Was watching a behind the scenes video for Spiderverse and the lead animator said he uses a Bic 0.7mm from the drugstore for all his initial doodles, which blew my mind cause I've been spending $20 on specialty pencils that I barely use, has anyone else switched to cheap tools and seen better results?
I was sketching at a coffee shop and this kid walks up, looks at my doodle of my cat, and goes "that's a lumpy potato." At first I was annoyed, but then I looked at it again. The body was just a round blob with legs, no shape at all. So I started paying attention to actual cat anatomy, like where the shoulders sit and how the tail curves. Now I spend 2 extra minutes just blocking in basic shapes before adding details. Has anyone else gotten brutally honest feedback from a kid that actually helped?
I grabbed a cheap brush pen at the craft store for $4 last Tuesday and my quick sketches actually look looser and less stiff, anyone else notice a difference switching tools like that?
Was scrolling through the sub yesterday and saw a super clean dragon sketch tagged as a "quick 3 minute warmup" - c'mon man, I drew a stick figure dog in 5 mins and it looked like a potato with legs lol. Anyone else get tired of people faking the messy doodle vibe?
I was sitting near a sketch group at Bean & Leaf last Tuesday and this one guy said doodles that aren't shaded or colored don't really belong in a doodle dump. That rubbed me the wrong way. In my experience, the whole point of a doodle is the raw idea or shape, not polish. I've got pages of barely-there stick figures that made me laugh more than any detailed drawing. Anyone else think a loose line sketch should count just as much as a shaded one?
Been doodling cats and trees for months but hands always came out like alien claws. Finally got the thumb joint to look right on scrap paper at lunch, now I can't stop redrawing it.
Grabbed one of those $5 spiral sketchbooks from the art supply store on Grand Ave. Day 1 it was fine, but by day 4 pages started pulling out of the spiral binding. By day 14 I had loose pages everywhere. So I punched three holes through the spine margin with a standard hole punch, threaded those big metal binder rings through. Now I can add or remove pages whenever, plus it lays flat. Has anyone else found a hack for keeping cheap doodle pads from falling apart?
I started doodling during lunch at work back in April, just random stick figures and blobs. Yesterday I looked at a drawing I did this morning and compared it to one from my first week and I couldn't believe the difference. The arms and legs are actually connected right and the heads aren't shaped like potatoes anymore lol. I think just making myself draw something every single day, even if it's garbage, is what made it click. Has anyone else seen a big jump in their doodles after a specific amount of daily practice?
Used to think I needed a fancy drafting pencil with all these different lead grades to get a good sketch, but after my truck broke down in Kansas and that was all the gas station had, I found the simpler line actually made me focus more on the shape instead of the tool. Anyone else ever ditch the fancy gear and go back to something basic?
It was a weird moment where I just sat there frozen watching it spread. Instead of tossing the book I let it dry and now I'm doodling over the stain with a white gel pen, weirdly like the results way more than what I had planned. Has anyone else turned a total fail into something they actually like?
I kept smudging my ink sketches until I tried drawing with my non-dominant hand for the loose parts first. Has anyone else tried switching hands to loosen up their doodles?
I used to be one of those people who only sketches with a mechanical pencil, thinking you needed the erasability to get anything right. Then I sat next to this older guy at a coffee shop last Tuesday who was drawing this crazy detailed portrait with just a cheap Bic pen. He told me that not being able to erase forces you to commit and work with your mistakes, which stuck with me. So I tried it during my lunch break, and honestly my lines got looser and more confident right away. Has anyone else had a tool or material flip their whole drawing style like that?
I always used a mechanical pencil for sketching because I thought the thin line looked cleaner. Then last week at a sketch group in Portland, this older guy named Frank handed me a 4B wood pencil and told me to try shading a sphere. One pass and I saw how much depth I was missing by never laying down a soft edge. Has anyone else had their whole method flipped by just trying a different tool for one drawing?
I tried shading with my left hand instead of my right and the whole anatomy went sideways. Has anyone else switched hands on purpose just to see what happens, or am I the only one who ends up with a mutant pet?
I was sitting at a little bakery downtown called The Sour Spot, doodling while I waited for my coffee. The owner came over and glanced at my sketch, then told me I was starting with the eyes and that was making everything lopsided. She said to block out the whole head shape first, then place features like puzzle pieces. I tried her method on a napkin right there and the person actually looked like a person for once. Been doing it that way for a week now and my quick doodles come out way better. Has anyone else had a random stranger give you a tip that totally changed your drawing?
I started this sketchbook back in January just to have somewhere to dump random ideas during lunch breaks at work. Nothing serious, just little cartoons of my cat, weird faces I see on the train, and sometimes just scribbles that don't look like anything. I didn't even count them until last night when I flipped to the back cover and noticed I only had like 15 pages left. So I went through and counted every single drawing, even the stupid ones that took 20 seconds. Turns out I had exactly 100 doodles in there, which really surprised me because I thought I barely drew at all this year. It felt kind of nice to see all that progress just sitting there in one book, you know. Has anyone else ever done a count on their sketchbook pages and gotten a number that shocked them?
My grandma used to tell me to draw the negative space first, not the thing itself. I thought she was just being a weird old artist like all her friends. Last week I was trying to sketch a lamp on my desk and kept getting the shape all wonky. Out of nowhere I remembered her saying don't draw the lamp draw the air around it. I tried it with my pencil just outlining the empty spots and suddenly the lamp actually looked like a lamp. She passed away about 6 years ago so I can't tell her she was right. Has anyone else had some old weird advice suddenly make sense way later on?
I was sitting on a park bench near my office, trying to doodle my cat sitting on the windowsill from memory. But the head came out way too round and the ears looked more like little nubs. Ended up looking like a lumpy potato with eyes. Didn't bother to fix it, just laughed and showed it to a coworker who said it looked like a baked potato with whiskers. Anyone else have a doodle disaster that turned into something funnier?
Went through three browns and two grays just doodling in my notebook before lunch on day two, total waste of money for something that was supposed to be easy to use has anyone else had that happen with those cheap art packs?
I was doodling my cat today and realized I always make his paws tiny compared to his body. Looked up some old anatomy sketches online and apparently the hand should be about the size of the face, not half of it lol. Anyone else catch themselves shrinking limbs without noticing?
I was working on a quick sketch of someone pointing, and I just couldn't get the thumb placement right. It looked like a mutant claw no matter how many times I erased it. Finally used my own hand as a reference and held up my phone camera to check it against my drawing. Took 4 whole hours for something I thought would take 20 minutes, has anyone else ever gotten stuck on one dumb body part way too long?
I was drawing the brickwork on the east side of Union Station this afternoon and noticed the mortar lines don't line up between the first and second floor... it's like they built it in two different decades. Has anyone else caught strange patterns in buildings you've doodled?
I was having a terrible Tuesday already and then my iced latte tipped over right onto my open doodle page. Completely ruined like 8 hours of sketches I did over the weekend, all that detail work just washed away into a brown mess. I spent the rest of the day trying to save what I could with a hair dryer but it's all wrinkled and stained now. Has anyone else ever salvaged a waterlogged sketchbook or should I just toss it and start fresh?
I was sitting at the kitchen table last Tuesday doing a quick doodle of my kid's sippy cup with a cheap ballpoint pen. Got really into it and I guess I left the cap off, because when my 4 year old ran past and knocked my arm, the pen rolled right off the table and landed nib-down on my phone screen. Left this nasty blue blob right over the selfie camera that took me like 10 minutes to scrub off with alcohol wipes. The sketch itself was just a lopsided cup anyway, not even worth saving to my gallery. Anyone else ever had a doodle session turn into a cleaning disaster?