Hand-Drawn Reels & Illustrated Storytelling
Jagyasini Singh
Can Hand-Drawn Illustrations Still Work on the Internet?
12.9M+ organic views across Instagram
A few years ago, I started posting simple illustrated reels on Instagram.
The Experiment
No strategy.
No content calendar.
No audience research.
Mostly just drawings and random thoughts.
Some were jokes. Some were observations. Some were inspired by music. Some existed simply because I wanted to see them come alive.
Over time, I became curious about something:
Could hand-drawn illustrations still hold attention in a feed full of videos?
So I kept experimenting.
When Songs Meet Illustrations
How I Make Them
Every reel starts as an illustration.
I sketch the idea, create the artwork, separate it into layers and then build movement through editing.
Sometimes the movement is subtle.
Sometimes it's synced to music or dialogue.
The goal isn't to create complex animation. It's to make the illustration feel alive for a few seconds.
The process sits somewhere between illustration, storytelling and motion.
A Small Observation
What Happened
The experiment worked better than I expected.
Results
In the last 90 days alone:
• 12.9M+ views
• 8.5M+ accounts reached
• 82% of views from non-followers
• Multiple reels crossed 400K+ views
• Highest reel reached 1.57M views
More interestingly, the work started attracting collaboration inquiries from musicians and creators who wanted their stories visualised through illustrations.
The Numbers
Unexpected Moments
One reel was noticed by Zakir Khan. It remains one of my favourite moments from this project 🧡
Unexpected Reach
Beyond the Numbers
These experiments made me realise that illustrations don't always have to live as static images.
Songs, poems, scripts, dialogues, stories and even small observations can become illustrated short-form content.
Today I use the same process for personal work and collaborations.
Like this project
Posted Jun 18, 2026
Created illustrated reels by combining hand-drawn artwork with motion. The work reached 12.9M+ views organically and attracted collaboration inquiries.
Likes
0
Views
1
Timeline
Mar 1, 2026 - Ongoing
