I would never call myself an artist. I have attempted doodling many times throughout my life, and every time I do I am never able to make the art I envision in my mind. For some reason, I lack the hand-eye coordination to draw anything of importance; its even noticeable in my handwriting. For the longest time, I have focused on my other fabrication skills: inventing, 3D modeling, etc; always staying away from a simple pencil and paper. I would tell myself, "I am just not good at art, I'm better in the mechanical world". However, something changed just a few weeks ago...I started taking this Ideation and Prototyping class which requires me to have a sketchbook (there was an option to write but I fear writing more than I fear drawing; I chose the field of engineering so I wouldn't have to write as much if that's any indication). When it came time for me to draw my first sketch, I had an epiphany: what if I applied my skills is precision and applied that to my art. The answer was right in front of me all along, I knew I couldn't control and pencil free-handing it, but, I could draw a straight line with a ruler and curved lines with a compass. My first sketch was an umbrella and it came out better than I could've imagined. I was so psyched, I drew more ideas that had been floating around my brain. After I had my fun putting some of my imagination onto paper, I drew a sketch of a project I had been mulling over for quite some time. As I drew, the image of what I wanted to create became clear in my head. I hadn't known at the time, but I had just deployed a "powerful, primitive tool" that had been helping people make sense of the world for over 30,000 years: the doodle. Doodling hasn't just been behind some of the most innovative ideas but it helps anyone and everyone develop their "mind's eye". Your mind's eye is your ability to create mental imagery which is what helped me visualize the project I was working on while I was doodling. This is because I was able to finally make sense of the relationship between every component while keeping everything functional (I will talk more about this in my next post to my Projects page: AKA "the battery dilemma"). 

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