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Comment by fzeindl | Hacker News Reader

I started doing ink drawings (0.1mm ink pens).

I tried pencil at first but with ink I liked that I can’t erase and can’t shade by using pressure.

So every mistake has to be transformed into something agreeable.

It is very productive to think about drawing in a logical way, e.g. how can I achieve what I want to achieve in a part of my picture. What also helps is knowing that a perfect drawing is a photo and I don’t want to produce a photo. And I try drawing what I actually see, not what my mind abstracts and thinks the picture should look like.

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I mostly use fineliners too. Even when I draw models posing "live" (actually on Zoom, most of the time) I do the preliminary sketches with thin, light gray pens, and then when I have the proportions mostly right (or at right as I can) I go in with a dark pen.

Example: (NSFW) https://www.instagram.com/p/C_C5VQZOYVF/?img_index=8

How long does a fineliner typically last? During the pandemic I tried doing Draw A Box, which demands fineliners. It seemed like they’d die on me extremely fast, and was a big reason I stopped. I don’t know if I got a bad batch or that’s just how they are.

If you buy quality ink pens by pentel or faber Castell they will last years, depending on usage.

I bought Pentel Pointliners. I don’t know if I got a day out of it. It was certainly less than a week.

I still have a bunch. I bought a whole back. But after the first one became useless I quickly I wasn’t so interested in continuing to use them.

My main problems with fineliners is not their "autonomy" but their durability. I work on small scale drawings most of the time (A5) and I use small size tips. I surely throw away more pens due a damaged tip than due to ink.

I am also using Japanese roller pens in very small sizes and these are sturdier, and last "long enough", in my experience

This could have been the issue. Maybe there was still ink in it, but the tip couldn’t deliver it.

I always had a bad time with them as a kid and ignored them for a couple decades. I only tried again after they were so highly recommended for this program. They wouldn’t accept work for review without using them. But they were exactly as I remembered, if not worse.

It’s possible I got unlucky at the start, but with it confirming my past memories, I was that interested in investing further in a program that required I use my least favorite implement.

This is me five or so years back. It was very calming and therapeutic for me. Same goes for the pen versus pencil thing. There is that charm of living with your mistakes and finding something new out of those mistakes.

I don't actually draw though, more like doodle and make something substantial (for me) out of it. It can be anything - an object, letters, shapes, anything which can dance in some harmony.

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