Simple and Creative Doodles to Draw
Casual, step-by-step doodles built from lines, dots and basic shapes. Grab any pen and a scrap of paper and start with the first idea you like.
New to doodling? Work through these four guides in order.
A doodle is just a few basic shapes plus one or two details. Here is the idea behind every small drawing, a first five-minute session to try and where to go next.
Any pen works for doodling, but each type behaves differently. Compare fineliners, gel pens, ballpoints, markers and brush pens, learn what tip sizes mean and test a pen for bleed before you use it.
Six simple marks are behind nearly every doodle. Learn to name an object's biggest shape first, follow three stroke-by-stroke build-ups and try a five-minute routine that turns one shape into five objects.
Twenty-five small doodles you can draw right now, sorted by the shape they start from. Each one comes with a one-line how: where to begin, what to add and the detail that makes it recognizable.
Small drawings built from a few simple shapes, ready in a couple of minutes.
Forty quick doodle prompts in six themes, from desk objects and sky shapes to snacks, tiny creatures and margin patterns, each with a one-line how, plus three games for when no idea comes.
Quick ways to decorate notes without crowding them: a ribbon banner, one leafy corner, a margin vine, bullet icons and a closing doodle, plus a five-minute page recipe.
Twenty everyday objects from the desk, kitchen, living room and hallway, each reduced to one main shape and one telling detail, plus a table lamp drawn in four stages.
Draw your own clean outline symbols for notes and planners. A pencil-frame method keeps every icon the same size, a house shows the steps, and a starter set of ten gives you symbols to use right away.
Leaves, clouds, mountains, stars and other shapes borrowed from outdoors.
Draw one simple pot, then grow seven easy houseplants out of it: two cactuses, a succulent, blade leaves, a trailing vine, a leafy plant and a sprout in a jar.
Five ways to draw a star, a crescent from two curves, a full moon with craters, a row of moon phases, a ringed planet, a shooting star and simple constellations, then a night-sky corner to put them in.
Simple weather symbols for planners and trackers: a sun with three ray styles, a cloud built in four stages, rain, storm and snow clouds, a six-arm snowflake, wind, a rainbow and a matching weekly key.
One simple method, center vein first and then the outline, gives you twelve leaves: almond, heart-shaped, oak-style, maple-style, fern, eucalyptus, vine and more, with easy striped and half-filled finishes.
Round shapes, tiny faces and friendly little characters to fill a page corner.
The short recipe behind soft, friendly doodles: rounder and shorter shapes, tiny features on a big body, a face set low and wide, blush marks and a highlight, plus six simple expressions and five objects turned into little characters.
Draw a steaming mug in four stages, then a teacup, a plain to-go cup, a teapot, a kettle, a press pot, coffee beans and three cafe treats, and arrange them into a cozy corner for a journal or planner.
Ten whole fruits from circles and ovals and five cut fruits that show the inside, with a strawberry drawn in four stages and an easy offset color trick to finish them.
Fifteen snack and dessert doodles, each built from a circle, a triangle or a box: donut, pizza slice, cupcake, taco, burger, popsicle and more, with the sprinkles, drips and bite marks that finish them.
Repeating lines, dots and shapes for borders, backgrounds and empty margins.
Cover a page or a notebook cover with one even pattern using three layouts and a big-medium-small method: large motifs first, medium ones between, dots and tiny marks in the gaps.
Ten tidy patterns built from lines, dots and corners, with the stroke order for each, a honeycomb worked through in stages, and a simple way to split a page into sections and fill every one.
Fifteen quick divider lines for notes and planners, each built from one line and one repeated or centered detail, plus advice on matching a divider to the page and knowing when to leave it out.
Twelve hand-drawn borders made by repeating one small unit, from scallops and zigzags to vines, stars and bunting, with simple ways to keep spacing even and get around corners cleanly.
Line control, basic shapes, shading and lettering: the skills behind every doodle.
The short recipe behind soft, friendly doodles: rounder and shorter shapes, tiny features on a big body, a face set low and wide, blush marks and a highlight, plus six simple expressions and five objects turned into little characters.
A five-minute warm-up page of lines, waves, loops, zigzags, spirals and circles, plus the small habits that turn scratchy, hesitant strokes into clean, confident ones.
Six simple marks are behind nearly every doodle. Learn to name an object's biggest shape first, follow three stroke-by-stroke build-ups and try a five-minute routine that turns one shape into five objects.
Any pen works for doodling, but each type behaves differently. Compare fineliners, gel pens, ballpoints, markers and brush pens, learn what tip sizes mean and test a pen for bleed before you use it.
Eight spring ideas and ten summer ones, from a tulip and a kite to a popsicle and a sailboat, each with a short how-to, plus two accent colors per season and a tiny seaside scene.
A snowflake drawn in four stages and fourteen more holiday motifs, including three pine trees, a mitten, a stocking and a string of lights, with a gift-tag layout and red and green accents.
Fourteen small autumn drawings, from a pumpkin built in four stages to acorns, leaves, a pie slice, a scarf and a rain boot, with a two-color palette, a corner cluster and a quick border.
Cover a page or a notebook cover with one even pattern using three layouts and a big-medium-small method: large motifs first, medium ones between, dots and tiny marks in the gaps.
Ten tidy patterns built from lines, dots and corners, with the stroke order for each, a honeycomb worked through in stages, and a simple way to split a page into sections and fill every one.
Fifteen quick divider lines for notes and planners, each built from one line and one repeated or centered detail, plus advice on matching a divider to the page and knowing when to leave it out.
Pick up a pen, choose one small idea and draw it a few times. Every tutorial is free to read, with no sign-up needed.
