45 Best Doodle Art Ideas To Let Your Imagination Run Wild

Doodling is a great way to unleash your creativity and let your imagination run wild. It can also be a fun way to relieve stress and relax your mind. This blog post will share 45 of the best doodle art ideas that will help you unleash your inner artist.

Simple Doodles

Start simple on your doodles. Use basic shapes, everyday things you see around you, or anything that inspires you. The most important thing is to start on your doodles and work on improving.

1. Breakfast Options

Doodle of breakfast options - Image by Doodles by Sarah

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Sometimes, it can be frustrating when you get the same type of food every so often. Why not then try these breakfast options to visualize what you want? You can draw these on a separate sheet of paper to cut and paste into your journal. Better yet, take out that Cricut and create your doodle food stickers as a fun and delicious way of accessorizing your scrapbooks and journals.

2. Kawaii Faces

Kawaii faces - Image by Vinnie's Doodle World

Kawaii is a Japanese word that means "cute." Use your imagination and create these cute faces in various expressions in the usual doodling style. Draw them together into one big picture or draw them separately, and it’ll be cuteness overload either way. 

3. Cats

A doodle showing different poses of cats - Image by Milly's Doodle Art

Pets, in general, are one of the easiest subjects to use in doodling because of your emotional attachment to them. Cats make cute subjects with their adorable antics and charm. Take photos of them, then use these photos as references for their poses. Your doodles will then ooze with purrrfection. 

4. Doodling with Basic Shapes

Doodling with basic shapes - Image by Vinnie's Doodle World

If you don't know how to start your doodles, try overlapping basic shapes, then fill them with cute faces. For overlapping doodles, use a pencil to plan the doodle better. Outline with drawing markers. Accessorize the background and add texture to your doodles to finish. After all, “basic” doesn’t have to be merely basic. 

5. Back to School Doodle

Back to school doodle - Image by Craftylity

Another common subject for doodles is school supplies. You can use these doodles to customize notebook covers. Use the right symbols per course. Math formulas, a protractor, and a compass make good doodles for math notebooks and books or a stethoscope and syringes for medical notebooks. Use one focal subject, then doodle around it with other related symbols. All that for some arts and crafts fun multiplied. 

Journal Doodles

Journals, most especially bullet journals, need lots of decorations. They're not required, but they make your journals a work of art, even if you're not that into art.

6. Practice Doodles for Bullet Journals

Practice doodles for bullet journals - Image by The Petite Planner

New to doodling? Don't worry. Start with a month-long challenge. You can line up subjects per day for the next 30 days, then doodle them regularly. By the end of the month, you'll have mastered doodling and become a doodle pro yourself. 

7. Bullet Journal Decor Doodles

Bullet journal decor doodles - Image by Mariana's Corner

Journal decors are excellent practice pieces for everyone, starting with bullet journaling. Practice with banners, dividers, and flourishes to organize your thoughts into sections. Like hitting two birds with one stone, now you won’t only have doodles or journals, but both. 

8. Monthly Cover for BuJo

Monthly cover for BuJo - Image by Craftylity

Monthly covers for bullet journals are another way to improve your doodling skills while understanding the need to accessorize your journals. As you improve, you'll have more amazing monthly covers. You can color them to add more interest or leave it as is.

9. Weekly Spread Doodles

Weekly spread doodles - Plan With Me

Your weekly spread is the most you see every day, so it pays to make it pretty. Though you can use several themes, flowers are among the most commonly used decors for weekly spreads on your bujo. The journal artist first drew the main flowers and then filled in the gaps for a better presentation.

10. Bullet Journal Themes

Bullet journal themes - JashiiCorrin

Bullet journals usually follow a theme. Many artists choose celebrations like the New Year for January or Valentine's Day for February for their monthly themes. Others also choose random designs they love to decorate their journals.

However, whatever theme you choose, it is best to make a plan. Draw your theme on a spread of the journal, then draw the general theme and colors you want to use on your themes.

Word Doodles

Some doodle artists use words as the focal of their work. However, you can also do other word doodles shown in the examples below.

11. Word Doodles for Journals

Word Doodles for Journals - Image by Vedika Gurav

Stylize your journal words by making a doodle out of them. Make a simple word such as smile into a work of art by writing the word inside a sunflower, or use different font styles and sizes to write your headings and quotes.

12. Doodle Names

Doodle names - Image by Funwax & Craft

If you want your name to be a work of art, why not doodle around it? In this example, the artist wrote a name on the center of the page then added the doodles around the name to accessorize it. Some artists choose to use doodles of things that best represent the person, such as flowers, butterflies, pets, etc.

13. Flower Art Slogan Doodle

Flower art slogan doodle - Joob Whitman

This slogan uses several flowers to spell out the words. This technique is easy to do and ideal to glam up your slogan without doing much. Start with the letters, then decorate them with flowers for that floral power doodle as you see fit.

14. Decorative Word Doodle

Decorative word doodle - Image by Ayushi Singhal

Another way to stylize your words is using the same theme that the word implies, like things you see in space for the word SPACE or sneakers and feet for the word WALK. You may also opt to add colors if you want.

15. Words to Doodles

Words to doodles - Image by Shagun Guyal

Another good challenge is to turn words into doodles, sometimes using several things or a particular object to represent a letter. The real challenge is finding an object that starts and looks like the letter it represents, like a stethoscope for an S or a weasel for a W.

Seasonal Doodles

If you want to keep updated with your doodles, seasonal doodles are the thing. Some enterprising artists even doodle on kraft bags to give it a DIY glam look ready for the season.

Check out some of these seasonal doodles. We'd love it if you shared your ideas with the rest of our readers. You can also use it as a fun catalog for ideas for your seasonal decorations.

16. Winter Season Clothes

Winter season clothes - Image by Kids Colorful Art Room

Though some people are not fond of the winter, many find the winter season as an excuse to be trendy and fabulous. Have you found a style you fancy but can't afford on Pinterest? Doodle it! You can even turn it into stylish paper clothes should you want something to go with your paper dolls as recreation. 

17. Christmas Decors

Christmas decors - Image by She'z Art

Plan out your Christmas decorations with doodles. You can use doodles to design your Christmas balls and other ornaments if you're a DIY crafter. Add colors to your doodles to visualize them. This fun plan makes it easier for you to get your ornaments on a theme you want.

18. Summer Doodles

Summer doodles - Image by Simple Art Ideas

Summer is another fun season to doodle - the beach, sun and sand, and even umbrellas and sunblock. If you have kids who can't read yet, make a list of things they need to prepare for a beach day with doodles. They can then tick that item off the list once they have it on them.

19. Halloween Doodles

Halloween doodles - Image by AmandaRachLee

Halloween doodles are best for making your Halloween cards and banners. Choose your favorite Halloween ornaments to use on your doodles. You can also freehand some scary-looking doodles to decorate your house.

20. Easter Doodles

Easter doodles - Image by Doodle Love

Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and chicks, and Easter baskets are all great ideas for doodles. You may add banners, flowers, and other objects related to the Easter celebration for that “hoppy” holiday full of artsy doodles.  

Botanical Doodles

Flowers, herbs, succulents, and leaves make excellent doodle art ideas. Read on to learn more.

21. Cosmos Doodle

Cosmos doodle - Image by Mary's Easy Mini Art

For this doodle, the artist used a cluster of cosmos flowers. Like this example, you may add other flowers or botanical elements to this design or keep it simple. Whatever you choose, do something that’s fun for you. 

22. Garden Doodle

Garden doodle - Image by Karinka Oli

Garden lovers will also love this doodle art idea of garden elements, including these gnome houses, planters, and garden tools. You may also doodle your garden idea before putting it to work on visualizing your design better.

23. Botanical Doodles with Alcohol Markers

Botanical doodles with alcohol markers - Image by Being Me

Make a colorful background for your doodles using alcohol markers. Use micron pens or white gel pens to doodle your flowers and accessorize your doodles. However, plan your background well so they don't clash.

24. Potted Succulents

Potted succulents - Image by Karinka Oli

Doodles don't have to be small drawings on paper. You may also doodle a single object on a piece of paper. For this project, the artist drew several succulents in pots. If you want to add more details, use a white gel pen or colored pencils.

25. Watercolor Stain Doodle Art

Watercolor stain doodle art - Image by Maremi Small Art

This beautiful and easy doodle art idea is for those who love abstract watercolors. Start with a good piece of watercolor paper and a mop brush. Paint random designs on the paper. Allow the watercolors to run, then let them dry. Use an artist's pen to draw the design you want to make, then decorate them with watercolor pens.

Zentangle Doodles

Zentangle is a modern art form that many people use to relieve stress and anxiety and develop creativity. Though in the strict sense of the word, doodles are just random drawings, since it became an art form, many adapted it. Now, doodles are something that people aim to perfect, making fusion with zentangle possible.

26. Zentangle Patterns

Zentangle patterns - Image by Pic Candle

Zentangle is one of the most popular doodle art ideas. Zentangle patterns are perfect for those who want to improve their focus and concentration. To create a zentangle pattern, start with a simple shape, then build on it by adding more shapes, lines, and details.

27. Zentangle Doodle on a Circle

Zentangle doodle on a circle - Image by Ketki Fadnis Arts

For this project, the artist drew a zentangle doodle starting with a circle, then divided it into sections to draw the patterns. Though zentangle does not technically qualify as a doodle since it focuses on patterns, while doodles are more random, zentangle patterns become repetitive, and artists become less mindful of the patterns they do.

28. Abstract Zentangle Landscape

Abstract zentangle landscape - Image by Mystique Art

When zentangle and doodling meet, you can create amazing artwork like this abstract landscape. Divide your paper into sections, then fill each section with patterns, each section different from the others.

29. Zentangle Landscape

Zentangle landscape - Image by Craftisa Art

Here's another take on a zentangle landscape. Instead of filling every void space with dizzying patterns, the artist used calm patterns - dashes on the sky and wavy lines on the river - giving the artwork an uncluttered look.

30. Zentangle Ornament

Zentangle ornament - Image by Naomi 75 Art Street

Though most zentangle artists fill pages or shapes with patterns, you can also do zentangle doodles without doing that. Instead, try this doodle pattern and make your lovely ornaments. The resulting doodle is an interesting combination of patterns that you can try on your other projects.

Doodling from Everyday Life

31. Weather

Hidden world doodle on lined paper - Image by Kaori

Use weather elements like the sun, snow, and thunder to doodle. You can use these elements in your daily journal to document the day's weather.

You can also add a personal touch to your doodle by including people or animals. For example, you can draw a person walking in the rain with an umbrella or a snowman melting under the sun. By adding these elements, you'll be able to create a story through your doodle.

32. Kitchen Utensils

Behind the lines - Image by Drawing & Coloring

For someone who loves cooking, doodling kitchen utensils and appliances is a fun way to plan your kitchen and pin your wish list without even going on Pinterest. It's also a fun way to teach your kids to eat well with these fun doodles.

33. Architecture Doodle

Architecture doodle - Image by Shayda Campbell

Famous buildings are great subjects for doodle art. Even if you have not visited places and seen these buildings in real life, you can still doodle them using reference images. Reproduce them in smaller sizes and draw them on tracing paper to trace on later. Again, you can use them on your destination wish list.

34. Transportation Doodle

Transportation doodle - Image by Sugandha Jule

Kids love to doodle cars, airplanes, and rockets, but there's more in the transport industry that you haven't explored yet. Spend a good time doodling with your kids and experience the joy of being a child again.

35. Fitness Doodle

Fitness doodle - Image by Nataliia Volosaieva

Another good thing about doodles is the freedom to draw anything. For this example, the artist used fitness equipment. Doodling fitness equipment is a good way to motivate you to get fit. You may also include sports equipment if you want.

Character Doodles

36. Monsters

Monster doodles - Image by Art Landy

One of the most popular things to doodle is monsters. You can let your imagination run wild and draw any type of monster you want. If you're feeling extra creative, you can even add a background or story to your doodle.

37. Villain Designs

Villain designs - Image by Sarabjeet World

What's an animated movie without villains? Work on the expression of your characters to give them a real menacing look fit for a nasty villain. After all, villains can be fun to doodle, too.

38. Designing Characters

Designing characters thru doodles - Image by Mad Stuff with Rob

Designing characters is harder than drawing them because that's where all the struggle starts. However, the video tutorial included here shows you tips on how to do character designing properly.

If you compare the drawing on top, you'll see that it's very basic, while the drawing on the lower part is more complicated and has more character. Changing the orientation of the shark and adding a shirt and a hat gives it a more edgy look.

39. Anime Characters

Baymax doodle - Image by Doodles by Sarah

Animation movie characters are another great source of inspiration for doodles. You can start with the most popular ones and work your way down to the more obscure characters. For starters, the artist drew Baymax and several other very simple movies and TV characters.

40. Movie Characters

Doodle of Harry Potter characters - Image by Doodles by Sarah

Doodling Harry Potter characters is a great way to relax and de-stress. You can doodle him and other characters from your favorite movie. You can also use different colors to make the characters stand out.

Colorful Doodles

Colorful doodles are fun to do. Aside from keeping your doodles more interesting, you can also improve your doodle's overall look with colors.

41. Watercolor Doodles

Watercolor doodles - Image by Nianiani

Doodle over watercolor dots on your sketchbooks and discover how these dots improve the overall look of your micro pen doodles. Decorate with more watercolor washes. Play with colors, and mix in your doodles - you’ll surely have an exciting time trying this technique.

42. Alcohol Ink Zentangle

Colorful zentangle - Emiko Kaneko CZT

When making a zentangle, invest in a good zentangle toolset instead of getting the pens and tiles separately. The cotton pulp paper made in molds is absorbent yet strong enough to withstand several layers of ink and colors.

For this zentangle, the artist used alcohol inks and sprayed them over with water to spread the ink. She also blotted out excess inks with a paper towel. Once dry, she darkened some parts of the zentangle with a graphite pencil.

43. Rainbow Doodle

Rainbow doodle - Image by Doodlester_22

A rainbow doodle is a great way to show your personality and add some color to your notes. Use different colors of pen or pencil to make the different parts of the rainbow. You can also use highlighters to make the colors pop for a more vivid presentation.

44. Colorful Doodles for Stickers

Colorful doodles for stickers - Image by Sarah Faber

Did you know that you can turn your doodles into money? A simple app on your iPad and a Cricut machine is all you need to turn that creative bundle into something you can sell to your friends.

45. Colorful Heart Doodle

Colorful Heart Doodle - Image by Unique Art

Trace a heart on paper, then divide it into two sections for the design you want to do. You can use a pencil to sketch out your design or go right in with markers. Try using colored pencils or even paints if you want to add color. Just stay within the lines to prevent the paint from running.

Tips on Doing Doodles

Though doodling in the technical sense is just mindless drawing, the outset of doodling as an art challenged many artists to improve their skills. As a result, styles and techniques evolved and needed careful planning to work on a theme.

• Draw using drawing supplies you prefer

Doodling doesn't have to be complicated. You can use any drawing supplies you have on hand, whether a pencil and sketching book or a digital tablet. Don't force yourself to get more supplies unless you're looking for something more serious in your doodling.

• Decide on a theme

Choose a theme for your doodles to keep them tied together. It could be something as simple as a color scheme, or you could base your doodles around a subject matter. For example, you could doodle different animals every day for a week. Once you have a theme in mind, brainstorming ideas for your doodles will be much easier.

• Start simple

If you're new to doodling, start with basic shapes. Give it a fun edge by adding cute faces, color, and other elements that can elevate it from just a square or a star into a work of art. Start small, too, until you build your doodling muscle.

• Experiment with textures

Don't go easy on yourself when it comes to art. It's okay to start small, but don't be complacent. Doodle on different kinds of paper, experiment with shading and cross-hatching and try new mediums like colored pencils, gel pens, and even crayons. The world is your oyster when it comes to doodling.

• Turn your mistakes into accidental decors

Don't let errors deter you from making your doodles. Instead, think of a way to accessorize your doodle and use that error to give your doodle a better look. There are, after all, no mistakes. Just lessons learned. 

• Give yourself a break

Doodling is meant for relaxing, so take it easy if you make mistakes. If it gets too much, take a break and discard that piece. Start a new piece, and don't stress about your previous progress. Doodling can only be therapeutic if you let it. 

• Improve your subject

Work on improving your doodle subject. Though you only have melons and oranges to doodle, adding a face or other element will make your doodle more creative. Don’t be scared to think outside the box, get creative, and have fun. 

• Vary your line thickness

You should be able to distinguish your lines from the patterns by using varying line thicknesses. Make the thickest outlines and use medium thickness for the next major lines. Patterns and details should use the thinnest lines for your doodles.

Conclusion

Doodling is a great way to relieve boredom or stress, but you can also make amazing art pieces. With a little imagination and some practice, you can let your inner artist run wild with these amazing doodle art ideas. 

Had enough with doodling? Try these marker drawing ideas.