ballpoint
Working on a fairly large red and blue ballpoint commission based on the maze from my December post. It’s too fun!
Any larger, I’d have to work on an easel or wall.
The maze is created in the red ballpoint. I did use light pencil guidelines for the isometric grid.
Though I used a grid, I still kept the buildings and paths kind of loose.
Cleaning the pens as I draw. I love my Zebra pens!
How many bicycles? How many cats? Can you find the cannon?
Giant Robot Gallery in Los Angeles has an annual group show where hundreds of artists are invited to submit small, 3x3” works on Post-It notes. The pieces can be bought for $25. It can be a fun way to score original art from your favorite artists and illustrators or discover new stuff. After the initial week or two, the unsold work goes online.
Here are some of the pieces I sent in for this year:
Here is the art I picked up last year:
Top: Eric Nyquist, Ako Castuera, Genevieve Santos
Bottom: Gemma Correll, Gina Triplett, Allison Cole
My first GR issue! >sigh<
You may remember Giant Robot as a magazine in the 1990’s-2000’s. The magazine was all about West Coast, Asian-American and Asian pop culture. I devoured every issue. The editor then, Eric Nakamura, created the Giant Robot brand and runs the current gallery in Los Angeles. The gallery continues to promote Asian-American artists and West Coast pop and street art. Everyone should follow.
Read this article about the Post-It show, Nakamura, and the artists at My Modern Met —>
Tackling more detail in these ballpoint mazes. I make the initial drawing in red ballpoint, then deepen the shadows and paths with blue and a little black Micron pen.
Here’s a little maze I did in ballpoint pen. Unusually, I didn’t lay it out first, just started in the uppper left and worked across the page. Real iRobot plotter style.
The squiggles at the top are cleaning my pen. I still get globbies though. I’m not sure how the pros avoid it.
I’ve been playing around with ballpoint for a few weeks now, practicing patience and control. I’ve posted a some on my Instagram, but most I will hide until I get better. I have a ways to go! There are several artists I follow who do ballpoint work, like Nicolas Sanchez and Guno Park.
