I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
Detail of Hiroshige's Akasaka Kiribatake, from 100 Famous Views of Edo, 4th month of 1856.
I loved the foggy outlines of the leaves, the extreme foreground, the colors. And his skies! His skies are magical.
The exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum closes in 2 days on August 5. It is wonderful.
#museumsketching #hiroshige #sketch
2023, Ballpoint pen on 5” x 8” acid free Moleskine sketchbook paper, Adobe Photoshop. First sketchbook drawing of 2024! Based on a photo of a model in a makeup company advert.
The observational sketch was done in ink. One of my few urban sketches. The grandeur of the entire cathedral was too large for me to capture in my drawing but here's a little of what I did.
Hello doodlers :) This is a studie I did from a painting that I sae in pinterest. I don't know who is the artist that painted this because his name was not in the post, so if you know this please artist let me know!!
Second drawing of Amy with her arms up. Based on an earlier sketch that I’ve posted. Bic4 Ballpoint Pen, Hello Kitty 10 Colour Ballpoint Pen on 9” x 12” Archival paper. Model: Amy_D
