Back to: Free How to Doodle Beginner Course
On Day 10 of this course let’s take a look at something that most people dread when it comes to doodling. It’s of course doodling people. However, doodling people doesn’t need to be difficult. We are not attempting to create works of art. We are instead doodling something that represents a person, which can of course come in the form as basic as a stick figure.
Several Easy and Practical Ways to Doodle People
Whenever I approach the topic of doodling people, many participants begin to cringe. People are just really awkward creatures. There are just so many details to think about when doodling people that it can get overwhelming very quickly. However, when doodling it’s important to remember that we are keeping things as simple as possible. And when it comes to keeping things simple there’s nothing simpler than the stick figure all of us have probably doodled at one time or another.
Remember that visual thinking is all about expressing your ideas in the simplest way possible. You don’t need to be an artist. You just need to get your intended message across in a desired way.
We can of course spend time drawing complex people with an eye for detail, but in the end, the drawing would still represent a person. Therefore if our intention was to show a person, then a stick figure will suffice. There’s just no need complicating something that can just as easily be represented in a simplistic way.
There is of course more than one way to doodle a simple representation of a person. The simplest way is of course the stick figure, but you might also want to try doodling block people, blob people, star people, or triangle people. In fact, the only limits are the limits of your own imagination.
Below you will find examples of the different ways you can potentially doodle people.
As you can probably tell, these examples are not difficult to doodle and each one will literally take you no more than 5 to 10 seconds. And the great thing about this is that all of us recognize these doodles as people. No matter how we doodle them — as long as there is a head, body, two legs, and arms, we will recognize them as people even though they don’t have hands, feet, facial features, hair or clothing. Even without these items we still see them as people. And that is the real power of simplicity when it comes to doodling.
To doodle these examples effectively you can either start with the head and then draw the body. Alternatively, you may prefer to doodle the body and then the head. Some people prefer one method over the other. I personally don’t think it makes a difference. Do whatever feels most comfortable for you.
Your Turn
Go through each of these examples and doodle them on paper. In fact, doodle each one several times to get a sense of your level of comfort with each one. Then keep tabs on which types of people you feel most comfortable doodling.
Now, use your imagination and doodle people in a slightly different way. Remember there are no rules as long as it gets the message across that it’s a person.
Having gone through these doodles, it’s now time to choose a style that you will use moving forward when thinking visually. You might of course have more than one style that you use for different purposes. For instance, you might decide to use blob people when doodling crowds, but use star people when doodling individuals. Whatever works best for you.
Check out how other Doodler’s went about today’s task
Below you will find examples of how other doodlers of all ages have gone about today’s task. I invite you to join in and share your doodles by emailing them through to info@iqdoodle.com. It would be an absolute pleasure to post your doodles on this page to help inspire others along this journey. ????
Please click on images to enlarge.
