When my hands felt very light, I realized that it easily follows what my brain commands it to do. A gentle, flowing line there, a hint of a shadow, a hard curve at the corner and a generous flow of veinlike lines to complete the details of whatever it is I’m working on.

There are of course, some really bad days when my hands would feel very stiff and my line becomes very heavy. My drawing would have some hard edges and my fingers wouldn’t budge. They will just stay suspended somewhere in the middle of the paper, and stubbornly refuse to follow what my brain is telling them to do.

So whenever this feeling of “lightness” comes to my fingers, my hands would automatically grope for any pen, pencil and paper or notebook that I might be holding at that exact moment.

I was drinking coffee at Coffee Nations in Bali Lane while waiting for my friend, Camille, to join me for dinner. At that time, I was reading the book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and I was using this postcard from Vogue Magazine as a bookmark.

This feeling of “lightness” seized my hands and I found myself copying Cate Blanchett’s portrait. The goal is not to exactly copy what my eyes can see from the printed photo, but to distinguish the lines, shadows and shapes that is visible to my eyes, and in the process, stamp these visions into my paper. I find comfort and fulfillment in relying on my senses to be sensitive to some light and shadows here and there. Drawing and doodling really gives me a kind of primitive happiness.

This is another doodle that I created while hanging out for dinner in a nearby McDonald’s. I don’t want to go home early so I decided to exercise my little hands. I’m fortunate enough to feel that my hands feel very light at that exact moment.

I’m looking forward for more sensations of lightness to seize my fingers.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 1:18 am and is filed under illustrations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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4 Responses to “When My Hands Felt Very Light, I Doodle”

1. Rahul - Web Guru says:

   January 28, 2010 at 5:51 pm

   I must say, your doodles are quite interesting. Keep it up.
2. Jessette says:

   February 17, 2010 at 12:50 pm

   Thanks web guru.
3. wilma says:

   June 16, 2010 at 5:04 am

   love ur work
4. Tiyo Kamtiyono says:

   September 1, 2010 at 6:55 am

   Really cool doodles, I like it