Thanks for the happy post, wax(?)!
All the brush stuff is still evolving, but I think you may find that Verve's brushes will get you instantly more of a real touch than ps, hehehe, but yeah...I'm planning on doing more sophisticated brush actions all along. I just added curve interpolations for brush #6, which is still in prototype state. That's kind of the opposite of what you were asking, I'm afraid, haha, but just to illustrate the progress I'm mentioning that one.
With brush #9, as well as most others, try BIAS (the dark dial on the brush GUI), which will squeeze the brush either horizontally or vertically.
Looking forward to your first doodles!
WELCOME!