So what is a doodle ?
A doodle is basically any mark on your craft project which has been made by hand and can be anything from dashed lines for faux stitching to your handwriting when journaling to extravagant swirls and flourishes. And as with anything, practice makes perfect.

Why doodle ?
Sometimes there is a need for that something extra on your craft project and doodling is perfect for leaving your unique mark for future generations to admire.

Doodlers Toolkit

Sharpened pencil

Probably one of the most important tools when doodling, a normal sharpened pencil is the difference between a perfect doodling result or a potential crafting disaster.  You can use a pencil on most scrapbooking and crafting papers to help with the design of your doodle and the correct positioning on your project.  If you use a permanent pen when tracing over the top of the pencil lines, once the pen has dried the pencil marks can be easily erased without smearing or smudging the ink.

Eraser

Next to a sharpened pencil the eraser is the second most important tool in ensuring that any trace of your ‘sketchy’ design is removed and to a noncrafter your doodling was effortless and pen was used straight to paper. A white eraser is probably the best choice when doodling and does not leave behind any unwanted smears like some other coloured erasers can.

Black pens, varying nib sizes (permanent)

Possibly the most-used items when doodling, you will need these pens in different nib sizes – for example .01, .03, .05, depending on the doodle design. You can normally find these pens at your craft shop or stationers where the fine artist or graphic designer drawing pens are. I use Pilot Drawing Pens in these three sizes which can be bought in a pack of three or individually.  Pigment inks are permanent and fade resistant, giving ideal archival quality for scrapbooking. Pigment ink can be applied directly over the top of pencil lines and once dried the pencil lines can be erased without
affecting the ink. Waterbased materials such as watercolour pens or pencils can be applied to pigment ink without smearing or smudging the ink.

Coloured pens
To make the best of your doodle, coloured pens are a must. There are a wide variety of coloured pens available ranging in price and coloured effect. I own some Gelly Roll coloured pens which are  standard pens for crafting. These were not expensive but work well in doodling. I invested in some Sakura pens and currently have the Glaze, Metallic, Glitter and Soufflé pens. The Soufflé pens are
great for medium to dark papers as they are opaque and have a mat finish. These pens do take a few minutes to dry giving the full effect and colour of the pens and initially you may think they are not working properly but they leave a great effect. The Metallic pens also work well on darker papers. The Glaze pens leave a shiny finish and a raised texture, similar to embossed card or paper. The
Glitter pens are gorgeous and when applied to naked chipboard, it looks like you have just sprinkled very fine glitter on a coloured piece of chipboard. Whichever pens you go for, practice doodling
on different mediums before you commit to your project.  It may even be an idea to scribble down a small area with a pen then mark down which pen type you used and the colour for future reference.

White pen

Doodlers should also have a white pen in their toolkit.  I recommend the white Sakura Soufflé pen which leaves a defined opaque white line and flows very smoothly. Also the Rotring Star Gels Clic 0.7 white pen is a nice pen.

Watercolour pencils

Watercolour pencils are ideal for colouring your doodles and you can change the depth of colour by varying the pressure you use. You can also blend different colours.  When water is applied after
colouring, they change to be similar to watercolour paints where there are no pencil lines and a much smoother effect. They can be used to blend with other colours to leave a two-tone effect which is especially good when you have doodled text which have areas to fill. The darker coloured watercolour pencils are also good for applying a shadow affect to your doodle which is smoothed out when a water brush is used.

Doodling Lines

Here I have examples of doodled lines which you could start off with. I have used a Pilot 0.3 Drawing Pen for these doodles.  In doodling there is no such thing as a straight line which would normally have been done with a ruler. Lines which are not straight, just add to the doodled effect.

LINES
Draw a simple smooth line with a slight curve to it

Draw two lines which overlap with each other

Fill in the spaces. Try to fill in the spaces with different things, such a kisses (x’s), vertical lines, ruffles or simply scribbles.

OTHER LINE DOODLES

Dots and dashes

Bumps

Loops or curly ‘e’s

Mountains or faux stitches

Dashes or faux stitches

Diamonds, crosses, ‘X’s or faux stitches

Multiple curvy lines

Connected dots

Waves

Dots

Joined Hoops

Ladder

Don’t miss the 2nd Feature of our Doodling Series, coming soon!

Tags | black permanent pens, cardmaking, chipboard, coloured pens, doodling, eraser, faux stitching, flourishes, glaze, glitter, handwriting, journaling, metallic, opaque, pencil, pigment ink, Sakura, scrapbooking, souffle, swirls, toolkit, Tracey Grundy, watercolour pencils, white pen