Pen Drawing for Beginners: Permanency, Texture and Composition

Drawing with fine liner ink pens comes with a few challenges. Not only are you limited to black and white tones, but everything is permanent. 

By approaching pen drawing in layers — starting with pencil, and moving towards darker lines and shading — you can craft vibrant drawings that allow for mistakes and experimentation within the permanent medium. 

After this class, you’ll have a foundation of ink fundamentals, and hopefully a new appreciation for the vast possibilities of the medium. 

I’ll explain how to:

• Compose a pen sketch
• Know which pen thickness to use and how to choose your sketchbook. 
• Create an outline 
• Use texture and shading 
• Deal with mistakes
• Create emphasis 

This class is perfect for beginners. I'll be walking you through my whole process of creating an ink drawing. Though, more seasoned artists could still benefit from this class as we'll be exploring texture and composition as well.

If you’ve gotten a pack of new fineliners and want some tips on how to best put them to use, this is your class!

You’ll need at least one drawing pen and a blank piece of paper (check out the class project description for helpful links!). But I’ll go through some tips for picking equipment in the first class, too. 

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get drawing. 

Want to learn more about drawing with pens? Check out Sam's new class: Drawing textures with Pen: Distance, Detail and Shadow. 

• Introduction
• Project Intro
• Choosing Pens and Paper
• References: Identifying Values
• Composition
• Pencil Outlines
• Creating Guidelines
• Layering Shapes with Weight
• Texture Reference Sheet
• Crafting Textures
• Illusion of Detail
• Revising Your Pen Drawing
• The End