Friday, October 30, 2009

The greatness of post-its

When I'm struggling for inspiration at work I do what many other office workers do and doodle. But I'm very particular about what what I doodle with, and what I doodle on. I have to use a specific black felt-tip pen, and I have to have a post-it note to draw on. And by post-it note I mean the regular yellow, square post-it notes - proper post-it notes, I mean, not some cheap knock-off.

Over the years I've come to regard the post-it note as the perfect canvas for quick illustrations. It's perfectly sized for a quick BAM-BAM sketch that takes no more than a minute or two to bash out. And usually when I've finished a doodle I'll roll the post-it note into a long thin tube, crush it, and chuck it in the bin.

(Though I did once keep hold of a load of these tubes, and over the course of several months attached about 20 of them together to form a long, thin stick with the intention of using it to poke other members of staff without having to leave the comfort of my chair. Sadly the uber stick was somewhat lacking in structural integrity and collapsed under the weight of its own greatness during the course of the inaugural prodding)

Anyway, over the last couple of weeks I've found myself unable - or rather unwilling - to bin some of the doodles I've created, and not really knowing what else to do with them I thought I'd share them here with you.

So here you are.

Fun with post-it notes begins with a pretty obvious Dingbat that I directed towards a colleague in jest.

A really quite crappy sketch of the Enterprise. Notice the blue deflector dish; I generally don't use colour in my doodles, but I thought this lifted it a smidgeon.

Odo from Deep Space Nine. I'm rather proud of this one - I like the way he's offset to the right of frame, and he's got a particularly melancholy look on his face that I find strangely appropriate. Obviously the whole Star Trek theme is something of an occupational hazard.

The Joker. I didn't actually intend to draw the Joker, but I started with a particularly demonic pair of eyes enshrouded in shadow, which kind of lent themselves to him. Again, I used a little bit of colour for effect.

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An aside:

I'm really hoping it starts dropping down cold soon because I rather fancy the idea of wrapping myself up in an old vintage muff.

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Actually, I've always rather liked the idea of organising an exhibition where you just get loads of people to draw whatever the hell they want on a normal post-it note then show them in a gallery. I'm sure it's been done, but I'm strangely drawn to the idea of several walls just lined with hundreds and hundreds of unique post-it illustrations. And really, who doesn't have the time to scrawl something on a small yellow square?

Oh, but wait! That's not all they're good for - why this very afternoon I also fashioned one into a tiny hockey stick.

Actually, this is a reasonably poor facsimile of the original which proved necessary after an ill-timed combination of iPhoto crashing moments after I'd clicked the 'delete originals' option, wiping about five photos I'd taken today. Take my word for it when I say the original was *awesome*.

12 comments:

Catastrophe Waitress said...

We sell them at work. Well, we sell our own posh version of post it notes. I have an addiction to the grey and the black ones that we make, and use a white pen to sketch little worlds on their tiny pages. The black and white looks like a little blackboard.


I would definitely submit something for your PostIt exhibition. What will it be called?

Ponita in Real Life said...

When you mentioned being wrapped in a muff, I had visions of something else....

Dare I post the link? ;-P

Ponita in Real Life said...

Cool doodles, by the way, especially Odo. Always liked him.

Inexplicable DeVice said...

That muff looks like it could do with a good scrub!

I'm always amazed at your drawings (and jealous), as I always think of you as a writer, forgetting your artistic skill.
As Ponita said, Odo is especially good.

Tim said...

The Projectivist - Wow, they do sound like posh versions! I approve!!

As for what the exhibition would be called … how about Post-it on a Post-it?

Ponita - DO IT!!

Inexplicable Device/muffscrubber - Ah, you flatter me! Is someone after the Odo post-it?

Tara said...

You need a tiny hockey puck for that Post-It hockey stick!

I've saved only a handful of my Post-It doodles, but you're right, there should be an art exhibit with tons of various Post-It doodles on every wall!

What I also do is put my grocery list on them, and I've had some good laughs over obscure lists I've made.

Tim said...

Great minds, Tara - I'd thought about making a puck to go with it!!

Hey! Maybe one of your days for December should be 'post a picture of a post-it note doodle'?

Tara said...

First holiday idea for December, and it's an excellent idea! Should it land on the first day of the month?

Yes, a tiny puck and maybe a tiny goal net thingy? (I'm totally into sports terminology)

Tim said...

I think so, yes! You don't want to nudge it too close to Christmas!

And I can see you're so up on the sports terminology - you should be a sports reporter!

CyberPete said...

I totally dig Odo! The drawing is pure awesomeness.

You should start a meme or something having people post a post-it on their blog or something.

To be honest my doodles and scribbles are awful so I may not do it (it's not like I post anything at all lately anyway - wait! Maybe tonight? Hmmmm...)

Tim said...

Why thank you!

And yes, I've noticed the lack of Pete action recently. I hope something is going to be done about it soon…?

CyberPete said...

It's done Tim.

Check my blog to get yourself a little Pete action..