A Dash of Doodles – 7

Hello! Here’s a set of large, Zentangle-inspired doodles that I made recently –

I used gel pens for these as usual, and oil-pencils for shading. I’ve lately been picking pens that are not writing so well, so I get the most out of them before they dry up. The pinkish doodles are actually in hot pink / fluorescent pink, which looks great in real life, but unfortunately turns out super-light when scanned. I usually go crazy with the contrast of the image to get this pink to show well, but this time, I tried not to fiddle with the image too much–just enough to actually see it.

There are doodles that I make to relax or have fun; and then there are those that I resort to when I don’t want to be idle but not really in the mood to do much, and doodling seems like the lowest-effort creative outlet for me so I just go for it. The former ones start out stilted / hesitant but then begin to flow well, and I love looking at them even after a while; it’s the equivalent of knitting tension loosening when one gets into it and relaxes. The other kind of doodles, not so much. Thankfully, these are few and far between.

I notice I never pick my black fineliner for doodling. I should probably try it out sometime. Meanwhile, hope you enjoy these doodles!