Your photo, now with feelings drawn on top.

A regular photo – same outfit, same lighting, same coffee on the table. Then little white scribbles show up: a heart over someone’s head, a star next to the latte, a handwritten “best day ever” looped through the corner.

That’s the AI doodle trend. The photo stays exactly as it was. The doodles do all the talking. Creator @nihalanajeeb_ posted an example on Instagram and it’s spreading fast across TikTok and Reels.

One image, one prompt, and your camera roll has a voice.

What is the AI doodle trend?

A photo where the original image stays untouched and a layer of hand-drawn white doodles is added on top – hearts, stars, arrows, sparkles, smileys, clouds, and handwritten notes scribbled around the subjects.

The brain reads it as “real photo + diary annotations.” Same energy as a sticker-covered Polaroid, generated cleanly in one shot.

Three things make it land: the photo underneath stays fully preserved, the doodles read as white sketch (not bold cartoon), and the scribbles feel placed – not pasted.

Why it works

  • Personality, free. A flat photo becomes a feeling. Doodles do the captioning for you.
  • Instantly remixable. Same prompt, different photo, brand new post.
  • Scroll-stopper. White sketch on a real image catches the eye in a grid of clean photos.
  • Brand-ready. Swap the selfie for a product shot and you have a launch tile with built-in copy.

How to make it with Picsart

Step 1: Pick the photo

Any photo with a clear subject and breathing room around it works – selfies, food, fits, travel, product flatlays. The more empty space, the more room the doodles have to land.

Step 2: Open Picsart AI Image Generator and pick GPT Image 2

Upload your photo as a reference. Switch the model to GPT Image 2 – it keeps the original image intact while adding clean sketch layers on top. Open Picsart AI Image Generator, paste the prompt below. Generate.

Step 3: Export and post

Full resolution. Caption with one short line – the doodles are doing the heavy lifting. Carousel idea: slide 1 the original, slide 2 the doodled version, slide 3 a handwritten title across the top.

The prompt

Paste this into GPT Image 2 with your photo attached as a reference:

Add trendy hand-drawn doodle overlays to the original image without changing the photo itself. Keep the original subjects, colors, lighting, composition, and details exactly the same. Only add cute white sketch doodles, arrows, stars, hearts, sparkles, clouds, smiley faces, handwritten notes, and scrapbook-style annotations around the objects and empty spaces. Maintain a clean TikTok/Instagram AI doodle aesthetic with playful journal-style overlays while preserving the realistic image underneath.

Tweak directions you can give the prompt:

  • Swap “white sketch doodles” for “black marker doodles” for a Sharpie-on-Polaroid feel
  • Add “with a short handwritten phrase across the top reading [your line]” to lock in a caption
  • Add “with small stars and sparkles concentrated around the main subject” for a glow-up effect
  • Swap “around the objects and empty spaces” for “only in the empty negative space” for a cleaner edit

For more prompt patterns, see How to Prompt GPT Image 2.

Variations worth trying

  • The diary page. Generate three doodled photos and post them as a carousel – reads like a journal entry.
  • Before-and-after. Slide 1 the clean photo, slide 2 the doodled version. The reveal is the post.
  • Travel scrapbook. Doodle every photo from the same trip in the same style and post the full set.
  • Outfit tag. Arrows + brand names on your outfit check for a wearable mood board.
  • Product launch tile. One “new” scribble and a few star clusters around a product shot – launch post done.
  • Color-pop version. Run the prompt twice – once for white doodles, once for hot pink – and post both.

One photo. One prompt. One scribbled feeling.

Your camera roll already has the moments. The doodles just give them a voice.

Snap, prompt, post.

Try it in Picsart AI Image Generator.