Doodle Style Tutorial in Adobe Illustrator
Doodle style illustrations have a charming, hand-drawn quality that's very popular in everything from children's books to marketing materials. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to achieve that loose, sketchy doodle look while working entirely in vector format in Adobe Illustrator.
Creating Custom Brushes
The key to a convincing doodle style is having the right brushes. Here's how to create custom brushes that mimic hand-drawn lines:
- Draw a rough, slightly irregular line using the Paintbrush tool on a tablet
- Select the line and drag it into the Brushes panel
- Choose "Art Brush" from the options
- Adjust the direction, size, and colorization options
- Click OK to save your custom brush
Line Weight Variation
Natural doodles have varied line weight - some parts are thicker, some thinner. To simulate this:
- Use a pressure-sensitive tablet with the Paintbrush or Blob Brush tool
- For mouse-only work, create different stroke weights and combine them
- Use the Width tool (Shift+W) to manually add variation to strokes
- Don't be afraid of slightly wobbly lines - that's the charm of doodle style
Color Application
Doodle style color is typically playful and not overly refined:
- Use slightly uneven color fills that don't perfectly align with outlines
- Experiment with the Live Paint bucket for quick, loose coloring
- Leave some white space showing through - it adds character
- Use bright, playful color palettes with plenty of contrast
Adding Texture
To give your doodle illustration more depth and hand-drawn feel:
- Create custom texture brushes with grainy or speckled patterns
- Use the Roughen effect (Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen) sparingly
- Add hand-drawn hatching or cross-hatching for shading
- Consider adding slight imperfections to shapes
Tips for Convincing Doodles
- Don't over-perfect - The charm of doodles is their imperfection
- Draw quickly - Faster strokes look more natural and spontaneous
- Use real doodles as reference - Study actual hand-drawn doodles to understand the style
- Play with proportions - Doodles often have exaggerated or playful proportions
- Layer your lines - Multiple overlapping sketchy lines create depth