My Approach to Doodling in Poetry Journals
Doodling in a poetry journal isn't about making the page look pretty. It's about giving your visual brain a break while your writing brain stays occupied, or vice versa. I keep a Moleskine hardcover for this, mostly because the cover holds up better than the softcover ones I used to torture through. Here's what sits on my desk when I'm working on Best Poetry Journal Doodles alongside my poems. A 0.3mm Micropen for fine lines, a Tombow Fudenosuke brush for thicker strokes, and a cheap black gel pen for when I'm just scribbling without thinking. I also use a light grey pencil for initial layout work because corrections are easier when the lines aren't permanent yet. Some people will tell you to invest in high-end brush pens or watercolor sets. That's unnecessary for most of what you'll do. The constraints of simple tools actually help. When I can only draw with one pen, I'm forced to make decisions faster and commit to lines instead of endlessly redoing the same sketch.
How I Actually Start a Page
I write the poem first, usually in pencil, then circle or underline a key phrase before I start drawing. The drawing responds to that phrase. This is the part nobody talks about: your doodles should feel like they're commenting on or expanding the text, not just filling empty space. I've seen too many journal pages where the art and the words feel completely disconnected, like two people in the same room who aren't talking to each other. One thing that took me way too long to figure out: the direction you doodle matters depending on the poem's rhythm. Short punchy lines call for angular, stop-start marks. Longer flowing lines invite continuous curves. I learned this after three years of drawings that felt "off" without understanding why they felt off.
A Problem I Hit and How I Fixed It
My biggest issue with Best Poetry Journal Doodles came up when I started using the brush pen with ink that had a slight sheen. On certain pages of my journal — specifically the Thomsons Covercraft paper — the ink bled through and made the doodle visible on the reverse side. That ruined about six pages before I caught it. I switched to a pigment-based liner instead of the brush pen for those papers, and now I test every new pen on a corner scrap before I commit anything to an actual page. Takes thirty seconds. Prevents disasters. The biggest mistake beginners make is treating their poetry journal like an illustration portfolio. They try to draw complete scenes, faces, landscapes. Your doodles don't need to be complete images. Abstract marks, repeated patterns, single continuous lines, and half-formed shapes often work better because they sit beside the text without competing with it for attention. Another common error is leaving the doodle as decoration rather than integrating it into the reading experience. I've found that placing small marks near the margins guides the eye down the page in the same rhythm as the poem. Large centralized drawings pull the reader away from the words entirely.
Get the Full Details
Limitations You Should Know About
This method doesn't work if your handwriting takes up the full page. I have some journals where the poem fills every available line and there simply isn't room for anything else. In those cases I doodle on the opposite blank page or on a separate sheet that I tape in later. Also, ink journals and doodle journals behave differently — water-based markers and ink pens will ghost on thin paper. I always do a quick test on the back margin before going all-in on a page. If you prefer working with color, expect your journal to weigh more and cost more in paper. Single-color ink with occasional highlights using a colored pencil gets you 90 percent of the result with a lot less friction.
Where to Find Reference Material
I don't recommend following tutorial videos for this. They tend to overcomplicate things with steps that assume you're drawing from a reference photo. Instead, look at how poets like e.e. cummings and Mary Oliver physically arranged text on the page. Their spatial instincts translated into doodling are stronger than any course I've taken. Search for images of their handwritten manuscripts. The visual decisions they made with empty space taught me more than anything else. For specific techniques around Best Poetry Journal Doodles, I found the blog at doodlepoetryjournal.com useful for the occasional reference image, though I wouldn't call it essential reading. The free downloadable practice sheets there cover basic shapes and line exercises that I still use occasionally when starting a new journal.
Keeping It Simple
You don't need fancy supplies or a structured course. A pen, a journal, and the willingness to make marks that might look like nothing until the poem is written next to them. That's basically it. The rest is just time spent figuring out what works with your particular hand and paper combination.
