Fond of sketching? Looking for a pen that will suit your style? Are you tired of the smudge on your hands, or the ink line being broken after using? Here are some of the ‘best’ ballpoint pens for sketching rated according to the thousands of reviews found on Amazon and from artists around the globe.
Sharpie 37001 Permanent Markers
This 0.2 mm marker pen fits amazingly well with tasks requiring precision and finesse. Used mainly in outlining and polishing sketches, its ultra-narrow tip equates to a superb control over the lines. The ink dries swiftly, avoiding smears and smudge on the paper. It is also water and fade-resistant. It also comes in colors like Blue, Magenta, Orange, Purple, and Red, proving its intense and vibrant colors alluring the eyes. (A pack has 12 pens)
Sakura Pigma 30061 Micron Blister
Want to experience smooth writing with no broken lines when writing? Then this pen is the one for you. The ink leaves a flow that will ensure a consistent thickness and sameness of the lines every time. It offers a variety of tips – 0.25 mm, 0.35 mm and 0.45 mm accordingly. This pen gained a lot of favors, having crafters, artists and technical professionals use it. The other reason for it is also that it does not clog or dry. The pen comes in nightly black and vintage sepia. (3 pens a pack)
MyLifeUNIT Fineliner Color Pen Set, 0.4mm
This pen set goes with 10 variations of vibrancy. The assortment compliments well and results in an outstanding performance in the field of graphics, designs, manga, and illustrations. Designers of Architecture, Comics, AD, and Animation specifically use this. The tip is 0.4mm and its ink is water-based.
Tanmit 0.4 Fine Tip Markers & Brush Highlighter Pen Set
Giving the advantage to this pen is its dual-tip feature that can be used for shading and coloring while the 0.4 fine tip is perfect for outlining and other details. This enables the colorful fine-lining of the sketch. Equipped with an arsenal of 36 different colors with each having its own type of tip, it is so versatile it can be used for various things like sketching, journals, planners and calligraphy. The packaging also gives the pen to for easy placing in the bag and even pockets.
BIC Ultra Round Stick
These sets of pens were incredibly amazed you when it comes to shading. It has a unique color that will match your mood. The fine lines brought you by its tungsten carbide ballpoint were provides you smooth sketching and detailing. This also has Easy-Glide System ink technology with up to 35% smoother ink compared to current BIC ball pen ink systems and because of its rubber grip with the ringed finger, it gives you non-slip comfort grip.
Uni-ball Onyx Rollerball Pens
You’ll be hooked for the durability of this Black, Onyx Rollerball Pens designed by Uni-ball. No matter your writing style and sketching techniques, it is 0.5 mm ultra-fine sized tip flows absolutely throughout the page for an easy stroke and writing. It has a quick-drying ink system that makes your sketches more on point without worrying that inking will disrupt your whole craft.
Staples Postscript Ballpoint Pens
Have a great imagination? Imagine no more. Sketch it out with a style at ease using the ballpoint black Postscript pen, designed by Staples. Sketching with this 1 mm medium-sized tip is easy across the page. Created with a soft grip, this 1 medium pen will give you the comfort you deserve.
Pilot Frixion Ball 0.25
Even though it doesn’t slide well on paper and the ink is grey, Pilot Frixion Ball 0.25mm is very useful when it comes to detailing, outlining, and rough sketches. What makes it unique is that it has Erasable ink technology that lets you correct and erases excess lines.
Pilot G-Tec-C 0.4
From G-Tech Collections of Pilot comes G-Tech C 0.4mm gel ink. It perfectly suits your fond of sketching, either portraits, landmasses and sceneries, and even architectural and engineering works. Because of its extra-fine tip, you can focus your craft into so many details more broad pens can’t. It also comes in different colors such as luscious red, deep ocean blue, gloomy iris black, vibrant yellow, nature imbued green, and playful purple.
Pilot Green Techpoint 5
This pen provides hard lines that will make the sketches more absolute and highlighted. This pen also used to have a variation to your sketches. Because of its 0.5mm point, you can line to the pages more swiftly without repeating lines that may ruin the totality of your craft.
Black Micro-Fineliner Pens
Offering a wide array of tip sizes, the Black Micro-Fineliner pens gives you the pinpoint accuracy you need even for the most minute of detail of the sketch. That hair strand-thin line quality that you have ever wanted will now be possible. From a 0.8 mm to a tiny-tiny 0.05 mm, you could say that this pen even went to a very strict diet to achieve its slim tip.
ARTEZA Fineliner Fine Point Pens
These premium fineliners from ARTEZA have an ink that is odor-less, smudge-free and is water-based. Its Triangular-shaped Ergonomic Barrel will stop your pen from rolling off your desk – a very useful feature indeed.
Symbolic
Away from its literal and superficial meaning, sketching for us is a primary step in attaining one’s goal. It is a platform where you first create the sketches of your goals, the step where you strengthen your foundations and place where you cannot avoid mistakes. Even though this is not yet your goal, this point is the most crucial one for you to have a more compact and finer goal in the future. Rough drafts, excessive lines, wrong shadings, these are the challenges you will be having at the process, but like in sketching, you will know the quality of the sketches by simply seeing to those challenges and mistakes as a part of the whole masterpiece. We cannot avoid those things, but we can lessen the totality of our mistakes.
Sketching also boosts our creative minds and playfulness. Like in life, we are taught that aside from intellect and attitude, we must possess creativity for us to stand out. We are sick of being so normal and ordinary, the tendency is that we are now living our lives so serious and missing the fun provides by our innate creativity and adventurousness. We must learn the correct mixture of living creatively while being mature enough to do our responsibilities.
In life, there is no guarantee that there are no hardships in life in the future. There will be mistakes, pain, and downs, but what you learned in the past will guarantee that even though you commit mistakes, the damage it will cause you can be lessened. The life you lived in the past will serve as your foundation to keep moving. Just like in sketching, there is no guarantee that after you used these best pens, you will be going to be pro in this field. You will be going to tons of trials and errors but knowing what you have and what you will use is a great backbone to keep you igniting in the craft you wanted to go.
So get down to your pads and continue sketching your life. Whether your lines will be straight or curved. Sometimes you will also need to draw some lines as limitations. There will also be moments when you will have to draw lines that will meet its own starting point. There will also come a time where you are just too tired to continue sketching. When this time comes, a reprieve comes in handy. Take a deep breath get some shut-eye then rest.
There will also come a time when you are too focused on beautifying one part of the sketch and completely forget the whole picture. There will also be a time where you are just so amazed of your sketch that you brag about its others and compare it to theirs.
There will be times where it may very well look like your sketch does not make any single sense but do not stop until it is done. Whatever it is that will happen, until the day you have lived unto your end, until it is finished, by then you can decide if it can be called your masterpiece – the YOU who have sketched it. The “YOU” who have awed people. The YOU, whose own life’s art will be remembered and treasured even until you are gone.
There is no ultimate perfect pen. It is your creativity, skill, talent, and passion that drives you to feel so close to perfect. Best pens cannot be said “best” without the artist behind the “pens”.
We hope that this list of the best ballpoint pens for sketching help you choose the best tool for your craft. Good luck!
