Since 2014

Original content © The Ballpointer / Mahozawari Unlimited

Slacker-stud Travis (Breckin Meyer) takes notice of Tai's drawings in the cafeteria (''Nice representation!'') and shows an unmistakable look of puppy love (''You didn't trace these?!''). Cue the Marvin Gaye music!...

Guy Woodard   New York, New York

Eric Seaholm   Tokyo, Japan

Gareth Edwards   Stourbridge, England

''I am always inspired by the signs of human activity/existence. I like the chaos in a room where there is no neatness, only clutter. I find that disorder is more natural than order. And I find more inspiration for good composition from such scenes, as if it easy to eliminate a few unwanted objects in the picture to make it more appealing. Since I started drawing with ballpoint pens about eight years ago, my subjects have mainly been landscapes. I have also experimented with portraits, still life, abstract and more, but recently I am attracted more to the actual human activity on street, people, standing, walking and moving in many directions, busy in their own thought. And I did make a few drawings of this theme. Once I was in the market for some work in the evening and I saw this beautiful scene where there was a evening glow still in the skies and also the street lights and shop glow signs were all ''on'', having their own glow. I immediately captured a few snapshots, thinking that this would be a good reference for my drawing. My drawings have always shown all objects frozen in time. So this time I thought of showing blurred motion in my scene. You can see the motorcyclist zooming out of the scene in the right corner, and a lady walking hurriedly across the street. The more challenging part was to render shadows in many different directions. It took a lot of effort to correctly balance all the tonal variation from brightly lit areas to shadowed area. Working in full color was also really very interesting. I hope it has come out well''      

More info: askshirish@gmail.comDeshpande will be featured in the Octoberedition of  The BallpointerArtwork © Shirish Deshpande

Pepe Lozano   Cordoba, Spain

Dave Warshaw   San Diego, California

Matt Rota   Brooklyn, New York

2015  PICKS  page archive MENU

FEB2015~NOV2015click the BALLPOINTER graphic (left) to access the full 2015 menu

James Mylne, 1999   London, England

​​​​​PICK PIECES   The Ballpointer staff choose the artwork and let the artist explain it in their own words   Vol 3 No 7  originally posted Sept 4, 2016

Shirish DeshpandeBelgaum, India

Evening Glow  ・ 2016 ・ 14 x 12'' (36 x 51.2cm) ・ ballpoint pen on handmade, 100% cotton paper 


Peter Ross   Hong Kong

Sadly, Brittany Murphy died in 2009. But what about those binders; do they still even  make  them?


Read more K. RieSTARPOINTS on the CULTUREDpage

PICKS PAGE ARCHIVES2016:  Read about these artworks in the artists' own words in The Ballpointer PICKPIECE archives. Click on the artwork to see their PICKPIECES.

M.I. Shaikh   Mumbai, India

STARPOINTS  by K. Rie  originally posted Sept 8, 2016

All but the keenest viewers may have missed the many ballpoint pen cameos on screens big and small over the years. Ballpoints are regulars in Hollywood productions, and not just as set dressing... 

Back To School Ballpointer

Clueless  1995・Directed by Amy Heckerling  
Early in the movie that made Alicia Silverstone a star (as Cherilyn 'Cher' Horowitz), frumpy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) is introduced to the fashionable students of Beverly Hills High School. She carries with her a certain blue looseleaf binder, which gets lots of screen time to show Tai as an arty outsider clutching it like a security blanket...

Those faded denim-colored, hardcover, three-ring binders were blue canvas for a whole generation of bored students (and future ballpointers) throughout the 1970s and into the '80s. Judging by Tai's binder art she's apparently a fan of the popular Looney Tunes cartoon character Marvin The Martian, whom she depicted on the back cover and inside among other random doodles...

Also appearing in her doodles are six-pack abs on a musclebound torso with a question mark for a head; a beaming peace sign; 'BAM !' in graffiti letters; even a Tim Burton shrunken-head. At the bottom of a page where it looks like Tai was practicing drawing cartoon facial expressions, she wrote: 'Why is it so hard to draw happy!!' punctuated rhetorically with not one but two exclamation points...

Shane McAdams   Wisconsin / Brooklyn

Lennie Mace   Tokyo, Japan

''Artist explanation''      


*Additional information


Be sure to visit website 

Artwork © Artist

A Year in The Pen  The Ballpointer  Nov 2014 - Nov 2015   PICKS  of the Litter 2015

Lennie Mace, 1984   New York, New York

PICKS PAGE ARCHIVES 2015:

​​​​​​Chen Zhen

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

​​Half of the Heart  (一半的心)

2016・26.5 x 19.5cm (11 x 8'')  

ballpoint pen on paper


《一半的心》 
蘊藏著不同世界的兩端。
一半的心,一半的世界。
我擁有著兩面的自己。
我與自己對視。
一邊是光。
一邊是暗。
一邊是清晨。
一邊是夜晚。
我擁有著全部。
同時也只擁有,那一半。


''This painting was inspired by

a poem written by myself (above).

It's about the two sides of my heart.

One side is deep inside and the other

is reality. I search myself, sometimes

positive and sometimes negative.

The left and right side of the picture

shows the differences. 


The heart interleaved with red and black symbolizes the human sides, the dark side. ''


Fine print.

Captions and/or credits.


Contact:  website or email

Artwork © copyright

Pepe Lozano   Cordoba, Spain

Andrey Poletaev   Lugansk, Ukraine

     Right heart: The heart interleaved

with red and black symbolizes the

human sides, the dark side. There is

beauty in the thorns, and wings fly to

the sky. For your own dreams, even though you can get hurt you can still face it and fly toward the blue sky.

     Left heart: Blue and green colors symbolize peace and ease. A peaceful Pure Land is a desirable paradise, and inside of the paradise has exotic animals, lovely, naughty, funny, they truly exist in our childhood memories. Remember, it doesn't matter how old you grow, just don't forget your fantasy world''      

Artwork & poem © Chen Zhen  website or EmailArtwork © Artist