Course Overview
Become a better pen and ink artist! Learn techniques for capturing the values, textures, and contours you see in the world around you. Join artist Paul Heaston as he guides you through foundational and advanced ink drawing techniques — from expressive linework to hatching, ink wash, stippling, and rendering complex textures. By the end of this course, you’ll have a wide range of skills for creating detailed and dynamic pen and ink art.
Video Lesson List
1. Contour Lines & Gestural Lines
Meet your instructor, Paul Heaston, and start exploring the basics of ink drawing. Learn how to accurately capture form with contour lines and add expressiveness to your work with gesture lines.
Duration: 16 min
2. Creating Value With an Ink Wash
Learn to achieve a watercolor-like look with ink wash. Discover how to control your brush to apply a range of values, mastering light and shadow in your ink sketches for dramatic effects.
Duration: 22 min
3. Cross-Contour Lines
Switch to fine-tip pens and use cross-contour lines to define volume and add realistic dimension to your drawings, going beyond simple outlines.
Duration: 11 min
4. Hatching
Explore a variety of hatching techniques: from contour hatching to parallel hatching and dense crosshatching, plus experimenting with line width and spacing to create dynamic shadows and textures.
Duration: 19 min
5. Basket Weave, Gesture & Stippling
Add complexity and texture to your value studies with basket weave, expressive gesture marks, and the stipple technique for incredible detail and even tones.
Duration: 14 min
6. Challenging Textures
Discover professional tips for rendering complex textures and patterns, such as foliage, fur, water, and stonework. Learn to layer detail, suggest textures quickly, and conceal mistakes.
Duration: 31 min
7. Putting It All Together
Combine all the class techniques in a real-time final sketch. Watch Paul’s process as he integrates contour, wash, hatching, stippling, and more to create value, depth, and varied textures in a dynamic finished drawing.
Duration: 26 min

