Hi, I’m Shruti.
Artist, architect by training, and the person behind SD Doodles.
In a few words.....
Shruti Dugar is a Dubai-based Indian artist and founder of SD Doodles. Raised in Chennai in a Rajasthani Jain family, she grew up surrounded by different cultures, traditions and visual influences.
With a background in architecture and interior design, she creates hand-drawn digital artworks rooted in pattern, colour, culture and intricate detail. Her work brings together mandalas, florals, geometric forms and culturally inspired motifs, often drawing from architecture, everyday observations and the places she has lived in and travelled through.
She creates pieces that invite the viewer to pause, look closer and continue discovering details beyond the first glance.
Want the longer version? Keep reading.
My Story
I think I learned to notice before I learned to create.
I grew up in Chennai, and when I think about the city now, what stays with me most is how layered it is.
There are historic buildings beside contemporary ones, temples and folklore alongside an ever-changing urban landscape, busy streets that somehow lead you to the calm of the beach, and beautiful pockets of nature tucked into a concrete city. Even the way people dress, decorate, celebrate and move through everyday life gives you so much to observe.
I think all of that quietly taught me to notice.
Creativity was also very much part of home. My mother has always been creative, and when she started learning oil painting more formally, I apparently began accompanying her to class when I was only two or three years old. While she painted, I was given scraps of canvas and some paint to keep me occupied.
I don’t really remember those afternoons, but I like to think something from them stayed with me.
Years later, during the 2020 pandemic, art brought us together again in a very similar way. We would sit in the same room and create side by side. She would work on her painting, I would work on mine, and somehow that simple routine helped calm everything around us.
Around that time, I also became much more aware of how often I was looking for patterns and details in everything I saw.
Maybe I had always done it subconsciously, but suddenly I started catching myself doing it actively. Looking at tiles, buildings, fabrics, florals, jewellery, borders, shadows, ceilings, motifs and little visual details that most people might simply walk past.
Once I noticed that habit, it felt like another dimension had opened up.
Culture has always been part of my everyday life!
I grew up as a Rajasthani Jain in Chennai, studied in a convent school where different religions and festivals were taught and celebrated, and spent a large part of my childhood playing squash.
Squash introduced me to people from different cities, cultures and countries very early. Training in Chennai and travelling for tournaments across India and abroad meant that cultural exposure became part of everyday life rather than something I consciously went looking for.
My family was also part of different organisations and communities, so I grew up around people with varied traditions, languages and backgrounds.
I’m very grateful for that now, because it taught me to approach difference with curiosity and respect.
Living in Dubai widened that world even further. Here, culture is something you experience constantly through people, food, architecture, language, design, festivals and everyday conversations. Travel with friends and family has added another layer too, taking me into places that sometimes feel familiar and sometimes completely new.
All of that finds its way into my work, sometimes directly and sometimes without me even realising it.
One example is Harmony in Diversity: A Cultural Kaleidoscope.
The piece brings together hand-drawn florals, Persian-inspired motifs and mandala forms to explore coexistence, connection and the idea that individual identities can remain distinct while still belonging beautifully within something larger.
The Persian influence also feels personal to me. My roots are in Rajasthan, where art and architecture absorbed Persian influences through the Mughal period while remaining deeply connected to indigenous Indian traditions. Now, living in Dubai, I find myself surrounded by another visual language shaped by Islamic geometry, Arabic design and regional ornament. Those connections fascinate me.
I think I see life as patterns
For some reason, patterns make sense to me.
Some repeat. Some break. Some feel familiar. Some appear once and never again.
I think I look at life in a similar way.
Living and working in Dubai has shaped my visual language enormously. I’m naturally drawn to Islamic architecture, geometric pattern, Arabic calligraphy, regional ornament, contemporary interiors and the way traditional and modern design languages coexist here.
My background in architecture and my professional work in interior design have also influenced the way I create. Scale, colour, composition, materials, negative space and the way artwork sits within a room are things I think about almost instinctively now.
I’m especially interested in creating work that has more than what meets the eye.
I like the idea that someone can look at a piece once, then look again, and find something they missed the first time.
And perhaps one of the biggest things Dubai has taught me creatively is this: anything is possible.
Living in a city that has transformed so dramatically within a relatively short period of time makes it difficult not to think bigger.
Art is probably how I slow down!
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a mindful artist, because I’m still not sure I understand what “mindful” means authentically enough to claim it.
But I do know that when I create, I become completely present.
When I draw repetitive patterns, I often reach a point where my hand seems to know what it is doing and my mind becomes quieter. I may have music playing or a familiar film running in the background, but there is also this strange feeling of being somewhere slightly beyond all of that.
The closest word I have for it is flow.
Some of my favourite work happens late at night, when most of the world around me has gone quiet. There is something about those hours that feels different.
My rituals are very ordinary. Old familiar music. A movie I already know. Sometimes a Hindi or English rom-com running in the background. Something to munch on while I draw.
Selected Exhibitions & Milestones
2025 · DHAROHAR, The Nehru Centre, London
Exhibited Darbaar-e-Gul at The Nehru Centre, London, as part of an international showcase celebrating Indian art. Following the exhibition, received a letter of recognition from The Nehru Centre and a certificate from Indian Folk Art Corridor at the felicitation held at Dubai International Art Centre.
2025 · Spreads Magazine, UK
Featured in Spreads Magazine, highlighting Shruti Dugar and the evolving artistic practice of SD Doodles.
2025 · Billboard Residency — The Scala
Featured as part of the Billboard Residency at The Scala, presenting SD Doodles in a new public-facing format.
2024 · Soulful Strokes, Dubai
Exhibited Harmony in Diversity with Artezaar in Dubai, marking another step in presenting SD Doodles beyond the digital space and into physical exhibitions.
2023 · Indian Folk Art Corridor — 2024 Calendar
Artwork selected for the Indian Folk Art Corridor’s 2024 calendar, curated by Vidhisha Panday and featuring 12 Indian artists in the UAE working across folk and traditional art forms. The calendar was launched at the Consulate General of India in Dubai in December 2023.
Creative Education
Through SD Doodles, Shruti has taught mandala, pattern-making, colouring and digital art to hundreds of learners through workshops and creative sessions.
Awards & Recognition
2023 · Bhramanasamajah UAE Rangoli Competition
Winner
2023 · Etisalat Deepavali Celebration Rangoli Competition, UAE
Runner-Up
Patterns & Pause
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