Tips on How to Draw Dolls

Creating Art with Fashion Dolls and Rag Dolls

Sep 23, 2009
Alina Bradford

Drawing dolls is nothing like drawing humans. - Alina Bradford

Sometimes the simplest of items can create interesting still life paintings. Drawing a doll, for example, can bring a human element to an artwork.

Learning how to draw a baby doll so that it doesn’t look too human is key to a successful drawing, though. Otherwise, the doll simple looks like a poorly drawn baby.

How to Draw a Rag Doll

The hardest part about drawing a rag doll is to not draw it too stiffly. Rag dolls have no muscles, so their joints are loose and limp. Try these methods of loosening up the drawing:

Draw the baby doll’s arms or legs at an awkward angle that wouldn’t be possible for a human without broken limbs.
Draw the joints as flat, sewn together pieces of fabric instead of rounded areas.
Arch the doll’s back to one side.
Draw the doll as if it were a cartoon baby made of gelatin.

Details make baby dolls look convincing. Add stitches down the sides of the legs and arms by drawing a line of dashes, as shown in the illustration, below.

To draw yarn hair, draw tubes coming from the scalp and then draw curved lines down the length of the tube to simulate twists in the yarn.

The face, for the most part, shouldn’t have much depth or form. Most rag dolls have cloth heads with faces painted or embroidered on. Remember, simple and loose is the key.

How to Draw a Fashion Doll

A problem with this type of doll is not drawing the plastic fashion doll stiffly enough. The rag doll is a soft and squishy version of the human form and the fashion doll is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Here are some tips for drawing a fashion doll:

Make the face seem a little too smiley.
Make the arms and legs as straight as possible. If the doll is sitting down, have her legs sticking straight out in front of her.
Draw the toes and fingers as one unit. Usually only the thumb is separate from a fashion doll’s block of fingers.
Fashion dolls are made with an unnatural amount of hair so that little girls can brush it. Draw fashion dolls with hair that is bigger than life.

Fashion dolls tend to have inhuman proportions, as well. Draw fashion dolls a head length taller than you would a human being. (Click here for more information on human proportions.) The waist is also generally smaller and the breasts are quite large.

Drawing dolls for still lifes can be easy once the artist realizes that drawing dolls has nothing to do with actual human forms.