Illustration/Design — Planet Henderson

For many years, I studied acting pretty intensely under the great Arthur Mendoza at The Actor’s Circle Theater here in Los Angeles. (I could go and on about what an amazing experience it was, but that’s probably best saved for another post.) During class, (and this has been true for me ever since kindergarten…), I was unable to pay attention if I couldn’t doodle. I don’t know quite how to explain it- I’m usually not even aware of what I’m drawing, but if my hand’s not moving, I just can’t seem to focus properly in a classroom setting. Conversely, if I can doodle, I don’t miss a thing.

At first, I really tried to hide my ‘doodling problem’ from Arthur. The last thing I wanted was to disrespect him or the class, but i just couldn’t help it. He only called me out on it once, early on. I explained to him why I was sketching the whole time: about how it helped me focus, etc. Rather than ‘bust’ me on it, he actually encouraged me to doodle and sketch as much as I needed to, but he told me that if my work in class ever ‘slipped’ he would, (and I quote), “shove my pen so far up my ass that the cap would poke out of top of my head.”

I love that guy.

Fortunately for me, it never came to that. 

Anyway, it got to the point where I’d pretty much fill a notebook every quarter. A lot of people in the class seemed to get a kick out of the drawings, so I started making sketchbooks at Kinko’s for all the students in my class and handing them out at the end of each quarter.

Over all the years I studied with Arthur at A.C.T. , I’ve amassed hundreds of these things.

This a random collection of some of those sketches and doodles.