Trying Something New (Which is Actually Quite Old)

A Little Foray into The World of 'Droodles'

Wait, what’s a Droodle?

This is a Droodle:

Confused? Intrigued? Great, let’s get into it!

‘Droodles’ were a syndicated visual riddle created by Roger Price back in 1953. Here he is with a whole book of them.

And here’s the caption (answer?) you needed for that one above.

Four elephants examine an orange.

Apparently the idea was that it was the kind of thing one could draw on a cocktail napkin to break the ice in the kind of bar in the 1950’s that had cocktail napkins. (And presumably a jazz band and Don Draper being horrible.)

The riddles became quite popular, and as well as spurring a book, were also turned into a TV show, which just proves how much easier it was pitching a concept for TV back then.

I still remember a primary school teacher drawing this one on the whiteboard during class…

They also drew a similar one called ‘Dolly Parton walking past a window’ which to mind really wasn’t appropriate for a class of 10 yr olds, but then again it was the mid 90’s, and as far as retrospectively questionable stuff from that era goes, that’s pretty tame.

Fast forward several millennia, and Droodles again popped up in my life, this time as part of a post on Instagram, which thankfully gave them a name, and also their aforementioned creator Roger Price.

After a bit more research, I discovered the artist Agostino Carracci also used to draw similar riddles back in the 16th Century, like this one for example…

A blind man hiding behind a corner.

…but the, let’s say, standardisation and naming (and from what I can gather, trademarking) of the art form is all down to Roger Price.

After their heyday in the 50’s and 60’s, Droodles fell off the radar for a while, only to be picked up and revived somewhat by Frank Zappa, who put one on an album and named it as such:

Which more or less brings us up to speed.

As a comic artist whose natural state of being is ‘not actually drawing anything’ — I’m always appreciative of a useful prompt or challenge to get my creative engine up and running (Coffee only gets you so far…)

As such, I was immediately interested in giving Roger’s visual riddles a go for myself. I mean… how hard could it be?

Dear reader, it is a LOT harder than it looks.

So let’s get started. Yes, you’re playing along at home with me. Get yourself a cocktail napkin (or paper if you must), a marker, and let’s do this!

First of all, we needed to start with a nice square border.

There’s something very satisfying about a constraint, and as counterintuitive as it may sound, it has the effect of amplifying creativity rather than diminishing it.

That’s right: In short, start thinking inside the box.

That said… My first attempt was TERRIBLE.

Now while I love the idea of a klutzy, over-familiar iceberg accidentally causing a disaster, this was very much not in the spirit of a Droodle (the way Roger would have wanted it anyway)

So, attempt number two…

To recalibrate, and to get into Roger’s creative mind, I decided to study some of his previous work and realised that his good droodles relied on confusion, but his best droodles relied on misdirection.

For instance, is this a freeway leading into a tunnel? Certainly looks like it…

Nope! this is ‘a spider wearing a beanie.’

After a bit more study of the old classics, I also realised angles seemed to pop up (or sometimes down) quite a bit, so I started with a few angles…

Of course, my brain immediately went to one of the world’s most obvious angles…

It was only a week later, while searching for a photo of one of Roger’s Droodle books that I discovered Roger had more or less done exactly the same joke decades earlier!

So I was certainly on the right track! What about two angles I thought? A chevron if you will… Where in the world would you see that classic V shape?

At this point, I was suddenly aware that I’d hit another level. In my pursuit to emulate the late great Roger Price, had I finally stumbled upon the key to it all?!

What if I drew the droodle first, without actually knowing the answer?

So I started big. X marks the spot.

Now, I just had to write the answer.

I’ll admit, having drawn something and then post-rationalising it is a thrill I’ve not had since studying architecture.

I’ve also never had to come up with a joke after I’ve drawn it, so thank you for that Roger.

Here’s a couple…

We could also get more surreal…

Wait, here’s another one…

So, moving on! While we’re on snakes, the other thing I realised with some of Roger’s work is that certain animals feature frequently.

I’ve already mentioned spiders, but there’s many others that work well — provided they either have multiple legs, or none at all…

Side note: That’s either a massive slug or a miniature book

But where to from here?

Because here’s the thing… Roger died in 1990, and as far as I can tell only produced work in black and white, which suddenly opens up the door of possibility for us…

So, first of all — TECHNOLOGY

What if we carried the art form into the present day with a few Droodles that would have made no sense whatsoever in the 50’s and 60’s?

or… how about COLOUR?!

Now… I know bringing colour into the mix here might go against everything that Roger stood for with his Droodles. However, I feel if we restrict it to just one colour, it still retains the original idea of maximum simplicity…

It how about….

Droodles also always seem to be just singular drawings, in all my searching I didn’t encounter any that relied on a two-image joke…

And, I know I said to think inside the box, but all art rules must be broken, (that’s a rule). So here’s one more for you before I go…

…and on that empty canvas note, over to you! Get yourself a marker, some paper and have at it!

As always - Plese do leave your comments, and likes, and share this and all that kinda stuff!

One More Thing!

In just a little over two weeks I’ll be doing an exhibtion in Berlin, and so I’m in the process of madly putting everything together for that! - The next few posts will hopefully be a front row seat into the maddness of that (and with any luch a catchartic outlet for one very stressed out artist!) - So, that’s all headed your way soon!

C.