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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3945
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| Posted: 26 February 2026 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | 1
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Jim Woodring took Kubert's advice/challenge to the extreme: LINK
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16653
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| Posted: 26 February 2026 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | 2
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Dave, I didn't know about Kubert's advice when I did it, but as mentioned in my other post in this thread, I recorded a video of me using a toothpick dipped in ink to draw a picture.
Here's that video (Just noticed I uploaded it 17 years ago!!):
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3945
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| Posted: 27 February 2026 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | 3
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Nice. You're a more patient man than I, Matt!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135764
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | 4
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In Art College we were encouraged to use anything and everything to create our art. It was a big surprise to me, tho, when our drawing instructor started talking about using brushes to draw. Took me quite a while to get my brain wrapped around that. Brushes were for painting!!Ironic.
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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 920
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | 5
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I have always wanted to produce with palette knifes. I have practiced a little in the past and have at least 3 different shapes in one of my many draws, there may be more in the oil paint case. In the past the greatest concern was the amount of paint consumed and of course the expense. I don't have the same concern, expense wise, any longer, just have to find the time.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | 6
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…one of my many draws…••• An amusing typo in this thread! :-)
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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 920
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | 7
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:-)
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3945
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| Posted: 28 February 2026 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | 8
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The tool that a lot of my instructors favored was conte crayon, which I have to admit is some pretty luxe stuff. Definitely the most satisfyingly BLACK black I’ve ever used. Not great for contours but if you’re working on an exceptionally large surface, you can define spaces nicely.
I had a first year instructor who swore by blue Bic pens as the ultimate sketching tool, so a lot of my sketchbooks from the early 90’s are full of feathery blue doodles.
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 2107
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| Posted: 01 March 2026 at 12:42am | IP Logged | 9
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I had a drawing instructor say “It easy to do a good drawing with a ballpoint pen. But it’s near impossible to do a great one.”
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 01 March 2026 at 2:16am | IP Logged | 10
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Google “ballpoint pen drawings”.
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Matt Hawes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 16653
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| Posted: 01 March 2026 at 2:47am | IP Logged | 11
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Peter Hicks: "...I had a drawing instructor say 'It easy to do a good drawing with a ballpoint pen. But it’s near impossible to do a great one.'...”
Reminds me of another (admittedly unfair) saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."
Again... the art is in the artist. The tool is just a means of transferring the art to a canvas.
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3945
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| Posted: 01 March 2026 at 3:54am | IP Logged | 12
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Thing about the ballpoint is that it really makes subtle tonal contrasts easy. Which, semi-perversely, is why I weaned myself off of it; in the context of the early 90’s, I was at the apex of my worship of pen and ink as a medium, and the ballpoint was a distraction from honing my skills there. AND I was still thinking about pursuing comics as a career, for which the ballpoint was clearly not the tool, given the production/reproduction methods of the time.
But if neither of those were a concern, I’d have totally kept it up. It’s a great drawing tool. Responsive and intuitive in a way few other tools really are.
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