Magical napkin drawings. You are seated at your favorite restaurant, patiently waiting for your mouth-watering, delicious meal to be served.
As your stomach growls, you can’t help but notice the kitchen whiff. Your smell senses are stronger than usual, and all those amazing aromas combined are driving your hormones mad for food.
Rather than awkwardly waiting and not feeling so good, you decide to do something productive.
Something fun. And it only takes a napkin and a pen. As the French call it, “serviette.”
So, what can you do with just a pen and a few napkins? Let’s find out.
Contents
3 Napkin Drawings done with Pen and Prismacolor
The Power of Napkin Drawings
Let’s start by answering the obvious question in mind. What are napkin drawings? You might ask.
The short answer: Drawings made on a napkin rather than paper or any other medium.
Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned artist, it’s an opportunity to free yourself from feeling stressed about commitment. It’s so easy to tare that napkin apart, trash it, and begin all over.
Being calm and at the moment. Right here and in the now. No stress. Just enjoying whatever your attention is fixed upon. In this case, a doodle on a napkin.
Let’s take a moment and talk about the importance of doodles and why napkins and doodles are secretly best friends.
Napkin Art Doodling
Creative flow. You might have trouble believing this, but simply placing your pen on a napkin, paper, or any surface, for that matter, can help you get your creative juices flowing.
As Nike famously says, “Just Do It.”
Returning to my point, specifically using a napkin drawing as an example, doodling on a napkin feels liberating and helps you loosen up mentally while warming up your hand-eye coordination muscles.
As Bob Ross famously said repeatedly, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”
I am sure it can be hard to digest those words when you’re working on a drawing or a painting that has been carefully planned and executed for many days, weeks, or even months.
But, on the contrary, it’s quite easy drawing a parallel to what Bob said with napkin art. I mean, seriously, how can you feel stressed over a doodle on a napkin?
Have no expectations, nor be committed to your doodles. You can always start over.
See them for what they are, doodles on napkin surfaces that you generally use to wipe your mouth. Or your behind in the case of another toilet paper crisis…
Would you look at that? I completely doodled off track with my words for a moment. Pun intended.
So, speaking of napkin sketches, see them as a way of getting into your drawing. Now, what if your doodle napkin drawings turn into a cool concept? Keep reading, and let’s find out.
Catching Napkin Art Concepts
You almost wish you had captured that exceptional sketch on high-quality paper rather than a napkin.
It happens. You shouldn’t have any regrets.
Think about it for a moment. If you set apart some time in your day to sit and draw one of your finest pieces, the result would most likely be a stiff drawing. Usually not what you initially had in mind.
On the flip side, you can take your rough but potentially cool concept captured through your napkin sketch and transfer that piece of the design onto a piece of paper of your choice.
You might have to repeat the process of transferring it to multiple sheets of paper before being satisfied. But at least your rough concepts have been captured on your napkin drawings.
Hopefully, by now, you can see napkins as a (cheap) drawing surface ready to be used for your quick sketches.
That being the case, I’ll share some of my drawings to help inspire creativity in you.
True story. I made these sketches years ago while working at a pizza store—If I wasn’t on deliveries, I was busy with various tasks such as; washing dishes, stocking, and serving customers at the front counter.
When I had a short downtime, I would grab a napkin and a pen and sketch something; thus, the napkin drawings below were born.
They are very rough and of low quality. But I still drew something instead of waiting in the void.
They might be an inspiration to you. Enjoy the creative juices below.
9 Napkin Drawings Ideas For Your Inspiration
Victorian Era
One of my favorite eras to reference for design is the Victorian period.
Especially Art Nouveau in European architecture—one, in particular, I personally favor is French designs in France.
Unlike our modern world, where most things resemble a box, past generations, such as the Victorian century, cared for solid and pleasing designs.
You can spot strong silhouette shapes just about everywhere.
If it helps, search for image ideas online before starting your napkin drawings.
The second example is a more organic sketching approach.
Victorian Mansion within a Forest
Organic sketches are many times easier than man-made surfaces such as architecture or, worse, vehicle designs.
Back on the subject. Drawing trees come in many shapes, types, and sizes. Which makes sketching them much more forgiving.
Below is an example of a Victorian mansion with a pathway surrounded by trees, branches, and roots on the ground.
Not a very creative sketch, but at least the idea is captured.
Sometimes having a different perspective in life can help improve your viewpoint. The same can be said about your sketch. How about a top-view shot like my example below?
Bird’s Eye View Perspective Shot
My example is based on the Notre-Dame de Paris. I tried to create my own version of Paris in the 1500s.
Not a great execution, but drawing it with a million distractions on the job, I think I did okay capturing something.
It’s basically a one-point perspective creating the illusion of looking down from a bird’s eye view.
If you’re in the mood for character design sketches like my next example, perhaps Mr. Napkin can come in handy.
Lead Character in Battle Scene
If perspective scares you and you prefer to do a more relaxed sketch, then perhaps a character drawing would suit you.
A napkin sketch of a character of your choice with a story works well.
My (terrible) example is a leader in battle surrounded by his troops. That’s it for the story. Don’t laugh.
Maybe a combination of the organic and hard surfaces mixed like the below image.
Castle by Lake and Forest
How about a castle (hard surface) surrounded by water and forest (soft, organic surface)?
Combining the hard and soft, organic and hard surfaces creates a beautiful juxtaposition. Unlike my sketch.
Feeling dirty from all those unattractive sketches? How about taking a bath in an ancient Roman bathhouse?
Ancient Roman Bathhouse
This napkin sketch is simple and self-explanatory—a bathhouse in the open square.
Get butt-naked and wash away. Chlorine anybody? Oh, wait, that wasn’t discovered back in those times.
Talk about irony when taking a bath in that “clean” bathhouse.
After that bath, fast forward several centuries to a European water town.
Fantasy Town Surrounded by Water
My napkin drawings all seem to have something in common. They are quite rough looking.
This sketch has the viewpoint of standing on a fishing dock in a water town. And yes, Lord of the Rings copied my sketch clearly. Wink Wink.
I deeply hope you got my joke.
Speaking of jokes, how about flying over a 1600th-century Fantasy English City?
1600th Century England
Your viewpoint is from a rooftop overlooking the booming city, buzzing with life, sounds, and interesting smells.
Why don’t we go down from that rooftop onto the safe ground? Final destination.
Medieval Street with Marketplace
My sketch is rough, but the idea or feeling has definitely been captured. I like the mixed buildings squashed with merchants selling their goods.
Large, hand-made cobblestones placed on the ground with sewage lines help to guide your eye into the picture.
And lead you right to the conclusion road.
Conclusion
Next time you grab a napkin, remember it can be used for more than just wiping your mouth and behind.
Some of your best sketches can be recorded on a napkin. Those napkin drawings can turn into bigger, better sketches—may be iconic, world-class designs one day.
How was that for rough writing, I mean rough napkin drawings? Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
If you have read up to this point, congrats to you, and I hope I have inspired you to get creative with napkin sketches.
Follow me on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel. You will inspire me to keep publishing.
Lastly, don’t forget to share this post with your friends. It helps.
Until next time, keep up the good work!
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