Diving into Mumbaikars’ affection for doodle art and its fusion with city pride

Diya Joseph was in college studying architecture when she started doodling in 2019, and hasn't looked back since then. She explains, "We had this documentation trophy for which we used to practice every day to improve our hand control to make intricate sketches. I did not want to lose the head start, so after the competition, I started with a sketch diary where I captured daily events." Soon enough, Diya started @dheemilocal, after being inspired by her daily travel in the Mumbai local trains.

Celebrating Mumbai through its local trains
With no control on when the traveller will get off at their railway station, Joseph says she has learned a lot while embarking on this project. "I believe doodling is a path of self-exploration and unapologetic experimentation, where there is no fear of going wrong. You kind of embrace your mistakes as well. The final product evolves as you are creating it," explains the Mumbaikar, who sketches and then uses water colours to paint them. "I spend a lot of time in local trains every day. It was during the lockdown that I started recalling some very unique instances that only happen in the Mumbai locals. I started with sketching them, then later on when the lockdown was relaxed, I started doodling in the train, and I never realised when the train reached the destination," adds the 23-year-old, seemingly mesmerised and immersed in her art amid the chaos in the train.

Over time, the Mumbaikar has loved every part of the process as she explores every kind of subject that she comes across while travelling. "I doodle when I travel. It is mostly a combination of what I see and what I think. A central theme evolves somewhere midway while doodling. Almost all of my doodling is encompassed in palm-sized pieces of paper. My doodles consist mostly of the moods of people around me and daily objects, the most ordinary yet beautiful things and is usually predominantly live sketching," she adds.

Over time, Diya has evolved as a doodle artist in more than one way. While she used to be very hesitant to paint with water-based colours as one cannot really repair errors because there is no undo button, Diya has pushed herself to explore how she wants to express herself in the art and that has been liberating. "The fear of making mistakes is gone and I doodle anyway," she admits. This is evident in her drawings on @dheemilocal on Instagram, which reflect her journey through the different colours, emotions and Mumbaikars travelling on the train.

The Navi Mumbai-based architect adds, "Since the commuters I sketch can get down at any station, over time, I have learnt to capture the identity of the person quickly and remember some of the details as well. I think I observe the little things better now." Armed with her customised stationery of a hand-bound sketchbook of recycled paper and brush pens, she goes about capturing commuters in the train, which is Mumbai's lifeline. While she did take workshops in college, she hopes to foray into teaching people the art of doodling.

Doodle art in architecture
Elsewhere in Mumbai, the Covid-19 pandemic also led Yash Shetty, Amal Nair and Kirthi Pillai to start taking their art seriously by doodling and eventually start Doodle Mapuls Art and Design Studio in Kharghar; ‘mapuls' is their derivative of the world 'mapillai' that means brothers in Tamil lingo. Being architects and visual artists, their passion for art drove them towards doodling. "The curiosity of exploring a style of artwork that has no rules and no boundaries is the main inspiration of exploring the route of being doodle artists," shares Yash.

Over the last four years, they have explored ink art and pop art doodles leading them to tie up with many different brands and showcase their work all over India. With their love for architecture and doodle art, they take it a step further and bring out the best of both worlds in their projects. "Being architects who love doodle art, we recently did a project that involved designing the furniture in the office. We did it with 3D doodle art to give it a different look because art doesn't have to always be 2D," shares Yash. The furniture in question is quirky as it is a chair with cactus-shapes for the backrest, adding unique elements of their inspiration to their work as architects in Mumbai.

So, what is it about doodle art that attracts them so much? Doodling is a style of art, says Yash, that is free flowing. "It is a form of art where each artist develops a unique style which is solely associated with the artist. This is not possible with other art forms," he opines. Going beyond their jobs, the trio now also conducts workshops through Social Offline's art experiences where people can engage and enjoy. Starting this summer, they will be conducting doodle art workshops for children, and the announcements will be made on their Instagram handle @doodlemapuls.

Making a career out of art
Unlike Shetty and the trio, Pradeep Joshna Das fell in love with doodling even before he knew the meaning of the word. However, it wasn't something that he could freely do, as he used to only sketch for fun, while juggling with a call centre job. Keeping at it, the Mumbaikar only honed his skills to get better at it even when he moved to a corporate job. "When I realised that I was not happy with what I was doing for the last 9 - 10 years, I decided that I wanted to sketch and put out my art in late 2016."

While most people these days learn art in college to pursue it as a career, Pradeep says he is a self-taught artist, and that gives him the freedom to explore art the way he perceives it. However, his success as an artist started when a brand approached him and asked him to do some work for them. At the time, he didn't know there were people who would be willing to pay him to make doodle art for them. "I remember they paid me Rs 12,000 for that," reminisces the happy Mumbai doodle artist.

Today, he has evolved slowly and steadily but is happy for every part of the process. "I don't have an art degree. Everything I have been doing is by seeing something. I spend about 4-5 hours daily practising sketching," shares Pradeep, who quit his day job in 2020 to become a full-time artist. Interestingly, even though he has received requests to give lectures about art, he wants to stay true to the soul of the medium and believes a lot more can be done by interacting with the students and teaching them how to sketch and thus inspire them to make a career out of doodle art. Today, the Mumbaikar takes every opportunity to celebrate Mumbai as he sketches famous landmarks like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station, Marine Drive and even its signature taxis, fondly called kaali peelis.