Seaweeds: A Doodle Pattern from Zen Doodle

In Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles, you’ll find gorgeous images of the best doodle art from around the world. This collection of drawings and painted canvases from dozens of contributors features thousands of tangle patterns and doodle designs to inspire you to doodle anything and everything. With this exercise, create a layered, organic seaweed leaf design and learn a technique you can apply to other shapes!

(The following tutorial was originally published in Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles, copyright by North Light Books, 2013. The artwork and instructions featured here are by Ming-Whe Liou, a contributor to Zen Doodle.)

Ming-Whe Liou
3″ × 3″ (7.6cm × 7.6cm)
Extra-fine and medium-size black markers on regular printer paper

Some of my artworks are inspired by nature. This particular design is related to the free movement of floating seaweed and coral reefs beneath the ocean, but in an abstract manner.

1. Begin your tile with dotted outlines of 2 blank branches on opposite corners.

2. Add a second pair of branches of different sizes. Color both branches using black, and add tiny dots in the overlapping areas to form gray.

3. Draw 2 quarter circles in opposite corners, covering the big one with a polka dot pattern and the small one with a zigzag pattern. Finally, stipple the background and branches with more dots to make uneven shading.

This tutorial was previously published in Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles edited by Tonia Jenny and Amy Jones, copyright by North Light Books, 2013.

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