pen & ink

practice strokes

by JuliannaKunstler.com

Drawing with pen is different than working with other drawing media:

no tonal variation of the drawing tip (unlike a graphite pencil).
pressure, that you apply while drawing, DOES matter - lines change thickness as you press harder (unlike a fine-tip marker).

So, to create value and texture variations - you need to use different strokes, patterns, alter space between stokes, change stroke length and thickness, overlap strokes, etc. This is why we are going to start with a series of exercises.

learn the basic pen strokes

ink strokes

continuous lines
(don’t need to be parallel)

horizontal strokes

parallel line strokes
(strokes can be any size)

crosshatching

crosshatching
strokes

wavy strokes

wavy lines
(apply different pressure)

pointillism

pointillism
(stippling)

scribbles

scribble
strokes

hatching

hatched line
strokes

stroke clusters

clusters of
hatched lines

wood texture

wood texture 1
(continuous wavy lines)

wood texture

wood texture 2
(vertical scribble strokes)

wood texture strokes

wood texture 3
(clusters of hatched strokes in wood pattern)

texture strokes

wood texture 4
(combination of strokes)

contrasts, variations, and stroke combinations

contrast strokes

contrast of value 1
(parallel strokes)

value contrast

contrast of value 2
(crosshatching)

texture contrast

contrast of texture
1

texture contrast

contrast of texture
2

texture strokes

contrast of texture
3

direction variations

line direction variation
1

direction variation strokes

line direction variation
2

direction variation

line direction variation
3

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