Some doodles, including my own, are planned out and executed with enough care—zentangles are a good example—to be verging on being a form of finished art, as opposed to discardable ephemera, subconscious stress relievers, or the like.

But this pencil doodle is very much in the traditional mode, scribbles acting a sort of relief valve.

doodle on 2019–20 Japanese appointment book; graphite on paper; likely made on or shortly after 12 Feb 2021. Photographed 21feb20, panasonic lumix LX100. value adjusted, squared up, and cropped

Doodles have always been a stress reliever for me, and the last couple of weeks have been a bit difficult. This one hearkens back to college era doodle-drawings I filled with scatterings of simple outline shapes, especially triangles and hearts. Egyptian eyes, which I like and my bestie adores also go way, way back. I suspect there's a subtext of love, which I guess makes sense, with Valentine's Day just on the horizon when I drew this.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.