I’ve never really doodled before, but I got a flex nib fountain pen, and I’m suddenly getting the itch.

Admittedly, my early game sometimes didn’t get too creative, though it’s starting to lay the foundations of an idea.

Also, I haven’t planned paper, so some hardcore feathering is easy to find.

Doubling down on my original idea, and trying out some more representational doodling. The square guy is straight Alex Pardee circa 2007, but I’m not sure why there’s a laser… Maybe abstract is my strength.

With some experimentation out of the way, I’m starting to clarify my aesthetic.

Ouch, the feathering! Well, the upper part looks good: reminds me of ϡ, but with creepy excess legs.

I’m starting to try out multiple colors. Shape experimentation hasn’t stopped either.

Let’s say that I’m not always so happy with my doodles. Too crude, too safe.

The designs are growing. Each addition I made to this one led into needing more to get the balance right. I’m still making experiments, but they’re more often successes… not always though.

This one came out with a good color pallet, and it’s fairly big. The shapes are more known forms than experimentation. The feeling I get from this is that I just did it right, plain and simple.

Made at the Atlanta Pen Show while some new friends and I experimented with each others pens and inks. My color choice is on point again (though the photography is pretty bad), and the doodles are getting larger naturally.

I decided in this one to try a dark ink for the skeleton of the doodle, and fill smaller sections in with other inks. Unfortunately, I didn’t choose the brightest inks for this, and the doodle itself is quite muddy. It actually looks a bit better in the photo thanks to the camera flash highlighting the sheen on one of the inks. I’m quite happy with the shape, though.

This one is… it suprised me: how did I make this? It’s massive, for one thing, and I decided to go with a single color to focus more on the shapes. Actually, I think I did this one over the couse of three days. The truly strange thing is that I was going for something abstract, and accidentally ended up with a figure. Admittedly, some deer-like sylvan thing, but a humanoid nonetheless. You can’t unsee it now.

I went back to a reasonably-sized experiment with curves vs. angles, but stuck with the single-color again. I also tried to keep up the density of this doodle, and I’m pretty happy about the texture that came out. This time, I definitely had the idea to make something with a bit of gear in it¹, and I like how it worked. Maybe I shouldn’t be so averse to representational doodles.

I was on vacation and decided to spend some time outdoors with my favorite colors—green & blue. This one I really wanted to avoid having any preferred “up” direction, and I think I succeeded at that, though of course I’m limited in only being able to “hang” the doodle in one orientation.