Dovhal worked for satirical magazines such as Bezvirnyk, Globys, Chervonyi Perets, and Pioneriya, as well as for the newspaper Socialist Kharkivshchyna, and collaborated as an illustrator with publishing houses. He taught at the Kharkiv Art Institute. During World War II (1941–1945), he created propaganda posters.

Oleksandr Dovhal worked in easel painting, book graphics, posters, and theatrical-decorative painting. His illustrations are distinguished by dynamic compositions and keen social characterization of the era, situations, and characters. In book graphics, he aimed to convey the psychological essence of the literary work. Among his illustrations are Ivasyk-Telesyk, arrenged by Pavlo Tychyna, Alexander Pushkin’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, Yakiv Kalnytskyi’s The End of the Underground City, collections of stories by Marko Vovchok and Stepan Vasylchenko, Ivan Kotliarevskyi’s poem Eneida, Petro Kozlaniuk’s novel Yurko Kruk, Yurii Yanovskyi’s novel Peace, and others.

Dovhal’s linocuts are notable for the monumentality of forms, presence of folk traditions, intense rhythmic black-and-white strokes, and conciseness. From the late 1930s, he focused on narrative lines, dynamic events, and realistic representation of figures.

He participated in republican, all-Union, and international exhibitions. Dovhal’s solo exhibitions were held in Kharkiv in 1940 and 1958.

His works are held in the collections of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, as well as in the art museums of Dnipro, Lebedyn, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Kharkiv.