#ballpoint pens

[pallanophblargh]

The annual ballpoint pallanoph in celebration of clinging to this rocky sphere for one more year (despite appearances) was delayed by a few days. Oops! I’m not dead, just growing older.

Art is still hard, but this runs on autopilot sometimes. And sometimes, that’s enough.

[izogod]

29.04-23.09.2023 sketchbook

[aaaaa4art]

Headpool from Deadpool and Wolverine

[forwardbiaspony]

Day 21: Entrapta

If you didn't know, Entrapta is one of my favorite characters of all time. Why it didn't occur to me till *yesterday* that I could learn to draw fanart of her is beyond me. But here we are, with best roboticist princess, in triplicate no less! XD

Honestly, I think this is the best way to round out the ballpoint pens week.

[pandora-books]

The Pen

A friend—we will call her Red Letter Girl—is a talented writer. She always writes by hand, committing her words to private journals in richly colored ink. Sometimes she sends photos of pages she has written. The graceful letters echo the eloquence of her words.

This morning, she sent a photo of a beautiful Cross ballpoint pen. Expensive, yes, but so alluring...

I'm pragmatic. I write on my laptop. I type quickly. It's easy.

But...

I am looking at the photo of the pen and suddenly I'm jealous of Red Letter Girl. She has an accomplice, seducing her: You want me. You need me. I'll help you. I will help you write, we will make something beautiful together.

I am looking at my keyboard. It is dull and workmanlike. It is not calling to me. I am not motivated by the tools I use.

Instead, as I write this, I'm motivated by the thought of a beautiful woman holding a beautiful pen, writing beautiful things.

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

hey can u tell me abt ball point pen history

OH BOY DO I EVER!!!

The first patent for ballpoint pens was granted in 1888. Specifically on the 30th of October, to one John J Loud. It was supposed to be able to write on coarser surfaces that a fountain pen could not.

However, this very first version of a ballpoint pen sucked balls. It was not a design that could not write on paper. At all. Also, the ink tended to either leak (in summer) or freeze (in winter) Mind, I only have one specific source on this model right now but. There's a reason they were yet to be used for a long time. Over the next couple decades, a few people tried to chime in with suggestions for improvement but Loud kept a tight wrap on those patents.

No profit was made from Loud's original version of a ballpoint pen. But, you know, technically it still existed.

Now, early 20th century. Enter László Biró, a newspaper editor who was frustrated about all the smudging ink from fountain pens and his dentist brother-with-chemical-knowledge György. Biró (already seeing the resemblance to some slang here) watched newspapers being printed and dry very, very quickly and went "actually, You Know What".

What they figured out was that to use ink that dries fast in a pen, you need a pen that prevents the ink from drying fast inside of said pen. Therefore, they spent Quite A While figuring out a mechanism to allow inkflow while preventing it from drying and clogging up inside. 1938, they filed for a British patent.

1941, the Biró brothers left Hungary due to its support of Hitler (based) and eventually settled in Argentina, where they founded/developed a new brand of ballpoint pens with their friend Juan Jorge Meyne and filed a new, better patent in 1943.

Now this is where things get messy and my sources differ sliiightly but considerably enough to be confusing.

One the one hand, you have two companies, Eversharp Co and Eberhard Faber Co teaming up to license this Birome pen in the USA.

Around the same time, a bit later, some American fuckhead, also known as Milton Reynolds gets a hold of a Biró pen and gets a whiff of sales money immediately. He goes back to the US and starts his own company. This is Absolutely Not A Copyright Infringement since he's selling an altered copy only loosely based on those Birome pens. Definitely. Absolutely.

I mean, to be fair, it was in fact different enough to count as its own brand. And it skipped and leaked and did not live up to user expectations. But neither did Eversharp/Faber's pens, and both companies were constantly caught up in their beef that both companies went down like a lead balloon.

Eventually, Parker Pens got out the first proper design that, you know, actually worked as intended (and was, I think, actually licensed to Birome pens), and a little later Bich, then shortened to Bic, made a design that actually offered quite some precision. This was around the 1940s/1950s when ballpoint pens now finally, actually, permanently came in use (Bic around the 60s I believe) and I love them.

Keep in mind, though, I only used three sources, one of those Wikipedia, and picked through slight contradictions to figure out what makes sense and is the most likely, so take this with a grain of salt.

For the initial purposes of my research, however, this was more than sufficient. (I needed to know if I could have a character in the 30s click a pen. Since they were still pretty much not in use back then, she got to twirl a pencil instead. It was one tiny sentence.)

Thank you for asking! It's my favourite piece of niche knowledge to whip out at random and the only one I can support with dates and names, though I did have to read up on my bookmarked pages. I am waiting for the day when I finally play powerpoint karaoke and get the topic of ballpoint pens. Please let this happen, it would be so funny. Uno uno (<- prayer of my friend group).

[art-of-mathematics]

I have collected them all - These are all colors of the Schneider ballpoint pens that are available.

Color joy.

[marisashorror]

How many ballpoints do you go through per piece

Most times I don't even finish one! If it's a giant drawing (3 by 4 ft) I might use up a few, but that's pretty rare.

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

some brba sketches i forgot to post !! the references i used are probably obvious even if i didnt stick to them perfectly

bonus mini angry walts because

[arielbonestrike]

I recently watched Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, by chance. And now Superman is taking up a large chunk of my brain.

Superman was originally created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster.

[izogod]

sketchbook 25.09.2023

[aaaaa4art]

Just wanted to draw this lol

[forwardbiaspony]

Another complete page finished last night. Only one bonus card here.

[leuchtturm1917aus]

You can learn about, how to replace graphite in a Mechanical Pencil enhance your writing experience, and bring efficiency to your daily tasks.

[onyxalsolikesart]

from the 19th and 20th PLEASE click on the closeups PLEASEEE🙏

[dustythewind]

8. None of the above

If I could only use one type, it would be RSVP Fine Point by Pentel. We've bought them in bulk for years. They're reliable, fit my hand well and have a grippy thing in the right place.

If you aren’t choosing 5, you need help.