Pen and Ink: Liquid Line Drawing From Quills to Technical Pens

Rembrandt drew with a quill pen dipped in iron gall ink, and 370 years later you can still see every stroke he made. The ink has turned from black to brown as the iron compounds oxidized, but the lines are crisp, the hatching is precise, and the ink has bonded with the paper fibers so thoroughly that it cannot be erased without scraping away the surface. Pen and ink is the most permanent of drawing media. Every mark is a commitment. There is no lifting, no smudging, no going back. This permanence is what makes ink drawings so direct: the artist's confidence, or lack of it, is visible in every line.

Pen and ink is a drawing technique in which liquid ink is applied to paper (or another support) using a pen with a nib. The ink flows from the nib to the paper through capillary action, leaving a line whose width and character depend on the nib shape, the ink viscosity, and the pressure applied. Pens used for drawing include quill pens (made from bird feathers), reed pens (made from bamboo or reed), steel dip pens, fountain pens, technical pens with fixed-width nibs, and modern felt-tip and fiber-tip pens. Inks used for drawing include iron gall ink, carbon ink, bistre, sepia, and modern synthetic inks.

This entry covers what pen and ink is, the types of pens and inks, the history from ancient origins to contemporary practice, which artists are known for it, and how the medium works in practice.

What Is Pen and Ink and How Does It Work?

A pen deposits liquid ink on a surface through a nib. The nib is a pointed or shaped tip that holds a small amount of ink in a reservoir, either through capillary action (as in a quill or dip pen, where the hollow shaft of the feather or the slit in the metal nib draws ink upward) or through a feed system (as in a fountain pen, where an internal reservoir supplies ink to the nib). When the nib touches paper, the ink transfers to the surface through contact and capillary action.

The character of the line depends on the nib. A quill pen, cut from a goose or crow feather, has a flexible tip that spreads with pressure, producing lines that vary from hair-thin to broad in a single stroke. A reed pen, cut from bamboo, is stiffer and produces a broader, more angular line. A steel dip pen, the modern descendant of the quill, has a split metal nib that spreads with pressure, allowing line variation. A technical pen, such as a Rapidograph, has a tubular nib with a fixed width, producing lines of consistent thickness regardless of pressure. Modern fiber-tip pens, such as Sakura Microns, use a porous tip that delivers ink through capillary action and produces consistent lines in a range of fixed widths.

The NYC College of Technology's guide to pen and ink tools describes the crow quill as the most versatile pen for drawing: "When you press down on the crow quill, more ink is released, making the line thicker. Apply less pressure, and the line becomes thinner. This allows your line to vary from thick to thin and vice versa without having to change the position of the pen."

Types of Ink

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's guide to ink identifies four traditional types of drawing ink:

Iron gall ink was the most widely used ink from the 12th to the mid-19th centuries. It is made from gall nuts (growths on oak trees) and ferrous sulfate or metal filings, combined with a binder like gum arabic. The ink is colorless when first prepared, then oxidizes to a rich black. Over time, it often turns brown or rusty orange as the iron compounds continue to oxidize. When prepared well, iron gall ink bonds with the paper fibers, making it permanent and resistant to erasure. When highly acidic, it can eat through the paper, causing the ink to fracture and flake off. Most surviving Renaissance and Baroque pen drawings use iron gall ink.

Carbon ink (lamp black) has been used since antiquity. It is made from soot produced by burning oils or pine resins, mixed with a binder. Carbon ink produces strong, stable black lines that do not fade or change color over time. It was popular in Northern and Central Europe in the 16th century and experienced a revival in the 19th century.

Bistre is made from wood soot collected from chimneys, dissolved in water. Its color ranges from reddish brown to grayish brown. Bistre was used relatively infrequently as a drawing ink, but the term became a common descriptor for brown-toned ink drawings and watercolors.

Sepia is derived from the ink sac of cuttlefish. True sepia is difficult to make and rarely found in drawings, but the term is commonly used to describe the reddish-brown color of aged iron gall ink drawings.

In the 19th century, logwood and synthetic inks such as anilines gradually replaced iron gall ink. They were cheaper and did not corrode the newly introduced steel nib pens. Vincent van Gogh used logwood inks, favoring their rich black color. These inks have since faded to brown and orangey hues, as visible in his surviving drawings.

History of Pen and Ink Drawing

Pen and ink drawing has ancient roots. The earliest surviving ink drawings come from ancient Egypt and China. In China, brush and ink drawing was developed to a high degree during the Tang Dynasty (618-906) and Song Dynasty (960-1279), and it has remained the primary medium of Chinese art and calligraphy. In the West, pen and ink was used for manuscript illumination from the Byzantine era onward.

The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 transformed pen and ink drawing. As printed books became common, illustrators needed a medium that could be reproduced through woodblock printing. Pen and ink, with its clear black lines, was ideal. The development of hatching as a tonal system in pen drawing was driven by the needs of print reproduction: artists had to create the illusion of three-dimensional form using only black lines on white paper.

During the Renaissance, pen and ink was considered a fine-line medium, distinct from the broad marks of charcoal and chalk. Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell'Arte (c. 1390s) describes the progression of an apprentice's training: after a year of practicing with stylus and metalpoint, the student advanced to pen and ink on paper. Ink was permanent once applied, so errors could not be erased except by careful scraping of the paper surface.

The 17th century was a golden age of pen and ink drawing. Rembrandt used quill pens and iron gall ink for landscapes, figure studies, and compositional sketches. His drawings combine rapid, searching lines with confident hatching, exploiting the quill's capacity for line variation. In the 19th century, Van Gogh used reed pens and logwood ink for his drawings of the Provencal landscape, producing a distinctive dotted and dashed line quality. A 2024 study published in Secreta Artis examined the ink drawing techniques prescribed by the 19th-century French artist Gustave Fraipont in his 1897 manual, which outlined three pen techniques: lining, hatching, and dotting. Read the study at Secreta Artis.

The 20th century brought technical pens with fixed-width nibs, developed for architectural and engineering drawing but adopted by illustrators and comic artists for their consistent line quality. Modern fiber-tip pens, introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, further democratized pen drawing by eliminating the need for bottled ink.

Key Artists and Pen and Ink Drawings

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo's Five Grotesque Heads (c. 1490, Royal Library, Windsor Castle) is a pen and ink drawing that demonstrates the medium's capacity for both precise description and expressive character. Leonardo used pen and ink for anatomical studies, engineering drawings, and compositional sketches, often combining ink lines with wash for tonal effects.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)

Durer's pen and ink drawings, such as Madonna with Many Animals (1503, Albertina), show extraordinary control of the quill pen. Durer used fine hatching to build form and texture, creating drawings of a precision and finish that rival his engravings.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)

Rembrandt is the supreme master of pen and ink drawing. His landscape drawings, such as The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede (c. 1648, Rijksmuseum), use quill and iron gall ink with a freedom and spontaneity that transformed the medium. Rembrandt combined rapid outlines with loose hatching and occasional wash, creating drawings that feel both immediate and complete.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Van Gogh used reed pens and logwood ink for his drawings of the Provencal landscape, including Landscape with Houses (1888, Van Gogh Museum). His reed pen technique, with its characteristic dots, dashes, and short strokes, produced a textured, vibrating surface that captured the intense light and atmosphere of southern France. The logwood ink he used has faded from black to brown, altering the tonal balance of the surviving drawings.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Picasso used pen and ink throughout his career, from the precise line drawings of his Blue Period to the rapid sketches of his later years. His Studies for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) include pen and ink studies that show the medium used for both compositional planning and independent drawing.

Techniques for Pen and Ink Drawing

Pen and ink is a linear medium. Tonal effects are achieved through hatching (parallel lines), cross hatching (overlapping line sets), stippling (dots), and ink wash (diluted ink applied with a brush). The combination of pen lines for structure and wash for tone produces drawings with both linear definition and tonal depth. This was the standard approach of Renaissance and Baroque artists, who used iron gall ink for both the pen lines and the diluted wash.

The permanence of ink is both its strength and its challenge. Unlike graphite or charcoal, ink cannot be erased. Mistakes must be scraped away with a knife or covered with white paint. This forces a directness and commitment that other media do not demand. Some artists work in light pencil first, then commit to ink once the composition is established. Others draw directly in ink, accepting that every line is final.

Modern technical pens and fiber-tip pens produce consistent line widths, which suits them to illustration, comic art, and technical drawing but limits the expressive line variation of traditional dip pens. Artists who want the control of a fixed-width pen with the expressiveness of a dip pen often alternate between the two, using technical pens for structure and dip pens for emphasis.

Related Drawing Materials

Pen and ink is part of a family of liquid and linear drawing media. Silverpoint and metalpoint produce a similar fine line but through metal deposition rather than liquid ink. Charcoal and chalk produce broader, more tonal marks. Ink wash, created by diluting ink with water, is related to sumi-e and other ink wash painting traditions. The etching process uses ink to print from a metal plate, and many artists who drew in pen and ink also made etchings.

For more on drawing techniques, read our entries on cross hatching, hatching, and contour drawing, or explore our post on how to read a painting.

See Pen and Ink Drawings in Person

The Royal Library at Windsor Castle holds Leonardo's pen and ink drawings, including Five Grotesque Heads. The Albertina holds Durer's pen drawings. The Rijksmuseum holds Rembrandt's ink drawings, including landscapes and figure studies. The Van Gogh Museum holds Van Gogh's reed pen drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a large collection of pen and ink drawings across all periods. These works are light-sensitive and displayed in rotation.

Pen and ink is the medium that demands the most from the artist and gives the most back. There is no hiding, no blending, no second chance. The drawing is the record of every decision the artist made, in the order they made them. For more on the media that work alongside pen and ink, read our entries on silverpoint and the pencil, or explore our guide to oil painting techniques.