We've seen some ambitious artistic projects in our time, from massive murals to immersive installations, but here's one that's on another scale. An artist who goes by the name of Mr Doodle has doodled the entire surface of his rather enormous house, both inside and out. And his furniture. And the kitchen appliances. His car too. And... well you get the idea.
With help from Mrs Doodle and Doodle the Dog – yep, they're the perfect happy doodle family, the artist spent two years transforming his own house into what is surely the biggest doodle the world has seen. A doodle they'll now live inside. So think again before you chuck those doodled notepads, they might just inspire your next home makeover (see our how to draw tutorials if you want to add some artistic touches to your own crib).
Mr Doodle, who was born as Sam Cox, decided seven years ago that he wanted to buy a house and turn the whole property into a canvas. And that he did. Located in Tenterden, Kent, in South East England, Doodle House is covered from floor to ceiling in the 28-year-old artist's signature black and white doodles.
What supplies does it take to doodle an entire 12-room mansion? Cox says he used an incredible 900 litres of white paint, 401 cans of black spray paint for the outside, 286 bottles of black drawing paint and 2296 pen nibs. He used four sizes of refillable pens with replaceable nibs.
It's the largest work of art to date for an artist who's gained 2.6 million followers on Instagram. But the Doodle House wasn't just a whim or an extremely elaborate social media stunt. It forms part of Mr Doodle's aim to get the humble doodle recognised as a form of art.
And that's a mission that seems to be going pretty well for Mr Doodle so far. He's already scored solo gallery shows in Shanghai and Shenzhen and, one canvas of his doodles has fetched close to $1 million. It's hard to imagine where he can go next after doodling an entire mansion, but it seems he has no plans to stop doodling any surface he can.
"The completion of the house is just the beginning of my childhood dream to doodle the entire planet and to encourage the art world to recognise doodles as an art form," he told KentOnline.
Sam says his interest in doodles began at an early age, and we suspect may have got him into some bother. Apparently, he started on his parents' furniture and school walls as a kid. He later developed his own visual language or "Doodle World" densely clustered and ever-multiplying characters and patterns.
We have to say that at a time with so much attention being paid to the latest AI-generated digital art, it's a joy to see someone gaining recognition for one of the most primitive forms of drawing – and something that almost all of us practice even unconsciously. Doodle House is one impressive artistic statement, and we're just waiting to see which developer bring Mr Doodle in to doodle a skyscraper of mega stadium.
To explore the genre more, see our pick of some brilliant examples of Doodle art and some of our favourite Google doodles. And if you want to get doodling yourself, you might want to choose from the best pens for artists.
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