ASBA 2025 - Denise Walser-Kolar - The Beauty of Ballpoint Pen for Botanicals

The Beauty of Ballpoint Pen for Botanicals with Denise Walser-Kolar

Saturday, October 18, 2025
9am – 4pm

The familiar ballpoint pen is ideal for creating distinctive, unique botanical art, in both the studio and in the field. Drawings can be loose and expressive or precisely controlled, rendering velvety depths. We will explore techniques for creating textures and value and then apply our discoveries to glorious Fall subjects from the garden. Ballpoint pen can be a soothing and relaxing medium as well as an important technique to strengthen our skills in other media.

Supplies:

• The materials list is short! All you really need is pen and paper. (we will be talking about all the supplies on this list, but I will be working with a black Caran d'Ache ballpoint pen on an Arches hot press watercolor block).
• Caran d’Ache 849 ballPoint PEN, black
• Caran d’Ache 849 BallPoint Goliath black cartridge REFILLS in three sizes
• Muji Wooden Hex Ballpoint PEN 0.5 mm, black (SKU# 4548718281190)
• Muji Ballpoint Pen REFILLS 0.5 mm, black
• Clairefontaine Maya Ivory Paper 270sqm, 97275 Absolutely lovely and inexpensive,.
• Legion Stonehenge Paper is a great substitute
• Arches Watercolor Block, Hot Press, whatever size you prefer, or Strathmore 500 vellum Bristol, or any smooth watercolor paper, multimedia paper, or drawing paper. Test to see what you prefer.

Optional:

• Drawing pencil(s) and sharpener(s)
• White plastic eraser(s), Tombow Mono Zero eraser, Click eraser
• A small cloth or paper towel to wipe the pen and avoid the blobbies
• A scrap of your drawing paper for testing marks
• Tracing paper (if you prefer drawing and transferring your subject) and to use under your hand/arm to keep your surface clean
• Glove, if you use them, to keep your surface clean
• Task lamp
• Magnifying glass
• Drawing board

Ballpoint Pen Options: Double check the ballpoint size (fine, medium, large or equivalent) and the color of ink before purchasing. Sometimes pens come with blue ink only. It’s always nice to have some refills on hand even if the pen ships with black ink. Another important specification to double check, make sure it’s actually a ballpoint pen you’re purchasing. These days there are a lot of different types of pens available (for example rollerballs, etc.). I have two each of the Caran d’Ache in fine and medium ballpoints with black ink. Honestly, any ballpoint pen will do, although it’s important to make sure the ink is archival, and you like the range of marks the pen makes. Cheaper pens get the dreaded “blobbies” faster (more about that in the workshop). You can certainly experiment with your favorite ballpoint, or the freebie pen you picked up. If you only want to purchase one pen, I recommend starting with a fine point. There are a wide variety of styles and price points for the same pens—be sure to shop around! The links below can get you started. And I always like to support my local brick-and-mortar art supply stores. Paper & Ink Arts have a selection of ballpoint pens. Support ASBA by clicking on the Paper & Ink Arts logo from their website Our Sponsors - American Society of Botanical Artists and a portion of your purchase will be donated back to ASBA.