Show me the DQ

DQ is a collaborative sketchbook in which all the work is drawn using a ballpoint pen. Personally, I think the ballpoint pen is a severely underrated doodling apparatus, and I’m glad to see others feel the same way.

  • VD
    nix the parker ink
  • VD
    "Ball point is ok - I don’t care for it much because it can ball up at the tip and then smear - I prefer a gel based ink - those are better - or a sigma micron perm marker - ballpoint does let you get some nice shading though."

    Only cheap ballpoint pens ball-up at the tip. Parker ink and Gel-based inks have a tendency to skip when you draw real fast. Rollerballs can bleed through many papers. I think no other pen medium can achieve the soft halftoning of a pencil like a ballpoint can. Plus its responsive to pressure.

    Any interested parties should look up the archival ballpoint inks that are waterproof and permanant.
  • merawit
    oh my i love this drawing! i dont think i have words for them how much i like them, but anyways it seems like on the drawing each of them are doing there own thingg.I think that is the part i like about the drawing.
  • i like to draw with colour pencils and ballpoint pens(paper mate). if you colour really really well with colour pencils until it feels paste and draw or shade with ballpoint pens, the drawings become very rich and delicious. i love it!
  • James Robertson
    Yeh i really like these illustrations, im studying graphic design and am just about to start my final major project and i think im gonna do it devoted to the use of biro's (or ball point pen). if anyone knows any artists that have utilised this medium well please post again and let me know, would really appreciate it.
    Oh and its all about bic biro's. cant believe im posting this.
  • Tim Maxwell
    Good to know people out there get excited about the ballpoint. It kicks ass, and if you open the pen and drip the ink you can also paint with this ink.
  • I have only used ball pens in dire creative emergencies.. but I have always been pleasantly surprised. I especially like the new gel based pens. One of my favorites is the ballpoint pens Kinko's has (with erasers at the end). I find them to have very consistent ink flow. Too bad they don't sell them. So I used them when I conveniently forget to return the pen to the counter. ;-p

    No stationary store carries the Kinko's type pens and Kinko's don't sell'em .. does anyone know where I can get em?
  • I like your ballpoint pen drawing or sketch. I have a site with over 1,000 ballpoint pen drawings and many ar multi-colored. Keep up with your drawings and keep the faith.
  • Hi , I belive I find a new consider way from your illustrators. Thank u ~
    I like u works. U so cool!
  • I love drawing with a ball-point pen. Reminds me of all the doodles I did in high school, especially all my math (ugh) classes.
  • WOAH! I'm jealous.
  • brenda
    Ball point is ok - I don't care for it much because it can ball up at the tip and then smear - I prefer a gel based ink - those are better - or a sigma micron perm marker - ballpoint does let you get some nice shading though
  • phillipp
    alright, but i was more interested if its not realizable with html and maybe some javascript. I am searching now for quite a while for a java script version...but chanceless.
  • phillipp: right-click (or control-click on the Mac) on the sketchbook and you'll see that it IS flash.
  • phillipp
    I was thinking that it is maybe NOT Flash.
    All the effects they use to Flip the book seem to be realizable with
    PNG or gifs. And maybe you recognized that the pictures just appear after
    you flipped a page. So the flipeffect is indepent from the pictures. Thats why i think the flipping is just a short gif( or png) sequence and then you see the picture, Couldn´t that be realized just with Frames and Html?
  • aaron
    does anyone here has any idea who did these amazing work?
  • i'm a strong believer in simplicity, and this collaborative effort shows what can be achieved with simple tools. great stuff.
  • CP
    i'm putting my ballpoint back into my pencil case.... great motivation to draw again.
  • wow! in addition to how cool it is to see the ball point pen highlighted as a technique (which i love and often use myself), this interface is the best i've seen so far in terms of demonstrating how it feels to virtually flip through a (sketch) book. the minimal design of the page overall is great, too. it emphasizes the sketchbook and its contents that much more. verrry nice!
  • You righties and your ball-point pens! If only the ink didn't smear so much, I might join you.

    SIncerely,
    A Southpaw
  • if you slow it down, you can render with ballpoint just like a 2b pencil. sometimes i do graphite + ballpoint (black) and it merges pretty seamlessly. also, for a really nice looking drawing effect, lightly daub rubbing alcohol on a portion of ballpoint and you can turn part of it into a watercolor like effect. then, if you draw back on top of that with ballpoint again it creates a really vivd black black. another trick i like to do is to render something out in ballpoint, then gesso over it lightly so it's pretty transparent, then rerender on top of that. at that point it looks pretty slick. you cant do the alcohol thing, caus ehte acrylic/gesso will suspend it funny, but a white grease based prismacolor pencil will blend the ballpoint around again. fun stuff. ex1, ex2, ex3
  • I LOVE the interface! I've always wanted to make a sketchbook slide show just like that, but my Flash skilz are lacking.

    See, Flash is good for some things.
  • E.
    I love ballpoint...blue Papermates are my favourite. (wonderful site, but I wish it wasn't Flash...I like to be able to SAVE cool art I come across...)
  • I cannot agree more. The ballpoint is really a _great_ sketching tool, and you don't need fancy papers. Just whatever piece of paper you have near at hand... It flows on the paper like a marker, it's as easy to control as a sharpened pencil, and you can easily create shadows with quick crosshatching. I've always used it in my sketchbooks (I have the same Parker metal refillable for so many years!)
    Ballpoint rules!
  • ballpoint 4eva. i swear by it.
  • Wow... those are amazing drawings...
  • meg
    wow, that's amazing. to see how many different techniques/effects can be done with the lowly blue ballpoint is stunning! i want to go run out and buy a pack of them now!
  • reshma
    oh amazing style of illustration. this inspires me to be an illustrator.
  • Wow! I confess to an anti-ballpoint prejudice, but now I'll have to reconsider.
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