my good friend Cathy Lyn Harrison, who runs an art school for kids. Here’s one of my first efforts:

It’s a start. And on that fine day when my laptop allows me to doodle in the margins, I’ll be ready.

 

 

Glennda Chui
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