Ink and Instinct: Explore Expression in Ballpoint with David Tenorio

In this portrait lesson (61 mins), artist David Tenorio invites you to slow down, lean into your instincts, and explore the unique joys and challenges of ballpoint pen drawing.

Working with a new-to-him pen—a dark green-black gel ink picked up on a whim—David builds a striking portrait from scratch, sharing his honest, evolving process in real time.

From his first delicate marks to his final flourishes of form and texture, you’ll see how subtle shifts in line, pressure, and placement can bring surprising life to the page.

This lesson is about more than mastering technique—though you’ll get plenty of that, from nose “anchoring” strategies to softly rendered eye sockets.

It’s also about embracing experimentation: learning to control value and texture, adapting to unfamiliar tools, and letting small “mistakes” become part of your mark-making vocabulary.

Several students have remarked on the emotional expressiveness of the finished drawing—“pensive,” “a bit pugnacious”—and on how David’s approach to the eyes in particular opened up new ways of seeing and drawing.

This session is an invitation to “draw what you see,” adjust as you go, and trust that even in a medium as unforgiving as pen, there’s room to discover, to soften, and even to start over.

Ready to put pen to paper? Let's get started!