June 19, 2018

10-step-by-step summer doodles to add to your bullet journal. These doodles make an excellent addition to your summer monthly and weekly spreads.

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Summer is officially here this week. Yet, Montana hasn’t quite figured that out. It’s been raining for about four days straight, which may be common in Washington and Oregon, but not here.

Growing up, school was out at the end of May. The rivers were still high. But, by mid-June, they had typically receded a little and we were able to jump on innertubes and float. This year, on the other hand, doesn’t look good. We may not be floating the river until August when the rivers aren’t gushing over.

So, until the Mother Nature gets her shit together, I’ll draw cute summer doodles to try and compensate. And today’s post is going to show you how to draw some of my favorite summertime doodles that you can use in your bullet journal.

Summer Doodles for Your Bullet Journal

I don’t consider myself the best doodler in the world, but I do have hundreds, if not thousands of hours into this hobby. And over time, I have learned a few techniques that help you doodle better.

I get messages on Instagram almost daily with people asking me how I doodle and telling me how they can’t. And I want to be like the guy in Twilight, touch the person’s hand and allow them to see into my past. I haven’t always been a great doodler. It didn’t always come naturally.

Any creative skill takes practice, patience, and most importantly acceptance of your current ability. One of the main points I focus on in my Rock Your Journal E-Course is the comparison game. Everyone does it. We do it with our looks, our skills, our homes, cars, jobs, etc. But, this seemingly harmless game we play is quite detrimental.

When we allow ourselves to compare our work, body, skill level, etc. to someone we think is better than us, we are ultimately degrading ourselves. Something that almost all of my students remember from the confidence lesson of Rock Your Journal is this:

Stop comparing your Chapter 1 to someone else’s Chapter 15.

From Instagram or Pinterest, you can’t see into someone’s past. You don’t know how long they struggled to draw that one flower or how frustrated they got. You don’t know how many pages they tore out or how many hours they spent watching tutorials on Youtube. So, try to keep your ability in perspective. And instead of being envious or feeling defeated when you see stunning drawings, find inspiration and motivation.

Here are my top tips for creating really fun doodles and enjoying it:

Always start with basic shapes. Look at what you trying to doodles and try to break it down into the most simple shapes possible. Anyone can draw a square, a circle, a triangle, etc. Once you can see the basic shapes, you can start drawing those and fill the details in afterward.
Your expectations of yourself matter. Don’t go into a complex doodle or drawing and expect perfection. Just try to be better than you were last time. This may mean that you the overall composition is better, your lines are straighter, you added more detail, etc.
Find a pen that you love. Having a drawing instrument that feels natural in your hand is so important. Just because a blogger or YouTuber recommends a certain pen, does not mean it will work for you. And, that’s okay. No matter if it’s ballpoint, fine line, calligraphy nib, gel pen, etc.
Start in pencil. This is crucial to those who do struggle with perfection and being scared of things not turning out right. Actually, it’s valuable to everyone. I still often start some of my doodles in pencil. This allows you the freedom to create without worrying about making a lasting mistake.
Start simple and work your way to more complex: This may seem like a no-brainer. But, even I sometimes jump into a drawing that is out of my skill level. And it’s great to step out of your comfort zone and try new and challenging things. But, when you struggle with creative confidence and find yourself getting frustrated, it’s highly beneficial to start simple. This way, when you are successful, you get to count it as a win, and that boost of confidence will improve your abilities and open you up to more challenging drawings.

All of these tips are covered in my Rock Your Journal course, as it primarily focuses on staying positive and having fun with your journal. My aim with this course is to help people improve their creative skills in an enjoyable and relaxing environment. If you struggle with creative confidence and want to see your journal as your happy place and a place you can create freely, I I would love for you to check out my course.

It’s a one-time enrollment fee of $25 ($35 for the VIP version, which includes a whole extra set of bonus lessons), and you get lifetime-access and will be able to join a private Facebook group with other students and myself.

You can read more and enroll here.

Step-by-Step Summer Doodles

In the following images, you will learn how to draw simple step-by-step doodles you can use in your bullet journal. Dotted lines indicate that the step is done in pencil, while solid lines are steps done in pen. However, you are welcome to use pencil for every step and then trace over your finalized doodle when it’s finished.

Many of the doodles shown below start with very basic shapes. Many of them are circles. One of my favorite tools of all time is this Helix Circle Maker. I use it for doodling, drawing circular calendars, making wreaths, etc. Plus, it’s around only $5 on Amazon.

Ice Cream Cone

Watermelon

Sunglasses

Popsicle

Lemonade

Sand Castle

Flip-Flops

Seashell

Plumeria

Pineapple

Summer Doodle Wreath

As a last little bit of inspiration, I want to show you how I combined these summer doodles to create a fun and colorful summer wreath for a weekly spread in my bullet journal. While this may look difficult, it’s doable. Start in pencil and sketch out each doodle, overlapping some of your doodles to create a tighter wreath. Then, go back in and carefully outline your doodles in pen. Take your time and be sure to outline the doodles on top if overlapping occurs.

I like to start by just outlining the outer shapes of the doodles before going back in to fill in the details. For this piece, I used Unipin Fineliners in 0.3 and 0.1 and Crayola Colored Pencils.

Please share this post with your friends on Facebook and Pinterest. And if you use these doodles or recreate the wreath above, please share it with me on Instagram by tagging me, @the.petite.planner.

Want to learn more creative skills like doodling, lettering, photography, etc? Use my link to get 2 Months of Skillshare for Free! They have an amazingly large collection of online classes you can take for free. I’ve used these classes to improve my own skills in drawing, lettering, Photoshop, and blogging.