Drawing and sketching with a dip pen is a skill to master and one that requires so little effort, dip pens are far different from the usual fibre tipped pens that we call felt tips and with some learning you can apply even more control over the use of dip pens.

Dip pens are like in the photo right, usually a solid pencil like grip with a fountain pen style nip that should be flexible so that you can apply varying amounts of pressure for weights of thickness and line work, much like the free flow ink pens, the harder or less pressure you use when drawing or sketching the heavier or lighter the line.

Textured effects can be achieved through the use of cross hatching and other types of criss cross tonal methods which provide depth of tone in only the way a dip pen can.

Inks come in lots of colours for your dip pen so it is worth looking into creating some of your art that is totally devoted to pen and ink, this way you will have a way of working that is yours and one that you can improve on in time.

To get a feel for pen and ink drawing I recommend you try a still life subject at first to get a feel for the grip of the dip pen as this is how I learned and now I can draw free hand with a dip pen by drawing art from my imagination. Pick anything you would want to draw and plan your sketch.

I have drawn a simple bottle and cup arrangement as you can see below and to create that effect of drawing quick you do indeed draw quick and that is the desired benefit of using dip pens, the way of capturing ideas quickly is the true mark of an artist.