Fine Art Photography

Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.  Many artists chase expensive supplies, yet you’ve built a practice around an everyday pen. What do you love most about the limitations of blue ballpoint, and how do those limitations expand your creativity?

  • ANSWER 2.    I love the ease of finding this one pen anywhere I go. The ability to get different textures and shades from one cheap tool is amazing.

Bryan Earle
Illustrator

MEDIUM:    ballpoint pen

BIO:    I'm 47 and have been using a basic ball point pen for the last 15yrs now. I still play around with pencil but ballpoint pen is where my heart is. I do like Ai art but feel that the traditional painting, drawing and sculpting mediums need to be the standard for art.

EMAIL:       116bryandk@gmail.com

QUESTION 3.    Viewers often only see the final smooth gradients — but behind them are countless hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling decisions. How do you decide which mark-making technique will bring a particular texture to life?

  • ANSWER 3.     All of my pieces use a form of hatch marks. Its if I choose to smooth shade them like a pencil or leave them all hatch depends more on size and mood of piece. For "Wednesday Morning", it was all hatch marks -- felt that style fit the piece more. But on bigger realism pieces like "Handling Our Future", i smooth shaded for softer affect.

QUESTION 1.    A Ballpoint is famously unforgiving — one slip, and the line is permanent. What has using a tool with no eraser taught you about patience, problem-solving, and trusting your instincts?

  • ANSWER 1.    It's the unforgiveness of this medium that made me fall in love with it. Using it, I must slow myself down and look ahead to all of the grey scales in the piece. I've also learned that its only a mistake if you treat it as one.. Sometimes, its opening up your mind to adapt and make it better. Example: in the piece "Handling Our Future", a mistake on one of the fingers forced me to change the soft hands to robotic ones. The meaning of the piece had more meaning to me then.

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Wednesday Morning, ballpoint pen, 7ply tag board, 6 x 9

From Under My Umbrella, ballpoint pen, 7ply tag board, 12 x 18

Handling Our Future, ballpoint pen, 7ply tag board, 12 x 18

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Bryan Earle.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

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