Doodle Art in Drawing

You have probably already had fun doodling in the margins of your school notebooks, ending up filling the page with small, interwoven drawings. But did you know that behind these little sketches lies a drawing discipline? In this article, we will introduce you to the art of doodling and explain how you can do it too.

WHAT IS A DOODLE?

A doodle, or "gribouillage" in French, is usually a simple shape in a small area of the sheet. It can represent a character, an animal, an object or simply remain abstract.

Doodle art involves filling your sheet with doodles. The arrangement is generally very tight, with doodles stuck close together, and leaves little or no empty spaces.

Doodle art is generally found in the field of graphic design, ranging from packaging to posters, and including the decoration of various objects (mugs, tapestries, skateboards, etc.).

HOW TO PRACTICE THIS DRAWING METHOD?

Doodle art does not require any specific drawing skills and relies greatly on your creativity and imagination. The goal is to be carried away by the small shapes and imagine what they might represent. It's a very relaxing practice, without really having any specific rules.

If you want to get started with doodle art, the only prerequisites are having a surface to fill (be it a sheet or an object) and, generally, a theme.

For the rest of this tutorial, since it is autumn, I will show you how to create doodle art on the Halloween theme.

DRAWING A HALLOWEEN DOODLE ART STEP BY STEP

I start with a blank digital document, but as mentioned above, you can start with any surface.

I will start drawing my first doodle in the bottom left-hand corner of the sheet. You can start at any point, but it is easier to start at a corner. Since I have chosen a Halloween theme, I will start with a small ghost. I start by creating a simple shape that will represent the outline of my ghost. I choose a thick line so that it is easy to distinguish.

Now that I have my silhouette, I add a few details. Small elliptical shapes for the eyes and mouth will do the trick. I keep it very simple so as not to overload my ghost.

My ghost is finished. Now I will try to put another little doodle next to it. I can make a pumpkin, for example.

As with the ghost, I kept the outline strokes thick. The few details of the pumpkin were made with a finer line.

Now I can continue with another doodle and gradually expand my doodle art on my document. Why not add a wizard's hat?

Patterns are a recurring component of doodle art. I chose to fill my hat with dashes to make it grey. It is also possible to make negative doodles, i.e. mostly black with touches of white.

This type of doodle will be perfect for adding a black cat to my paper!

And here's my little cat! Sometimes I have little "gaps" between two doodles. I can either leave them white or choose to fill them with patterns. Here, I show you an example of possible small details:

You have all the rules of the game! Now it's your turn to unleash your creativity to create your doodles! This is what my sheet looks like once it is filled in:

LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD

If you want to push your doodle art a little further, try adding constraints to your drawings: have regular shapes, draw without lifting the pencil, etc. You can also add a few touches of colour to highlight certain elements, or even enjoy colouring in your doodles once the page is filled, like in a colouring book. Give free rein to your imagination!

Written and illustrated by Louis Grieves