Doteau

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To Color or Not To Color

Do you like the images above?

If so, thank you. I like them as well. In fact, I think I like them better than the usual, colored doodles,

This might have been a mistake.

By this, I mean adding colors to my doodles.

I don't know when I derailed. This kind of doodles is fun because it doesn't have that much of seriousness to it. I always drew them on a note or something disposable, you know, like a little memo to make my friends or coworkers chuckle.

When I started posting them here or on Instagram, I started adding colors because I thought they needed some degree of elaboration to be posted and seen by public. However the more I made these doodles with colors and more time, the more it derailed from what it was all about in the first place.

This is not to say that I wasted my time by drawing the "colored" version of the doodles. In fact, I use more colors now because I tested a bunch of different color palettes with these doodles.

But with the colors added, I think the drawings lost their charms.

I don't know how to put this. And I know this is a bad analogy, but when you make a joke, it has to be simple. Once you start adding an explanation, once you start elaborating, it's not that funny anymore.

I think to some degree, this kind of doodle has the same rule. Simply(ah), it has to be simple: Execute it, and just leave.

I guess just because you spend longer time on it, it doesn't mean it's better. Not to say colored doodles can't achieve the same level of charm as simple, monochromatic doodles, but they are so difficult.