Drawing with Ink
There’s something fun and freeing about drawing directly in ink — without an eraser. It challenges you to take risks and act confidently. Drawing with pen and making mistakes is unavoidable, but you learn to make marks and work with them without looking back. The majority of my ink drawings are done with this method, though I have been known to lightly pencil out a shape or form to guide my design. I will use the occasional straight edge, cup, bowl, or roll of gaffer tape with pencil to draw the guide, whatever is laying around.
Preferred Pens and Paper
I prefer felt tip pens. Currently I use Copic Multiliners, which have replaceable tips and ink wells. You don’t have to toss the whole pen when you want to refresh them. I also like the cheap and ubiquitous Micron Pigma pens. They come in sets, so you get all the size tips. They’re in most art stores. I like these pens because I like the feel of the tips and I like their ability to do pointillism as well as line art. The ink is quick drying and pigment based, so I can paint with watercolor or draw with markers over them without worrying about bleeding lines.
I prefer smooth, thick papers like the 300 series Strathmore Mixed Media papers. I get these in the 9×12 and 11×14 sizes, because I like working in sketchbooks, and they have a spiral binding with a perforated edge to remove the edge.