BallPoint Lines

Ballpoint tips and inks 1. tips: strongest pen tips in history a. extra-fine: I have some drawings completed with the extra-fine tips that went out of production in 1981-82 and came in black or blue. The extra-fine ballpoint pen tip is the sharpest camera ready line in art history. that extra-fine tip was like a nail and therefore took many, many line to build up colors. The extra-fine tip was extraordinary for blending, polishing or starting off a drawing. b. fine: Today, a ballpoint pen's fine tip size produces the sharpest camera-ready line in our art world. I’ve been say this for the past five years and no one has produced a medium or line that matches or beats this claim! Use a fine tipped pen for starting off a drawing because the half tone line is very subtle or light. Any mistakes or starter line can be left as is or covered up with a darker line. I never erase or use graphite with a ballpoint pen ink. If you focus and start off with a very subtle or light line changes can be made with darker line or ink. c. regular: The regular tip is also called a medium. This tip can produce a half tone plus a solid long flowing line. The line can be dark, long flowing and produce a reflection if really piled on thick. The medium tip is good for making dark areas and will certainly saturate a paper with ink when stacked or piled on greatly. Most people use a regular tip for writing therefore we know what that can do. d. bold: The bold ballpoint pen tip is another history making item. The bold ballpoint pen tip and ink supply produces a full tone long flowing line as never before and is fantastic for working from life. Needless to say its the best ballpoint tip for coloring in dark areas. It also delivers more ink than any other tips therefore the refection is greater if used to pile or stack on inks. 2. half tone lines: The ballpoint pen is the only pen system in history capable of producing a half tone line with a full tone ink. Lifting up on a pen produces a half tone and pushing down or adding pressure makes a full tone. The half tone almost never reflects or shines as thinker inks can do. A half tone line is great for starting a drawing, shaping, forming or polishing up a drawing like no others! The ballpoint pens half tones are the subtlest in drawing or art history. a. extra-fine, fine: These two tip sizes are the best for polishing a drawing or doing other sensitive areas. They also are great for starting off a drawing, blending, smoothing or sharpening edges or lines already on a page. If blending colors is of interest these tips are the best from my experience. 3. bold lines: A ballpoint pen has a tremendous ink supply that makes a remarkable long flowing line. A ballpoint produces the quickest long flowing lines in art history. That quick or bold long flowing line certainly is best for capturing nature or motion in life. Its much easier for me to draw people or nature in motion with a fast moving tool or instrument and a bold tip is great at doing so. Doing outdoor drawings or impressionism this instrument works perfect. A bold long flowing line produces life, a refreshing or colorful drawing and something very special other mediums just can’t do. Many artists on the Internet draw from a photo. Sharp or slow moving lines make up those works and certainly don’t deliver what a dark bold line does from life. a. bold, regular: The bold and regular (medium) tips are best for doing full tone lines. A bold or regular tip can produce a half tone line yet thinner points work better. These two tips deliver the most ink therefore works best with darkening or filling in areas. They make the best blacks or dark colors than all other pens. A bold tip delivers a colored full tone line or flow no others pen systems can produce. That wonderful bold flowing line is a historical event. Its a flow never seen before in pen’s four thousand plus years of history. A ballpoint pen sells hundreds of billions because of that nice flowing line. When these tips are used for stacking thick inks a thin paper will certainly warp or buckle. they will also shine and take much longer to dry. 4. black & white: The ballpoint pen first arrived in black. Blue was the second ink then I think red came along. Black and blue were for writing and red for accounting. I used pencils for five years before a ballpoint. I learned what black and white was all about plus how to draw with a pencil. I however went to a ballpoint pen ink for quicker, cleaner and darker lines. A stacked black ink will shine and most likely out last all colored inks. The black ballpoint pen ink produces a darker area much quicker than a pencil and the tips never become dull or break. Most thick black inks will shine and dry slowly. It is smart to let a very dark area dry for several days before finishing or piling on more inks. When it dries for several days or weeks new inks will certainly make the area darker. If piling on heavy inks is what you desire papers over 120 lbs are best. Watercolor, rage or soft papers work best because they absorb the inks much better. Hard papers will absorb far less inks, smear and most often warp. If you desire a very quick line shiny or hard surfaces work best yet handle blotches or absorption less. Quick lines with a fine tip can cut through a sheet of paper or trash the surface of a textured or rage paper. 5. multi-colored: The ballpoint pen delivers a full or half tone colored line without changing pens or inks. I can stack colors to produce the richest pen & ink drawings in history. A ballpoint puts a darker, richer or more vibrant color on a page than all other pen systems. My luscious colors far exceed a tech or dip pen inks or drawings. Those wonderful colors bring a new life to the pen & ink art movement. They also speck well of the ballpoint pen art movement! The medium or bold tips pile on inks the fastest yet polishing or blending colors work better with fine tips. Yellow, red, pink and light purples are the thinnest inks and therefore smear or blend well. You can start of with light colors and cover up your lines with darker line rather easy. Going over yellow is a best when it is dry. If you do dark colors first then add lighter colors things often work out best. I often use many different pens to do a dark red or other color. Each pen company has a different ink or shade of red therefore many brands will enhance the total color. The same stands true with black inks! If I do a blue and pile on other colors using a half tone line the finished product will be much richer to your eyes. Put down a dark color and blend with other brands of the same color or use lighter colors to enrich the finished color. If you do a black area add, green, blue, red, brown on top of that then finish your area with a black to really make it dark. When you scan a dark area sometime under colors might show through! If that happens adjust your scanner or add a darker color on top. 6. mono: (one color) A mono colored ballpoint pen drawing is one color. I did more red drawings than any other ink color. I really loved doing gold ink drawings as well. Blue and green are two more mono colors used in the past. I need to do a mono colored drawing with each color I have. We’re recording ballpoint pen art history and every new area we can represent will build our art movements historical base. 7. blotches: Most ballpoint pens produce small blotches of ink on the top of a pen’s tip when drawing quickly. Fast action with a bold tip will produce that ink build up quickest. When, I work quickly or outside blotches simply add color, character and style to my drawings. Piling on lines and color is the name of that game. Boldness and color is more important with or without any blotches than details or refinements in such pictures. If blotches bother you clean your tips often or very often with a rag, cardboard, tissue or thick paper. Simple place the tip on a soft surface and twist the pen till all ink is removed. Alcohol will remove the inks off a tip quickly. 8. reflection: Oil base inks simply produce a reflection, shine, sheen or burnout spot on negatives. Remember, oil paintings are king of the fine art mediums and shine like an oil painting. Some ballpoint pen inks dry flat while others shine. This might show up when scanning or using a flash camera. Your light source will determine if there is going to be a shine or refection, therefore pick your angle correctly. If the ink reflects a scanner light or flash bulb its called a burnout. Other mediums can warp a paper or reflect a flash bulb or light as can a ballpoint. 9. by products: When a drawing is completed prints, books, limited editions, posters, post cards or other items can be produced from such a work. The incomes of each by product is your royalties and that helps increase your originals prices when sold in volume. Thank You, Jerry Stith