Mischievous Lil Dudes

Just for kicks

Personal Creative Practice

The Challenge

I’ve been doodling for years as a way to think, decompress, and process emotion. The challenge was figuring out how to take these mischievous lil dudes, born from instinct and play, and turn them into something intentional, cohesive, and meaningful without killing their vibe.

My Role

My brain naturally works in systems, so I got to work reviewing years of doodle sheets, identifying recurring characters, shapes, and behaviours. From there, I translated spontaneous marks into a more deliberate drawing practice, extracting a shared visual language and emotional tone.

The Approach

Finding the common thread

I analysed recurring motifs, expressions, and proportions to understand what tied these characters together.

Bring them together to see how they click

I experimented with combining characters, testing relationships and dynamics. I explored them across different mediums including illustration, polyfilla and paint, and tufting, making work that was tactile and felt good to the touch.

Embedding storytelling into the core

Finding ways to bring the theme of whimsical rest and gentle mischief to the forefront of each story through illustration.

Getting help along the way

As someone who values collaboration and learning, I have gone above and beyond in my journey to bring life to these dudes. They've taken me to the Red Bull Doodle Art Finals in the UK, they've introduced me to a host of incredibly talented mentors, and helped me find my spiritual home at Pictoplasma every spring in Berlin.

Outcome

An ongoing, evolving character world with a clear visual language and narrative tone. A system of lil dudes I can continue to build with, experiment through, and tell stories with across formats.

Why this matters

This project has been a driver of deep self-discovery and creative confidence. It sharpened how I move from intuition to system, and from play to purpose. It reinforced my belief that structure doesn’t limit creativity, it gives it somewhere to live.

Doodling is a process that helps me think. I've been digging through over 3 years of my doodle sheets and pulling some mischievous lil dudes and working out what story they have been trying to tell me.

I've got much bigger plans for these lil dudes, and they form part of a wider creative project.

Places where my mischievous little dudes have taken me:

Red Bull Doodle Art Finals
Pictoplasma Academy
Publicis X Framestore 'Out Of Office' Art Show

Places where my mischievous little dudes have taken me:

Red Bull Doodle Art Finals
Pictoplasma Academy
Publicis X Framestore 'Out Of Office' Art Show