Ballpoint pen artwork

Over the years since its invention, the ballpoint pen has proven to be a versatile art medium for professional artists as well as amateur doodlers. Low cost, availability, and portability make them a reasonable alternative to expensive, cumbersome art mediums. Additionally, ballpoint pen-work requires little or no preparation. The immediacy allowed by ballpoints is appealing to artists for whom sudden creative urges cannot be side-tracked by logistics or lengthy preparation time. Aficianados use ballpoint pens not only in conjunction with other mediums, but as their sole medium as well. The internet now provides a convenient forum for artists to promote their own ballpoint creations, and since its inception ballpoint pen art websites have flourished, showcasing the artwork and disseminating information of the usage of ballpoint pens as an art medium.

Humble origins

Everyone in the civilized world has grown up with ballpoint pens close at hand. Given such ubiquity, it should be of no surprise that ballpoint artwork would someday surface prominently. For students, ballpoint pens are a mainstay of school-supply lists. Artists now using the pens professionally often cite classroom boredom as a proving ground for ballpoint pens’ creative applications, passing the time doodling onto folders, desks, blue jeans, and even eachother. A scene early in the film Almost Famous depicts a teenager drawing famous rock band logos onto his loose leaf binder in ballpoint pen; this scene accurately illustrates, however unintentionally, the origins of many a ballpoint art career and hints at the potential artistic capabilities of this otherwise proletarian writing instrument.

Even those with no particular artistic aspirations or creative talent have, any number of times in their life, picked up a pen during lengthy telephone calls, consciously-or-not scribbling Hitler mustaches and black-eyes onto magazine photos of politicians or models. New York artist Lennie Mace has stated that he learned the basics of anatomy and perspective in his youth by tracing over newspaper photos in ballpoint pen, a practice which evolved into his Media Graffiti series.

Proliferation as art medium

Ballpoint pen artwork has gained increasing interest in the 21st Century, with professional artists’ work receiving media attention and appearing in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide. Though yet unrecognized as an art movement, per se, proponents of the medium nonetheless intermittently proclaim it as such. In contrast to movements such as Cubism or Impressionism, which classify stylistic trends or specifically outlined schools of thought, any so-called ballpoint pen art movement may at least be considered a movement of the medium, itself —comparable, possibly, with the invention and evolution of the airbrush; another medium with proven artistic applications which remains generally ignored in sofisticated art circles. Considered as such, it can be said that the ballpoint pen movement has its origins with the actual invention and proliferation of the pens in the mid-20th Century, with subsequent experimentation taking the medium’s creative application in as many directions as any formally recognized art movement —photorealist portraiture and still-life, imaginative and surrealistic scenarios, and minimalist abstractions are among the many forms in which ballpoint artwork has been presented.

Corporate acknowledgement

Although there are no accounts of official sponsorship, ballpoint pen companies have shown support to artists using their products. It’s become something of a rite of passage to replicate classic art masterpieces using ballpoint pens, promoting one’s proficiency while earning media attention. Lennie Mace in 1993 created a color replica of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa for the Pilot pen company, using only Pilot pens. British artist James Mylne created a replica of Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring in 2010 using only Bic pens, as part of a campaign organized by that company.

Ballpoint pen temporary tattoos

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Temporary tattoo drawn in ballpoint pen by Lennie Mace (Tokyo, 2006)

Ballpoint pens are among the various means of creating body art, as temporary tattoos for recreational, decorative and commercial purposes. Ink is applied directly to skin in a manner similar to that of an actual tattoo gun, except that a ballpoint pen tattoo is temporary; it can be washed off at the wearer’s discretion, or left to fade at its own natural rate. This can be an attraction for people who may not care for a permanent tattoo, but nonetheless enjoy the imagery. The manufacturing and content of ballpoint inks are regulated and it is said that ink formulas are non-toxic, perhaps due to ballpoint pens’ prevalence among students and children, but this is a topic of debate. Professional tattoo artists are known to also use ballpoints to create artwork on surfaces other than skin, and to create flash-art tattoo samples for display in tattoo parlors. Folklore suggests that prison inmates modify ballpoint pens into tattoo guns, for use while incarcerated, and gang-affilated tattoos have been created this way.

Notable ballpoint pen artists

Some of the most famous artists of the 20th Century have utilized ballpoint pens to some extent during their careers. The following contemporary artists have gained recognition not only for their specific use of ballpoint pens and technical proficiency, but also for their imagination and innovation. Their artworks are regularly featured in exhibitions worldwide.

Il Lee Korean artist living in America; since 1970’s; creates large-scale ballpoint-only abstract works on paper as well as large, abstract, mixed-media pen-works on canvas comparable to any non-ballpoint equivalent.

Lennie Mace American artist living in Japan; since 1980’s; creates imaginative, ballpoint-only artwork of varying content, complexity and size; on paper, wood, denim and skin; coined terms such as PENtings and Media Graffiti in reference to his diverse usage of ballpoint pens.

Juan Francisco Casas a Spanish painter, since 2000’s Casas also creates large-scale, photo-realistic ballpoint duplications of his own snapshots of friends, thus far utilizing only blue pens.

James Mylne British artist; since 2000’s; photo-realistic portraiture as well as abstracts; using mostly black ballpoints, sometimes with minimal color.

Technique

For artists whose interests necessitate precision line-work, ballpoints are an obvious attraction; ballpoint pens allow for sharp lines not as effectively executed using a brush. But surprising effects can be achieved, of a kind not generally imagined possible using ballpoint pens. Traditional pen-and-ink techniques such as stippling and cross-hatching can be used to create half-tones or the illusion of continuous tone. Pointillist painting techniques may be employed, as well, especially for color effects. Finely applied, the resulting imagery can easily be mistaken as having been created using colored pencil or airbrush, a reaction of disbelief which Lennie Mace refers to as the Wow Factor.

Limitations

Mistakes —a cause of concern for any artist— pose a greater risk to ballpoint artists; once a line is drawn, it generally cannot be erased. All ballpoint artists may consider this irreversibility somewhat unnerving, but some face this challenge as a test of skill, requiring a level of focus which ballpoint artist James Mylne describes as meditative. Pens with erasers and erasable ink have been manufactured, but only in black and blue inks, and with very different characteristics than normal inks.

Ballpoint pens function with less efficiency on slick surfaces or those with low friction, such as plastics. Oily surfaces also pose obvious limitations. Because of the pen's reliance on gravity to coat the ball with ink, ballpoint pens must be held upright in order to properly dispense the ink; with the exception of Space Pens, ballpoints cannot be used to write upside down.

Ink characteristics

Ballpoint pen inks are manufactured as oil-based pigments. Gel- and water-based ink sets have been produced and offer a wider selection of colors, but it is the oil-based pigments of standard ballpoint pen inks which offer greater durability and degree of lightfastness. Unlike a fountain pen or felt tip pen the ink of a ballpoint pen is more viscous, providing more consistent ink delivery while bleeding less into the drawing surface.

Pentel R.S.V.P. ballpoint pen series, which includes pink and purple inks.

Ballpoint pens dispensing standard black, blue, or red ink can be bought in any stationary store, even convenience stores. Green ink is another common color. Four-in-one pens containing all of the above colors are also marketed by some pen companies. In recent years, pink and purple inks have appeared, and novel colors such as light-blue or -green, orange, and yellow can be found with some searching. The actual ball-point nibs of the some pens are manufactured at multiple point-sizes —Pilot, for example, has a pen series with point-sizes raging from 0.5 to 1.6— allowing for a broader range of application.

External links

• Il Lee’s artist page at Art Projects International
• Lennie Mace’s official website
• James Mylne’s official website
• Juan Francisco Casas' official website
• Jerry Stith’s ballpoint art movement online gallery