Doodling With Fountain Pens: Random Doodles

This week in my Doodling With Fountain Pens series I want to show you a few different random doodle patterns that can be worked in with other larger patterns or are also fun to draw on their own. If you’re ready, grab a pen and some paper and let’s get started!

Thoughts On These Patterns

In my opinion, most of these patterns are best used to augment larger patterns or can be drawn for fun to test a pen or fill a little empty space. Still, I think I’ve used each for a standalone spread and have enjoyed it. The way that you use them is up to you. The nice thing about them is that, since they’re able to stand on their own, they are not very complicated.

Croissant

When I first saw this post from Nibflow, I knew I had to figure out how to create this pattern. While I think it looks a lot like a shell or some sort of fossil, I call it a croissant in my head.

To start, draw a small teardrop shape.

From this starting shape, you’ll draw a series of larger and larger “toppers” to create half of the croissant.

Once you get to a certain point, you’ll want to start making your toppers smaller and smaller, creating the other half of the croissant.

To finish this pattern, draw a small, slightly elongated circle on the end.

If you want to turn this into a larger pattern, you can draw a series of croissants that touch each other or that vary in direction across the page.

Stripes

This post from beaplata really caught my attention the first time I saw it. While it’s a really simple idea, it makes a big visual impact.

To start, you’ll want to draw two parallel lines. They can either be straight or curved. I personally prefer curved, similar to how you might draw a rainbow.

Now it’s time to start making the stripes. I like to go through and draw a bunch of lines between the two parallel lines that are randomly spaced apart.

Once your internal lines are drawn, start filling in spaces between lines. Make sure to keep it somewhat random. Don’t just fill in the space between every other line.

If it doesn’t look right to you, you can go add in a few more small filled spaces in some of the larger spaces. Also, be sure to add a few standalone lines in there.

To expand this pattern, you can continue with this process and make new sets of parallel lines that you fill in. Making the lines overlap will give it some dimension and complexity.

Once you’re comfortable with the pattern, you can easily expand it to make an entire spread.

Leaves/Feathers

I came up with this shape as a standalone variation of my Organic pattern. While it’s kind of hard to do an entire spread with this, I have done it. On its own, it is a nice little doodle to draw. I go back and forth between thinking it looks like a leaf and a feather.

To start, draw a gently curved line. This is the main line of the leaf.

Starting near the bottom on one side of the line you just drew, draw a gentle curved line that starts on the center line and ends on the tip of the line.

Continue drawing similar lines that end when they touch the line you just drew. You can slowly make them a bit longer and wider to add some shape to the leaf. Stop just before you reach the other end of the center line.

Now repeat the same process on the other side. That’s it!

Lines

This is an extremely simple pattern that I started doing for fun just to put some ink on paper. I think it looks best with a broad nib and a wet ink. I’ve also used flex nibs to give it a bit more flair.

There is really no rhyme or reason to this pattern. It consists of short lines in the shape of a C or an elongated S. I sometimes add dots into the mix as well. I like to make the S lines come from the opening of the C lines when possible, but don’t get hung up on that. It’s definitely not a requirement.

Wrapping Up

The nice thing about doodling for fun is that you don’t have to restrict yourself in any particular way. If you enjoy these patterns and want to make an entire spread out of them, you can easily do that! If you instead want to use each one to supplement a different pattern or to fill in a blank spot on a piece of paper, you can do that as well. For anyone who is overwhelmed at filling an entire page with doodles, these are great little ways to use your fountain pens for doodling with little to no commitment to something that’s bigger than you can handle.