Idle Afternoon Doodles: Pen and Ink Skull Meets Koi Fish

Hello illustration friends,

Finding myself with an open evening the other day, I decided to head to my local minimart to grab some snacks and a cold drink. I settled on a bag of spicy dried nuts, a soi milk box, and a comfy curb to sit on around the corner.

As I sipped my drink and munched the salty snacks, I began idly doodling in my pocket notebook with no particular plan in mind. After loosely penciling in a basic skull shape, on a whim I started drawing a large koi fish body weaving in front of the cranium and jaws.

Once the pencil sketch took form, I took out my assortment of pens and chose a .02 fine tip pen to start tracing and enhancing the key lines.

After going over the entire image to define the shapes, I erased any remaining pencil marks. The outline image was serviceable at this point, but I wanted more contrast.

I went back over the exterior silhouettes with a bolder .1 pen, darkening key edges I wanted to stand out. Finally, I used the fine tip again to add in diagonal hatch shading and crosshatch textures on the skull and fish scales to generate more depth and dimension.

Looking at the finish inky creation, I chuckled to myself realizing I had subconsciously defaulted to another skull meets koi fish mashup doodle - clearly an image that resonates with me for some reason! While fun to draw, I may need to actively challenge myself to explore new random creative themes when I’m caught idle like this again.

As the nice went on, a steady breeze picked up to conclude my minimalist patio art session. I hope you enjoy this spontaneous pen and ink piece! Let me know what you think, as always.

Cheers, friends!