Doodling a living, and how!

Aastha Kalia

A goofy sketch of the teacher, a drawing of the favourite cartoon character, a funny portrait of that classmate... we’ve all doodled on the back page of textbooks during those boring lectures in school and college. Each of such last pages had a different story to tell. But this, friends, is the digital age where paper has turned into an LED touchscreen and comic books have become movie franchises. In all this, if you assumed that the art of doodling had vanished, well, you couldn’t have been more wrong. There are people who have made it a full-time profession. Armed with computer software, they are working with big brands. Huge social media stars, they have thousands of fans.

Over the past few years, doodling has taken over the advertising sphere. Be it creating company logos, campaign promotion or designing pamphlets and posters for brands. The audience instantly connects with a relatable visual that has a personal touch rather than a regular computer generated graphic. With successful startups like Chumbak, Roposo and Styledotme supporting the unique graphics, doodling has started pulling in big brands like Nivea, Mainland China and JustDial.

Meet Mounica Tata, an illustrator based in Bangalore, who specialises in customised gifts and wedding invitations. “One of the best things that has happened to me is the realisation that I have a voice and I can use this to talk about anything under the sun. I enjoy the freedom and the power it gives me to talk about the issues I resonate with, challenges that we face and struggle with on a daily basis,” says Mounica whose Facebook page DoodleoDrama has about 77,000 followers. 

Doodling is a free art form with absolutely no definitive ground rules. A doodle doesn’t need to be highly aesthetic or follow a set colour palette. There is no colouring inside the lines or correct light shading. The main motive of a doodle is to send across a thought or a message to the audience. It can be a social cause or narration of an incident or just about anything that the illustrators find interesting.

Take Google for instance. On every holiday or festival, its homepage offers a personalised doodle. Google doodles have always made sure that the whole world remembers notable events and people. From marking the first day of Olympics to honouring legends like Charlie Chaplin and our very own Nutan, Google has binded the world with insightful art.

But the question is: How receptive are the viewers towards this out-of-the-box advertising technique? “The audience was extremely happy receiving our personalised illustrations. We all know that anything personalised holds a higher value, especially when customised by a brand for a consumer. Something like that is bound to be shared and shown off on all social media. The illustrations received about 38,000 plus likes with an engagement rate of 28 per cent,” said a spokesperson from Nivea, which ran a campaign, BFF vow, on Friendship Day and sent in personal illustrations to those who sent in their vows.

That said and done, being a doodler is still a very unconventional profession. Unlike the typical engineer, doctor or lawyer, an illustrator needs to give constant explanation for his choice of career. 

“Quitting a prospective career in chartered accountancy to pursue illustration full-time is not an easy choice to make. The struggle was to make my parents believe in my belief. And that I did by just moving forward, hustling and giving my 100 per cent,” says self-taught illustrator Neha Sharma, who is one of the top doodlers of the country and has about 50,000 followers. Talking about her creative inspiration, she adds, “I get ideas from my daily life and everything that happens around me. I feel blessed to have been able to work with clients who give me the entire creative liberty to do my thing.”

What’s on their mind?

Mounica Tata inspires from the incidents that occur in her daily life. Be it an overbearing shopping assistant or openly talking about her struggles with exercising, she depicts everything through her work. She also does wedding invites.

Neha Sharma, popularly known as Noodles (Neha’s Doodles), has given a gateway into her personal life to all her 50,000 followers on Instagram. Not only does she doodle, she also makes full-fledged comics mostly featuring her dog Minty and her mom. From her ardent love for rajma-chawal to shutting down body negativity, she uses her art to put a smile on her viewer’s face. Her doodles are bright and colourful.

Shruthi Venkataraman’s drawings are pop art inspired and leave the viewer in awe. Her doodles are quirky and perfect for a small poster or notepad, which can be all bought from Kulture Shop. “I believe that everything ordinary is extraordinary,” tells Shruthi and that’s where her inspiration comes from.

Coffee mugs, cushion covers, laptop sleeves, handbags, badges, magnets... Name it and Alicia Souza will doodle it for you. She is the master of cute and out-of the-box prints and goofy caricatures.