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The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

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Most of you already know that I’m very fond of hand-sketched styles in online digital art. I’m a huge fan of wallpapers, websites, logos and design in all forms that can take an organic, textured feel and present it in an impressive, eye-catching way. Today I’m pleased to present you with 35 websites that are perfect examples of this.

Each of the sites listed below make clever use of textures and hand-sketched lines creating the perfect illusion of a website being hand-drawn. Browse though these images and draw from them inspiration as you work to develop your own blog or website.

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

The 35 Most Beautiful Hand-Drawn Websites

I’m Nicholas Z. Cardot. I firmly believe that every person contains within themselves the potential to become great leaders and it has become my personal quest to enable every person that I can to unlock that dormant potential.

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  1. July 13, 2010

    Thomas Sinfield said:

    Nice list! I think the reason that I loved sketched drawings so much is because I wish that I had the talent to draw like that.

    There are some really creative designs in this list.

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    • July 13, 2010

      Nicholas Cardot said:

      I agree with you. When I was a kid, my parents bought be a pencil kit. It had about 20 different types of drawing pencils and it included a book that explained shading, textures, lines, etc. and had tutorials. I played with it for a while, but the bottom line was that I was kind of worthless at it. I’ve always admired that look but like you, I’ve never been very good at it myself. Of course, now with photoshop, I’m getting better and better at making it happen.

      Did you ever take an art class or try to learn how to draw more professionally? Do you do any digital design work in Photoshop?

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  2. July 13, 2010

    Nabeel | Create Your First Website said:

    Whoa nice list man.

    I think sketched drawings really look different from the mainstream designs, and that is why they look pretty attractive.

    Kindest,
    Nabeel

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    • July 13, 2010

      Nicholas Cardot said:

      I agree. Although they are rising in popularity, they are still vastly outnumbered by other styles. I’m becoming more and more impressed with designs that incorporate this style in such a professional way. Which site would you say is your favorite in this list?

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      • July 13, 2010

        Nabeel | Create Your First Website said:

        My favorite would be xhtmlcafe.net

        It just looks pretty neat and really different than all of the mainstream designs out there.

        Kindest,
        Nabeel

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        • July 13, 2010

          Nicholas Cardot said:

          I like that one also because they found a way to make the site literally look like a cafe. I absolutely love that. That is definitely thinking outside the box. Do you think that there is a lesson in that site that we could somehow apply to our blogging efforts?

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  3. July 13, 2010

    RaShell said:

    Great collection. Hand-drawn style always stands out in the crowd, in a good way :)
    My Latest Blog Post: Rock-Paper-Scissors

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  4. July 13, 2010

    Onibalusi Bamidele said:

    Really great sites Nick!

    But I couldn’t find sitesketch101 here, I think you are also using an artistic design here. What do you think?

    Thanks a lot for the great post,
    -Onibalusi
    My Latest Blog Post: How to Arouse Engagement On Your Blog – Get More Comments and Retweets

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  5. July 13, 2010

    Brandon Connell said:

    I have to get me a usb sketch pad. It’s fun to design web layouts like that, but I am currently restricted to Photoshop. I can still design some killer layouts in Photoshop though, so don’t get me wrong. It’s just nice to switch up sometimes.
    My Latest Blog Post: REVIEW- Internet Business Promoter

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  6. July 13, 2010

    Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella said:

    These are all lovely. I really like these styles too. They have a more personal feel, even if the awesome “sketched” graphics were actually created with graphic software and not hand held tools.

    I admit to designing blog templates that I soon hope to market, but this style is one I have yet to master.

    Maybe I should try and find that old box of pencil crayons eh?
    My Latest Blog Post: Followers On Twitter Find The Ones That Really Matter

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  7. July 13, 2010

    Chanelle said:

    The Christian Sparrow design is my favorite. You wouldn’t know it, but I do love minimalist designs.
    My Latest Blog Post: LinkedIn- Generation Y Just Isn’t That Into You

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  8. July 13, 2010

    Brandon Connell said:

    By the way… I like the bootb.com design because of the way that the brighter colors pop with the black background. It’s more my design style when I have full creative control.
    My Latest Blog Post: REVIEW- Internet Business Promoter

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  9. July 13, 2010

    Warren Contreras said:

    Thank you for this brainstorm! I am not even close to being able to create original art myself, but it gave me the idea about doing it with the rubber stamps my wife uses to make cards and scanning it it.
    My Latest Blog Post: The Best Advice I Ever Received

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    • July 13, 2010

      Nicholas Cardot said:

      The truth is that I don’t intend posts like this to only inspire graphic designers. Just as you’ve shown, all of us can use a good dose of the creative in many areas of our life. For you it’s making rubber stamps with your wife. For someone else it could be some ideas for some blog posts or for something else altogether. Creativity is important in all areas of life.

      What do you usually do to get your creative juices flowing?

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  10. July 13, 2010

    Izzat Aziz said:

    I’m in love with such website design. It unique, and surely make web design look more work of art.

    Drawing is certainly not my talent, it look really suck.

    But Kyle Steed did mention that, it better to shut photoshop, and take pen than start draw anything as practice.

    Anybody who love this kind of design, sure will enjoy this post by carsonified

    http://carsonified.com/blog/design/no-love-for-the-illustrator-skoold-on-how-to-do-handmade-web-design/
    My Latest Blog Post: Photo

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    • July 13, 2010

      Nicholas Cardot said:

      That’s a cool article. It’s easy to forget to credit someone for their illustrations in a design. It’s good that he made it right. And he’s right that illustrating is becoming a popular trend. In my opinion, those drawings are amazing in online art. Did you have a favorite site from this collection?

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  11. July 13, 2010

    Kok Siong @ Cancer Research said:

    Wow! This is a great list of beautiful hand drwn websites! I think you have spent a lot of time to collect this list. Personally, the number 6th website design is the site that i love the most.
    My Latest Blog Post: Techniques Used in Leukemia Research

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  12. July 14, 2010

    Julio R. said:

    Excellent list of creative designs Nicolas, i think some of them caught the attention of their visitors instantly, i was wery impressed when i was some of them.
    My Latest Blog Post: 5 Tips para Hacer Marketing Inteligente en Facebook

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    • July 14, 2010

      Nicholas Cardot said:

      I think so too and that is a powerful effect. When you can smash your user with a powerful first impression then they’re much more likely to remember you. It’s vital that you present your work in way that make’s it easy to find your content and fun to see your layout.

      Did you have a favorite one in this list?

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      • July 14, 2010

        Julio R. said:

        Nicolas, Sour Sally is the most original website i´ve ever seen, it caught my attention at first and its navigation form is really original for me.
        My Latest Blog Post: 5 Tips para Hacer Marketing Inteligente en Facebook

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        • July 14, 2010

          Nicholas Cardot said:

          That’s great to hear. So now after identifying which one is your favorite there is one step-further that I like to challenge people to go. Is there a lesson from the way that site looks that you can learn from? Is there maybe a principle of some sort that you can apply in your blog or website? Can you present something in a way that grabs attention at the first and has easy and original navigation?

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  13. July 14, 2010

    Nasrul Hanis said:

    Absolutely cool!

    And I love Legwork Studio! So creative!

    Thanks for sharing with us Nicholas!

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    • July 14, 2010

      Nicholas Cardot said:

      You’re welcome. I really have so much fun putting these collections together and I really feel like I learn from their creativity. What is it about the LegWork Studio that really catches your eye? Is it the little pencil sketched dog? :)

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      • July 14, 2010

        Nasrul Hanis said:

        That,s great, Nicholas.

        I love how LegWork Studio website being composed. I mean, it’s cool and there’s a lot of things to see in every pages!

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        • July 14, 2010

          Nicholas Cardot said:

          I agree with you. So the question then becomes, how can you apply that at your own website? Can you learn anything from their site being so cool and having all those things to see? Can you improve your own performance as a result of what you’ve observed from them?

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          • July 14, 2010

            Nasrul Hanis said:

            Interesting question.

            Yeah.. I learned that the impression of the visitors is a crucial thing for our site and yes.. the options provided should meet the needs of the visitors too!

            And one more thing.. awesomeness is important in building your own brand!

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            • July 14, 2010

              Nicholas Cardot said:

              I think your last observation is the most powerful. “Awesomeness is important important in building your own brand!”

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              • July 15, 2010

                Joe said:

                Lots of work you put into this, Nick! But quite an impressive collection you’ve ended up with. Must have taken weeks to amass so many great examples!!! I’m with you, too, regarding the cafe. That one stood out to me, too. Not only the artwork, but the structure, and the cleverness in the copy. i.e. the print on the window “Now serving Word Press themes”. :-)

                This post reminds me of back in the day when Netscape was the browser of the day. On their homepage they had a section called “What’s New and Cool”. I’m sure some of your choices would have made that list. And,I’m proud to say that way back then, I made the What’s New and Cool list with my very first personal website design! Damn, I wish I knew about monetizing sites then! I was swamped with kudos and compliment-laden email!

                But Nick, I also want to suggest the other pixel pushing software now offered through Corel, Painter.I owned Painter before I bought Photoshop, but over the years they’ve been my creative tools of choice. For one who appreciates the hand-drawn look, and wants to emulate the style, Painter is the software for you Nick, and any of your readers who, like me, and you, are not formally trained nor have natural drawing talent.

                However, back then, I found Painter to be immensely inspiring. For a long time now Painter has been the “natural media” artist’s tool of choice. Best used with a stylus and pad, for years it’s been the software closest to the feel of actually drawing with a pencil or painting with a brush. A little more history (because I’m old LOL)Over the years Painter’s focus was brushes and natural art mediums while Photoshop, image manipulation.

                Also, over the years, each program “borrowed” features of the other, to where now, both programs pretty much flawlessly co-exist. There are still some things Photoshop does that Painter doesn’t, but that’s vice versa. I usually use both for my designs.

                For instance, my current site uses a stage metaphor. For the wooden stage floor I manipulated an image in Photoshop, but the stage curtains I fashioned in Painter from scratch. For someone who has no formal art training, I think they came out looking pretty good :-)
                In the end I bring everything into Dreamweaver and layout my site and animations using CSS layers and positioning.

                And one more thing in closing, if you’re a student or teacher, you can get Painter 11′s Academic version for only about 89 bucks, which I think is pretty good and money well-spent for the full version, only at student prices. By the way, there’s a link to it on my site in the web design section :-P

                I know the industry standard is Photoshop and you surely need those skills, but sometimes taking the road less traveled inspires and assists in thinking out of the box, and you find the hidden artist within you!
                Thank you all for allowing me to ramble!

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                • July 15, 2010

                  Nicholas Cardot said:

                  It took a while but as I’m constantly searching for unique and creative works of art like these sites, it really didn’t take me long to throw them all together into a collection. You’re site looks great to and I agree that for a lot of people there are great alternatives to Photoshop. Painter, as you mentioned, and I’ve been hearing that Gimp is getting better all the time although I’m not familiar with all of their specific features and functions, I do agree that they are probably terrific platforms. And with that student pricing, that seems like a great deal.

                  And although I am self-taught at this point, I’m really looking forward to going to school for this stuff next year when I get out of the Army. The better I seem to get at it, the more I think that I want to accelerate my learning curve with some formal instruction on this stuff. I really want to take my skills to the next level…and to the level beyond that.

                  How long have you been into design?

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                  • July 15, 2010

                    Joe said:

                    Nick, I guess I’ve always appreciated good design, but didn’t get into it head-on until the personal computer came out in the 80s. I was selling real estate at the time, and a lot of businesses started using PCs, and there I found a crude graphics program that I started using to create flyers for my listings. Other agents in the office liked what I was doing and started paying me to do the same for them. A friend was opening a landscaping firm and hired me to do some flyers for him, that expanded to newsletters and brochures. I guess they called it desktop publishing, and then perhaps my free-lancing career in graphic arts began.

                    Slowly building a portfolio, In the late 80s I got hired as an office manager for a software development group because I knew my way around a computer and the brand new Quickbooks bookkeeping software. A day into the job, my boss threw a book in my lap about HTML and said, “we like your portfolio and think you can handle building a website for our company. When that job ended I started freelancing for agencies.They were hungry for people who could code HTML. So I got into graphic art kind of in a round-about fashion.

                    Eventually, though, in the early 2000s, I went back to school at the first online University to offer a graphics program, and got a B.A. in Visual Communications. I’d highly recommend online study for graphics. I already had a degree and my basic gen. ed. classes out of the way so I graduated in a year cum laude, but I surely had an advantage over many of the students. I’d already been in the business and had experience, but I didn’t have the sheepskin to add to my credentials. Doing it online was a great experience. I wouldn’t suggest a surgeon study online, LOL, but if you’re into blogging and all things graphic and web related, it makes perfect sense. There you are in class on a webpage, the very type of thing you want to end up designing!

                    So now I still like design, but I know why I like it, and the formal, traditional elements that go into a good design, whether that be a web page, blog, or toaster oven. The elements are the same :-)

                    And I have used Gimp too, but by then I already was knee-deep in Photoshop and Painter so I had less use for it. But, if you’re on a tight budget, I believe it’s a free open source program, though haven’t looked at it for years.

                    Okay, too much rambling, again. Thanks for lending and ear!

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                    • July 15, 2010

                      Joe said:

                      P.S. Nick and all, before you go spending a lot of money on these software programs, if you are thinking of taking college graphics classes, get the info on the school you might attend. The online school that I went to provided the whole Adobe Suite, and at that time, the whole Macromedia Suite, as part of the tuition!

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                    • July 16, 2010

                      Nicholas Cardot said:

                      It’s too late, my friend. I already own Photoshop CS5. I try pretty hard to stay up-to-date on it.

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  14. July 17, 2010

    Vinish Parikh said:

    Some really great designs for websites
    My Latest Blog Post: Why Fundamental Analysis is Done

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  15. July 23, 2010

    Reza Winandar said:

    It’s all cool, meanwhile, this is good after reading all things about blogging, this can bring peace to my mind.
    My Latest Blog Post: 5 Types of Comments That Attract Attention

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  16. August 3, 2010

    Jeff Navarro said:

    Wow, what a fun list to peruse! And I concur, Nicholas, that your site is by default to be considered part of the group. I think the appeal of sites like these is that it brings a sense of organicness and tactility that’s so often missing in the digital world.
    My Latest Blog Post: Fashion Photographer Kenneth Willardt- on Fear

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  17. August 5, 2010

    Ron Leyba said:

    My favorites are as follows (in random order)

    xhtmlcafe.net

    schlafman.com

    jasongraymusic.com

    Really awesome masterpiece!
    My Latest Blog Post: Watch Resident Evil Afterlife Online

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  18. November 9, 2010

    Rachel Goldstein said:

    Wow, I don’t know if I have ever seen such a long list of comments on a blog post. It is a beautiful blog entry, with the most beautiful (eye-candy) looking sites that I have seen in a long time. I DO love hand-drawn layouts though. I just redesigned my drawing community site – http://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/ – I drew it, then cut out figures from scraps of paper to make 3-dimensional paper art. Then I took the huge layout to be photographed…then, it was finally made into a website. It was a long process, but it looks really cool. I hope that you like it.

    Rachel
    My Latest Blog Post: Welcome to drawinghowtodrawcom

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  19. July 28, 2011

    Vidya Sury said:

    What a visual treat! And I love your website too. Came here via someone’s tweet.
    My Latest Blog Post: Goodbye, Belly Flab

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