The power of a doodle

Diya Seepaul is an aspiring Architect and Artist who tells stories through her images using mixed media and overlaid with amazing doodles. Each doodle tells a story about the character that inhabits the spaces she designs - spaces inspired by her surroundings and everyday objects.

For this interview, Diya will talk about her work, the importance of a doodle and more!

“Life in A Light Bulb” - image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

“Cup a Doodle” - image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

Diya, please tell us a little bit about yourself!

I am part 1 graduate from the University for the Creative Arts and I will be starting my masters in September this year. It was probably around April last year when I started doodling more and this kind of kept going from there. Originally I started the doodles as a way to relieve stress as we were working on our final project for the third year of University.

What is your background? When did you realize you wanted to pursue a career as an architect?

I graduated with an Architecture Degree (Part 1) from the University for the Creative Arts in June 2020. I’m not quite sure what my path will be yet - somehow no matter how much you plan out life has a way of showing you a different route - But I suppose with architecture in general, I knew that whatever route I pursued it had to involve making. Sculpture and wood work can be very fun.

Your architectural drawings are little works of art! Where do you seek inspiration to create your images? Who or what influences you graphically? Can you tell us about your unique representation style?

Thank you :) I don’t really consider my drawings as architectural; perhaps spatial is a better description. In terms of inspiration… I like to look at everyday scenarios and gain inspiration from that. When drawing I think that drawing from observation (as a starting point) can be very powerful! In terms of influences …. I would have to say the illustrators, Quentin Blake and Lauren Child.

Although they are not very architectural - more illustrative. I love how whenever they draw or create images it can make you feel emotion from it. And to address my representation style - it really depends on the project I guess. A big influence for my architectural representation style would have to be the artist Yves Klein. There's something about the subject matter of the sublime (something which brings about a feeling of awe or wonder)- it's very captivating and has such haptic qualities to it.

“A House for a Family of Chocolate Makers” - image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

What do you believe is the power of a doodle?

Cannot quite remember where I read this but somewhere it said artists use colour in their work to spark emotion whereas architects usually use black and white line drawings to show accuracy and precision. So I think a doodle is a compromise between the both. A doodle has the power to make someone smile - I think that is what drives me to draw them.

I’ve been following your work on instagram and noticed you’ve been learning new tools during this quarantine! What are some of the images you’ve created with these new tools? What challenges have you encountered in creating your work this way?

Yes! I made a list around the beginning of November last year of all things I wanted to learn/ try out and gradually am getting through them all. But, as I’m going I keep finding new things to try out….so the list keeps expanding. I tried to model my ideal room based from a 10X10 challenge illustration run by @opendoorstudio and @ilmawasty in Rhino. I was determined to improve so I thought if I could model everything from scratch logic would suggest that I would get better at it (the only thing I couldn’t figure out was the cushions sadly) ? Also at that point I was starting to learn V-ray so it was fun to try to create renders of it.

Some challenges that occurred….do you know the feeling when you can envision in your mind what you want your image to look like and struggle to bring it to life on a computer? That happened a lot. Oh and another thing that I didn’t imagine experiencing was the transition from digital to hand drawn again - turns out you really can’t use CTRL+Z in real life…

“10 by 10 Room” - image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

“ Diya's Room Axonometric View”- image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

“ Diya's Room” - image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

“ Perpective View of Room”- image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

“Work space”- image courtesy of Diya Seepaul

“Artists use colour in their work to spark emotion whereas architects usually use black and white line drawings to show accuracy and precision.”

— Diya Seepaul

Could you show us / talk about the process to create one of your images? What tools do you use? Do you experiment with different materials and methods?

Well for architectural/doodle drawings usually I start with the person first. Then I try to imagine what they could be doing and what they are like as a person. Also a random observation I think is that people in general use a lot of stuff or things and sometimes that can be missing in architectural drawings. You can tell a lot about a person from their surroundings or what they use or own. Does that make sense?

What advice has influenced you as an artist/designer?

To experiment and learn constantly ! Don’t be afraid to learn new things even if they seem bad at first - everyone has to start somewhere!

What advice would you give to young designers?

Be kind to yourself - especially in this architectural world. The moment you start to take care of yourself both physically and mentally you see a significant change in the quality of the things you produce. No degree, job or task is worth your health. Ever.

Don’t be afraid to have fun with the drawings / ideas you come up with. Of course there is a time and place for seriousness (for example building regulations…..learn them!) but if Architecture cannot spark joy or a sense of fun, then what's the purpose of it?