Drawing with a ballpoint pen

A while back I posted a drawing video on YouTube showing an art piece I had created using a ballpoint pen (biro). The image was a portrait of a woman, and the image was created from reference. This was part of Ahmed Aldoori's 100 heads drawing challenge. Admittedly, I didn't quite reach the 100 portrait goal with just a few left to do... Okay, so I only did about 5, but my parents always told me it's the taking part that counts. Anyways, I did use the portraits Pinterest board set up for the challenge, for those interested in finding the original photo I used.

Drawing faces is something I find quite difficult, and considering I hadn't worked with ballpoint pens very often at the time, I was pleasantly surprised by how well it actually turned out. You can find the video below.

Drawing a female portrait with a Bic ballpoint.

Why draw with the ballpoint pen?

So why would you even want to use a ballpoint pen to draw something beautiful? After all, these are cheap ugly pens that literally everyone has hidden around the house. Well, I guess that’s the first benefit of using them, you likely already have a whole bunch of them lying around the house. Even if you don’t, they are extremely cheap to purchase, especially if you buy a larger pack.

The biggest pro for me is that drawing with a ballpoint pen is very similar to sketching with a graphite pencil, which is my favourite medium to draw with. You can press lightly to achieve a very light and thin line for construction lines before darkening your lines, just like pencils, but with the added benefit of being able to darken your lines with greater ease, without needing to layer them up or change for a darker tone or lead. The darkness and contrast you can achieve so quickly with the biro, whilst also having the pencil sketch feel, is why I love them so much. Also, once it’s set, you don’t have to worry about smudging it in the same way you do with graphite. The downside to this is that you can’t erase your lines if you make a mistake, but this is often seen as a benefit when practicing drawing, as it teaches the artist to think more, before applying their lines to the paper, and forces you to make less mistakes in that respect.

Despite the idea of most ballpoint pens being pretty much the same, you can find them in a range of colours, some with different comfort grips for your fingers, and even different thickness of nibs. I find the 1mm nibs to be great compared to the usual 2mm, for adding details and achieving a more pencil like effect. I do like the 2mm nibs for filling in shadows and drawing thicker line art around my illustrations though, it definitely speeds things up a little.

Black or blue are the most typical colours you will see people using, and not only are these the most common, but they both give a great contrast on clean white paper, especially the black ink. Although I must admit I always think it makes sketchbooks a little more interesting when I see purples in there. After experimenting with other colours myself too, I can honestly say there is something satisfying about using a sepia coloured biro pen. In my last post I shared my ballpoint pen sketchbook tour along with the materials I used for that one, which contained a whole range of colours, you can find the full colour range of pens by clicking the image below.

click the image to view the full colour range of ballpoint pens (affiliate link)( — Click the image to view the colour range of ballpoint pens (affiliate links)

That being said, if you just want the typical black ink biros (I use these the most too) then I will attach some links below to the ones I prefer to use. But just know, any cheap old brand will do. The image below will take you to the products on Amazon (these are affiliate links, and anything you buy through them helps to support me).

Click the image to view the product (affiliate link)

My illustrations and sketches with the ballpoint

I have got into a habit now, where I often just opt for the biro pen that’s always reliably sitting and waiting on my desk. For most traditional drawing I do, especially just quick sketching and studies such as 60 escond gesture drawings or the classic turning a box in space, (you know the drawing fundamentals we all have to do!) it's easy to just grab whatever is in reach. But every now and again I will spend a little longer to create a finished illustration. Some people might disagree about calling these finished illustrations, but they’re my favourite kind to do, and they are less…’sketchy’ than what I would call an actual sketch.

Anyway, for those interested in seeing some of my biro illustrations, I have attached the videos below, This includes a few time-lapse drawings of dark evil creatures, an Elden Ring video game design, my Strider at Bree sketchbook cover, and then some sketchbook tour videos of the fundamentals of drawing.

Dark souls inspired / Dibujante Nocturno style drawing

Elden Ring video game character art witha biro pen

Drawing fundamentals sketchbook tour (ballpoint pen)

Aragorn at the Prancing Pony fantasy art

Inspirations and artists using the ballpoint pen

I always used to think that using a biro pen for drawing was a little bit lazy and cheap, and that you would be limited to what you could really create with it. But after seeing that one of my favourite artists, Frank Cho, often uses them to create beautiful women illustrations, I quickly changed my mind. The hatching techniques he uses on organic forms is too good to even describe. So I am inserting some videos below to the books that inspired me to start drawing with the ballpoint. The first is Frank Cho’s Ballpoint Beauties, and the second is Dibujante Nocturno, a completely different theme and drawing style, but something about the biro sketches this artist uses really stood out to me and got me wanting to draw.

Frank Cho’s Ballpoint Beauties book preview (pin up art)

Dibujante Nocturno art book flick through, creatures and dark arts.

For those that don’t want to sit and watch through the videos, I wanted share a few pics just to showcase some brilliant examples in the book of Frank chos beautiful illustration work in the ballpoint pen medium. It’s worth mentioning that the book shows different stages of Franks process from start to finish, and contains a lot of nudity which I can’t show here.

Frank Cho’s Ballpoint Beauties page preview of a comic book cover

Frank Cho, Ballpoint Beauties back anatomy with ballpoint rendering

As usual, i've added some links below ( click the images ) to the products on Amazon. Anything you purchase through the links helps support me on my art journey, so thank you to those that consider it.

I hope you enjoyed this quick blog post. If, like me, you enjoy seeing biro illustrations and sketches, you might enjoy following me on social media where you can see more of my scribbles. Please click the icons below to give me a follow - thank you for your support!