Jodie

a: Jodie Foster, sketchbook drawing from photo
Bic® medium 4-color ball point pen on paper
June 1994

b: detail of same

Since some time in 1991, judging by my sketchbooks, I've favored the Bic® medium point, 4-color ball point pen as my daily writing instrument - that's the one with the blue barrel that has black, blue, red and green retractable pen nibs. It's compact and the ball-point ink dries quickly. The charms of the orange barrel fine-point version are lost on me.

After doing this sketch, I had the notion of making "office-product media" art - basically creating "art" with ball point pens, highlighters and white out on 8.5 x 11" copier paper. That never really blossomed as a real pursuit. Probably because, the medium point takes so long to fill large areas of color, in addition to the obvious color limitations.

Besides my sketch books, I do advocate the use of the letter-size sheet. To stroll through an office supply store, it evident that storage of this size page is just so convenient.

Speaking of daily writing instruments, the Uni-Ball® Vision fine point rollerball pens are nice. Again, the smaller ultra-fine points ill suit me. The inks are bright and flow steadily through out the pens' live. A wetter ink than that of ball-points, solid coverage is achieved quicker and easier.