How to Doodle – Organic Doodling

Geometric versus Organic Doodling

In the “How to doodle” post way back when, I examined how I doodle around geometrically, creating geometric designs, subdivided and filled with yet more shapes. That method can be done using dice for inspiration.

My organic doodling is less structured – take a scribble – any scribble – on paper or digitally and then expand on it.

How to Doodle

  1. Scribble. I often use pencil for this. The key when making it is to truly scribble — don’t think and don’t try to make anything. In fact, scribble a bunch of these randomly on the page without looking. I like to keep a stack of pre-scribbled doodles to work with whenever the mood strikes, or several pages of them in my current studio journal.

    First Doodle Step
    First Doodle Step
  2. Now, pretend you’re a kid again, lying on your back on a hill watching clouds. What do you see? Each scribble is a cloud.
  3. At this point I like to use a brush tip pen to delineate what I see. The brush tip makes it easier to make some of the lines stronger and more obvious. You can get the same result with a different color of pen, or a pen over pencil, or whatever works for you. Remember – you don’t have to use all of the scribble – you can make multiple pictures out of the same scribble, or combine more than one scribble into one picture.

    Finished and titled doodles. Click to enlarge.

There are no rules in doodling – and it’s about playing, not “real” art.

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2 Responses to How to Doodle – Organic Doodling

    • I’m glad you like it. It’s my way of drawing when I’m in a “I can’t draw” phase, which is more often than you might think….

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