Below are three drawings that are at least 20+ years old. I ran across them while doing some cleaning up around my studio.
”Elena” is a pen and ink drawing of an old relative. I think it’s a good drawing for where my skill was at the time. No pencil rough, just straight ink. I had more invested in the drawing since it was a person who I knew and meant something to me. I don’t draw my relatives much. Actually, I don’t draw them at all. I should remedy that. I can’t recall why I didn’t continue the drawing. I probably put it aside to do regular work, and never went back to it. I like it’s unfinished look.
The second drawing was done in a figure drawing class that I can’t recall where. It was probably a five minute drawing. I like it’s simplicity and directness.
The third drawing done in ballpoint pen was from another model drawing session that I can’t recall where. Most likely a ten minute pose. There was a period where I did everything in my sketchbook in ballpoint pen. It’s a challenge to make sure you get your lines right the first time since there no erasing, painting over, white out, or undo. It’s the same approach as in the Elena drawing, just with a subtler form of ink. The pen allows you to lightly make your marks and you can commit with a more definite line afterwards. If done right you can get nice subtle transitions. I recall doing some pen drawings in college and when I had pinned them on wall for our weekly class critique, my instructor walked over to it, looked closely at it, and then looked at me asking “Is that ballpoint pen?”. “Yeah”, I replied. “Hmmm… Nice. It’s interesting to use such a mundane object to create art, huh?”. All this and there’s no need to sharpen or worrying about it breaking when it’s in your pocket. Oh, and it was either an Illustrator pen (a brand at the time that I can no longer find) or a Parker pen.
Thanks for your time and support.
JMJ
