Ballpoint and Beyond (Painting with Lines) with Samantha Stover
Class | Registration opens 11/19/2025 12:00 AM EST
This class will focus on the popular and extremely convenient on-the-go media of The Pen. Starting with Ballpoint, which is similar to graphite pencil, this pen can achieve a range of subtle tonality and a high degree of luminosity, and it is indelible! We will also explore techniques with ink and brush, brush-pens, fountain pens and mixed-media options. Learning to draw with pen helps build confidence, dexterity and finesse, as considerate decision making is essential when the strokes are permanent. In this class, students will learn to develop detail in rendering monochromatic pen drawing as well as layering techniques for multicolored, kaleidoscopic effects. This class will include exercises in still-life, interpreting photo reference and masterworks, and working directly from the portrait and figure from life.
Your instructor has provided a list of materials required to participate fully in this class.
If you have any questions about specifics or what is needed week-to-week, please reach out to your instructor via the email in your confirmation letter.
View the supply list: https://www.dickblick.com/lists/blicku/J242A1LMXFYYR
- Sketchbook or Paper with a rigid backing board; Suggested under 20” either side. Hot-Pressed Watercolor paper works well. (Arches, Fabriano, or similar.)
- Single color ballpoint pen (recommended: Fine). I use Parker brand Refill Fine (black, blue, and/or red) and Waterman Rollerball Refill Fine. (Refills are the inside of the pen, without the tube/holder of the pen). Other options: any Ballpoint Pen you use for writing, office, home (Bic, Zebra, etc)
- Optional: Pilot “Frixion” Erasable pen
- Fine-liner such as Micron, Pilot G-Tec, Faber-Castell Pitt Pen XS or similar (0.1 Tip)
- BIC 4-color retractable ballpoint pen in “FLUO” style with *yellow*/red/blue/black ink
- Optional: 10-color multi retractable pen
- Water Reservoir “Pen,” round and flat, (Pentel or other)
- Optional: Brush Pens of choice, any (I use Sennelier and Faber-Castell)
- Optional: Fountain Pen
- Artists tape, drafting tape or painters tape (low tac) ¼ ½ or ¾” for the size of your paper or sketchbook
- Napkins or paper towels
Samantha Stover
Samantha Stover grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Literature and Art History from McGill University and a Masters in Fine Art, cum laude, from the New York Academy of Art. Throughout her academic studies in art, she focused her concentration on Drawing Techniques: historical methods and materials as well as figure-drawing exclusively from life. She learned painting, predominantly, as a copyist in New York and Washington, DC and she has traveled widely through Europe studying master drawings and paintings. Her current work involves figuration and the power of creative expression. Drawing also on her previous experience as a theatrical costume designer, she is influenced by the performative and communicative capacity of the human form and spirit. She employs the practices of her traditional training and her experience with the figure in motion to capture fleeting observations, emotions and memories.
To view more of Samantha's work online, visit www.samanthastover.com