The topic of drawing and doodling came up in a mailing list to which I subscribe. The mailing list is on the boundary between art and science. I found it when I was looking online for more information about Semir Zeki and his work. It's called Diatrope Art/Science Discussion. Here's what I wrote in answer to someone else, about my own experiences with spontaneous drawing and doodling:
After reading Joanna Field's book On Not Being Able to Paint, I took up "free drawing" in earnest. I use a soft pencil, Ebony or 6B, on paper with a bit of tooth, but cheap so I can make as many quick drawings as I want. For each drawing, I just let my hand go - so that I'm watching the marks my hand makes with the pencil, but not controlling them. A series of 6 to 10 at one time often shows a progression through some "chaos and clutter" to more unity and harmony. Sometimes I do this larger scale, with cheap India ink and a sumi brush on big pieces of news print.
When I broke my elbow last year, I started free drawing with my nondominant hand. I was amazed to find that the drawings usually showed more grace and harmony (without any effort) than those I had made with my dominant hand. Now I often do some with one hand, some with the other, and some drawings alternating hands, one stroke with one hand, next stroke with the other.
Betty Edwards, in her book Drawing on the Artist Within, describes "analog" drawings. Here instead of starting with "nothing" and watching the hand draw, you have a concept or feeling in mind. But you still just let your hand go and see what happens. I've found that an analog drawing usually clears up any misery or clouded feeling left over from a nightmare. In other words, when I make an analog drawing of the nightmare, the feeling releases and flows away. With analogs that I have in mind for a sculpture, I like to do the big drawings with the sumi brush. It's easy to go from these drawings to ironwork.
Doodling I assoicate with talking on the phone. Occasionally doodles have turned into cartoon drawings. But only rarely do they inspire any sculpture. (Maybe because I associate relating to people with cartoons, and associate sculpture with walking in the woods, or getting inspiration from trees.)
11:48:13 PM 
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