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Artist spends two years covering his home in doodles

<p>A UK artist has spent two years covering his multi-million dollar mansion in his distinctive style of drawings. </p> <p>Sam Cox, who is lovingly known as Mr Doodle, worked his way through 900 litres of emulsion, 401 cans of spray paint, 286 bottles of drawing paint, and 2,296 pens to transform his home into a work of art.</p> <p>Sam has spent the last two years plastering the walls of his six-bedroom, neo-Georgian mansion that he bought for $2.3million (AUD) in Kent, England, with the signature black-and-white drawings that earned him his name. </p> <p>The 28-year-old artist said it has always been his lifelong dream to buy a house to transform into a "doodle-verse".</p> <p>Sam's adventurous project began in the main bedroom - which he decorated with "dream" themed drawings - and the 2,000-tile en-suite bathroom, which has a sea theme.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjLla7wA0zI/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjLla7wA0zI/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Mr Doodle (@mrdoodle)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The first stage took a gruelling two months to complete, but Mr Cox was determined to finish it on his own.</p> <p>He said, "It's the longest project I've done. I wanted to say I'd done it all myself."</p> <p>Sam has left no surface untouched, with every wall and ceiling and all amenities, including the television, stovetop and bath, covered in monochromatic doodles.</p> <p>Despite admitting he did not plan any of his drawings, Mr Cox has given every room its own theme.</p> <p>For example, the hallway is covered with Noah's Ark creations, while the stairs are decorated with Heaven and Hell drawings.</p> <p>He said, "I had a rough idea of the theme but the individual doodles are spontaneous."</p> <p>"My main inspiration still goes back to when I was kid watching Tom and Jerry, Wacky Races and SpongeBob SquarePants, and video games like Crash Bandicoot. I always wanted to draw characters for video games."</p> <p>While already thinking about his next project, Sam said he would be hesitant to let go of the doodle mansion. </p> <p>He said, "I'm unlikely to be persuaded to move, even if it was amazing money."</p> <p>"I'd feel sad leaving this house, because it's my first one."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

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Russian guard sentenced after doodling eyes on exhibit painting

<p dir="ltr">A Russian security guard has been found guilty of vandalism after doodling eyes on an abstract painting by avant-garde artist Anna Leporskaya last December.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to the <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/08/29/russian-museum-guard-yeltsin-centre-doodles-sentenced">Art Newspaper</a>, he must serve 180 hours of “compulsory labour” and undergo “psychiatric evaluation”.</p> <p dir="ltr">The painting, titled <em>Three Figures</em> (1932–34), was on loan to the Yeltsin Centre from Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery and valued at 75 million rubles (US$1.2 million).</p> <p dir="ltr">News of the vandalism broke when visitors alerted gallery staff of two crude eyes drawn on the painting’s faceless figures in a ballpoint pen. </p> <p dir="ltr">A police investigation revealed the culprit was 64-year-old Aleksandr Vasiliev, a security guard employed by a private company who was on his first day on the job. </p> <p dir="ltr">After the damage was deemed “insignificant”, it was restored and has since been returned to the Tretyakov Gallery. </p> <p dir="ltr">Vasiliev’s lawyer, Aleskei Bushmakov, shared a letter on his Facebook page that he sent to Zelfira Tregulova, the general director of the Tretyakov Gallery.</p> <p dir="ltr">He wrote that “taking into account the circumstances of the criminal case, the damage inflicted to the painting <em>Three Figures</em>” and “the high level of public attention in connection with the incident,” the museum considered closing the case “via reconciliation” but ultimately decided that it “does not regard it as possible to take such an appeal to the magistrate.”</p> <p dir="ltr">In an interview with Russian news site E1, Vasiliev said he believed the 20th-century work by Leporskaya was a “children’s drawing” and claimed he was goaded by teenagers to deface it.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’m a fool, what have I done,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: State Tretyakov Gallery / The Art Newspaper Russia</em></p>

Art

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6 ways doodling can make you smarter, happier and more productive

<p><strong>Doodling and attention</strong></p> <p>Like a perpetually active toddler, the human brain constantly demands stimulation. When you’re in a setting that’s noticeably devoid of stimuli (say, on a long plane ride, or in an ultra-boring meeting) your brain compensates by creating its own stimulation in the form of daydreams. And while zoning out is a fine way to pass the time, it’s a dismal way to absorb information. Doodling, on the other hand, engages the brain’s planning and concentration centres just enough to keep you living in the moment – and according to some researchers, it may be even more effective for retaining information than active listening. In one study in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, subjects who monitored a monotonous phone message for names of party guests recalled 29 percent more information later if they were doodling during the call. Meanwhile, in a 2012 study of science students who were asked to draw what they learned during lectures and reading sessions, doodlers not only retained more information, but also reported more enjoyment and engagement with the material.</p> <p><strong>Doodling and memory</strong></p> <p>In general, multitasking lowers cognitive performance on tasks, makes you think harder than you have to, and decreases productivity. However, recent experiments out of Waterloo University suggest that doodling might be an exception. In a series of tests, subjects were given 40 seconds to either draw a word in detail or write it by hand as many times as they could. When quizzed later, doodlers recalled more than twice as many words as writers did. Give this a try in your next meeting: Don’t just write down the crucial points – draw them.</p> <p><strong>Doodling and mindfulness</strong></p> <p><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #444444; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 16px;">So, doodlers, your pen is moving and your brain is engaged – do you feel the zen yet? According to Jesse Prinz, a philosophy professor at City University of New York Graduate Center, doodling keeps participants in a state of “pure listening” that borders on meditation. “Doodling helps hit that sweet spot between listening too much and listening too little,” Prinz says. “It keeps you in a state where your mind can’t wander, and your mind can’t also reflect or think more deeply about what you’re hearing… it’s to such a great extent that if I do not doodle, I find myself having difficulty concentrating.” With your mind so engaged, it becomes hard not to feel yourself in the present moment. And with meditation comes relaxation.</span></p> <p><strong>Doodling and your mood</strong></p> <p>Beyond the kindergarten wisdom that drawing is just plain fun, there may be psychological forces improving your mood when you put doodles to paper. The key: keep it positive. In a 2008 study where participants were asked to either draw something that was making them unhappy (to “vent” their emotions) or something that made them happy, those who focused on the positive showed a greater short-term elevation in mood than those who vented. So when you doodle through your next boring meeting, draw yourself on a train to your dream holiday location instead of drawing your blowhard boss tied to tracks.</p> <p><strong>Doodling and creativity</strong></p> <p>This may seem like a no-brainer, but creative acts lead to creative thinking. Take this case study from a 2014 paper published at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology: An architecture student hit a creative block while designing a new kindergarten building. To ease his mind, the student began habitually doodling his own signature, larger and larger. As the doodles grew in size, the student began seeing an outline for the building in the negative spaces between the letters of his name. The doodle soon became the architectural sketch on which he based his building.</p> <p><strong>Doodling and stress</strong></p> <p>Creative activities have been proven across dozens of studies to reduce stress, decrease negative emotions, and even improve the health of people who participate in them. The end product doesn’t even have to be a masterpiece; as the great doodling philosopher Charles Schulz wrote, “the joy is in the playing.” In no form of art is this more true than doodling, a game where your brain talks to itself by using your hand as a medium. There is no concern for the end product, or who else might see it. Relax in the fact that a doodle is just a little present from you, for you.</p> <p><em><span id="docs-internal-guid-19914df7-7fff-e4fb-40fd-fa5dcffbaa7b">Written by Brandon Specktor. This article first appeared in <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/true-stories-lifestyle/thought-provoking/6-ways-doodling-can-make-you-smarter-happier-and-more-productive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader’s Digest</a>. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, <a href="http://readersdigest.innovations.com.au/c/readersdigestemailsubscribe?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=articles&amp;utm_campaign=RDSUB&amp;keycode=WRA87V" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here’s our best subscription offer.</a></span></em></p>

Mind