Scribbled Lives Week 24—Tool Limitation

The instructions were simple: using only a ballpoint pen (either blue or black), do a calligraphic piece that contains five or more words. Despite the severe limitations, enjoy drawing the letters and thinking about the elements of art and principles of design. If a graphic is used to illustrate the text, that artwork must also be rendered with the same blue or black ballpoint pen.

Hmmm…a simple challenge that I managed to complicate! There were many ideas for this prompt, but I finally settled on composing a text and presenting it in a boustrophedon layout (written from left to right and right to left in alternate lines).

The finest and least blobby ballpoint in the house was a Pilot G-Tech-C4. Despite careful erasure, the ink smeared around the top of the blue button. Nevertheless, an interesting halo effect was created while blending pen strokes. I tried to replicate the halo evenly, but the ink didn’t want to cooperate. Ballpoint pens are unpredictable!