Beginner Easy Gel Pen Art

In this final class, Lisa shares how to take the tips and tricks you've learned along the way and apply them to new and exciting surfaces. Embellish the matte cover of kraft paper notebooks with bright Gelly Roll pens, and learn to transform a stark sheet of black paper into a stunning piece of Japanese-inspired art that beautifully sweeps across the page. You now have the skills to apply your personal style, which you have developed throughout this course, to any surface you please.

Learn how to:

Use gel pens to adorn the cover of kraft paper notebooks
Create a wave motif across an entire page of black paper using white gel pens and white paint

What you'll get:

Learn from Lisa Congdon how use gel pens to create a wave motif on black paper
3 HD video lessons you can access online anytime, anywhere
Detailed supplies list
Step-by-step expert instruction from artist Congdon
The ability to leave comments, ask questions, and interact with other students

Chapters

Introduction
Overview 01:44

Materials
Materials 00:45

Drawing Designs on Colored Paper
Using gel pens on a kraft paper notebook 08:42
Using white gel pens on black paper 11:27

Materials

Here's what you'll need:

Notebook with a kraft paper cover (Lisa uses brown-paper Scout books but these come in a variety of other colors you might want to use)
One or two colored Gelly Roll Pens that will show on the paper color you've selected
White Gelly Roll Pen
Black paper (Lisa uses a 9" x 12" sketchbook filled with black paper by Strathmore)
White paint (Lisa suggests using watercolor from a tube, gouache, or acrylic white)
Small paintbrush

Browse members' projects from this class, add them to your Favorites, and share your own work!

Notes

Your timecode tags and notes for this section

Kid's Art Camp

Daily Drawing Challenge: 31 Things to Draw with Lisa Congdon

Lisa Congdon

There's nothing like giving yourself a big creative challenge, and boy do we have one for you: Every single day for a month, we challenge you to draw along with Lisa Congdon. Lisa has hand-picked 31 objects to draw, and demonstrates several ways to render each object using just your imagination. This creative exercise is designed to help you embrace wonkiness and imperfections, all while learning to see everything around you—be it bird or bikini—as artistic fodder.

30 Coloring Pages with Courtney Cerruti, Lisa Congdon and Pam Garrison

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The whole world has fallen madly in love with coloring book pages, and we have, too! We've teamed up three of our top art instructors—Lisa Congdon, Pam Garrison, and Courtney Cerruti—to create printable coloring pages just for you. Each week, we'll post a new batch of downloadable pages from all three artists, plus an accompanying class taught by Courtney on creative ways to color in the pages. Courtney's lessons go way beyond the classic crayon, covering everything from colored pencils and markers to glitter pens and watercolors, with lots of tips for blending and adding dimension.

Beginning Watercolor: Supplies and Basic Techniques

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Learn the fundamentals of playing and exploring with watercolors from acclaimed artist Yao Cheng. Yao shares her process of selecting the proper paints and brushes to get started and teaches how to blend colors to create a unique palette. The essential information provided in this class will help you learn how to apply watercolor to different surfaces and create basic shapes using fun, easy techniques.

Beginning Watercolor: Mark-Making and Expressive Brush Strokes

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Now that you've had a chance to play with color and basic techniques, you're ready to get to know your paintbrushes. This class is all about exploring the effects you can achieve with different brushes and strokes. To practice these techniques, Yao will show you several ways to paint trees and leaves, and at the end she'll show you how to paint simple wreaths full of greenery.

Basic Line Drawing: Flowers

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Learn basic stylized line drawing from one of today's most sought-after illustrators, Lisa Congdon. Over this four-week course, Lisa covers the basics of line drawing, shows you how to build beautiful patterned drawings, and teaches fun projects for integrating line drawing into your repertoire. Whether you are just learning how to draw, or you want to deepen a regular creative practice, this class will fuel your imagination and show you how to create infinite designs from simple shapes.

Basic Line Drawing: Found Photography

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In the third episode of Line Drawing, Lisa explores a beloved topic: geometrics. She works with triangles, circles, scallops and straight lines to build overall patterns — as well as adding line work within those basic shapes. Lisa offers several exercises to loosen up your line drawings, and she offers a glimpse inside her sketchbooks to see how she meticulously builds patterns from simple shapes.

Basic Line Drawing: Geometrics

Lisa Congdon

In the second episode of Line Drawing, Lisa explores a beloved topic: geometrics. She works with triangles, circles, scallops and straight lines to build overall patterns — as well as adding line work within those basic shapes. Lisa offers several exercises to loosen up your line drawings, and she offers a glimpse inside her sketchbooks to see how she meticulously builds patterns from simple shapes.

Basic Line Drawing: Hand Lettering

Lisa Congdon

In the fourth episode of Line Drawing, Lisa teaches you how to incorporate hand lettering into your artwork. Lisa will show you how to create your own block letter alphabet, and she opens the pages of her sketchbooks to show you how she weaves lettering and line work together.

Create Personalized Dishes

Courtney Cerruti

In this short and sweet Valentine's class, Courtney teaches you how to make personalized dishware using plain ceramic pieces and porcelain pens. Courtney demonstrates how to adorn mugs and plates with Valentine's motifs—hearts, arrows, X's and O's—in a way that's sweet (but not too sweet). In fact, these lovely personalized dishes are sure to become year-round favorites for your loved ones. Once you have adorned your ceramics, you'll simply bake them in the oven to set the ink and then they're ready to wrap up and give to your sweetheart.

Creative Sketchbooking: Painted Backgrounds and Responsive Drawing

Pam Garrison

Now that you've had a chance to practice with pens and paints, let's play with a few new mediums. In this class, Pam shows how to create watercolor backgrounds in a variety of colors and brushstrokes. Allow yourself to see whatever shapes come to mind and loosely outline them with pen. Add pops of color with brush pens and colored pencils, or leave your composition as is—let your creativity take the lead.

Creative Sketchbooking: Playing with Pens and Paint

Pam Garrison

In this first class, Pam Garrison shares simple exercises for releasing creative inhibitions in your sketchbook. You will use both your dominant and non-dominant hands to create blind contour drawings that look like mere scribbles on paper, then use a colorful paint palette to transform those scribbles into thoughtfully painted shapes. This exercise results in aesthetically pleasing sketchbook pages that are created through the process of intuitive creative exploration.

Creative Sketchbooking: Playing with Collage

Pam Garrison

Now that you've created several spreads in your sketchbook, learn how to add elements of collage and hand lettering. Using cut out cardstock shapes or old paint chips, learn how to use collage to cover up unwanted doodles or to add extra dimension to your background. To complete your composition, use hand lettering to fill in blank spaces with a favorite word or quote. Best of all, Pam shares various techniques to create your own unique lettering style.

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Pam Garrison

Combine all of the techniques you've learned in this course to create a cohesive and stunning piece of wall art. Before you get started, you'll need to decide which mediums and techniques you'd like to use in your artwork. Once you have a rough plan, Pam will walk you through the process of pulling these elements together to create an expressive statement piece.

Drawing and Illustration Basics: Drawing Simple Shapes

Heather Ross

When you're first learning how to draw, the secret is to relax, warm up, and keep it simple. Heather shares exercises to help you approach the blank page and learn how to control the pencil. Then, together, you will practice drawing everyday objects without worrying too much about realistic results. This first class is a great way to learn how to reduce objects to basic lines and shapes get past the intimidation of drawing from real life.

Drawing and Illustration Basics: Drawing Trickier Shapes and Adding Color

Heather Ross

Now that you've had a chance to practice your drawing skills, you may be wondering how to add color to your illustrations. In this class, Heather uses gouache to add color to her drawings. She also demonstrates her methods for drawing and painting more complex everyday objects, as well as creating stylized portraits of pets and people.

Drawing and Illustration Basics: Making Conversational Artwork

Heather Ross

Simply put, "conversational artwork" is when there is a relationship between the elements in your drawing – think of a child hugging a stuffed animal, or a ladybug determinedly climbing up the stem of an epic mushroom. This kind of artwork tells a story and creates an opportunity for the viewer to relate. In this final class, Heather teaches her techniques for combining everyday objects into a single illustration to create conversational artwork. At the very end of the class, she shows how to scan your finished illustration, tidy it up in Photoshop, and create a beautiful printed notecard.

Daily Drawing Challenge: 31 Things to Draw with Pam Garrison

Pam Garrison

Jumpstart your creative practice with a 31-day drawing challenge, taught by artist and professional doodler Pam Garrison. In this draw-along, Pam shares her playful, encouraging style, providing prompts and colorful demonstrations every single day for a month. Not only will you learn how to draw ordinary objects and add splashes of color, but you'll also learn how to strengthen your creative muscles and develop a new habit. You'll be amazed at how much your skills will grow in just one month. Be sure to post your drawings on Instagram using #cbdrawaday

Sketchbook Explorations: Watercolor Backgrounds and Line Drawing

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Sketchbook Explorations: Collaged Backgrounds and Line Drawing

Lisa Congdon

Your mixed media sketchbook is the perfect place to experiment with collage, and in this class, Lisa shares her favorite way to combine collage with line drawing. Using a mix of vintage paper and solid-colored paper, you will learn how to cut out geometric shapes and apply them to the page, then draw floral motifs over them to create an organic, juxtaposed design.

Sketchbook Explorations: Layered Abstract Drawing with Brush and Gel Pens

Lisa Congdon

Brush pens are an ideal portable sketchbook tool. In this class, Lisa shares her favorite ways to use them, making vibrant, layered designs in her sketchbook. Lisa begins by demonstrating how to create a field of color, then uses gray brush pens to create an overlay design. Using a white gel pen, you'll add simple embellishments at the end that make the design pop.

More Sketchbook Explorations: Brush Marker Background and Botanical Drawings

Lisa Congdon

Begin this round of Sketchbook Explorations with a simple and therapeutic technique that is sure to get your hands warmed up and your creative juices flowing. Lisa shows you how to create a colorful background using brush-pen strokes, which will become the base for your doodles and drawings. Get tips on how to select your color palette and how to create a well-balanced composition as you fill your sketchbook spread. Lisa shares her trademark style of drawing flowers, but provides encouragement for developing your own style along the way.

More Sketchbook Explorations: Color Blocking with Watercolor

Lisa Congdon

In this next class, Lisa creates a simple background of square and rectangular watercolor shapes, which become the perfect "swatches" for experimentation. Once you've composed your color-blocked background, you'll learn how to add texture and depth with white and black gel pens, doodling abstract designs over each block. This technique will allow you to play with different motifs, beautifully filling the pages of your sketchbook with colorful doodles.

More Sketchbook Explorations: Flora and Fauna Patterns

Lisa Congdon

Continue to develop your personal sketchbooking style by creating a balanced all-over design full of funky florals and cute animal figures. Drawing flora and fauna can often be intimidating, but Lisa encourages you to embrace imperfections and take a less literal approach. The fun in exploring your sketchbook is finding that cats can be blue, flowers can be square, and leaves don't always have to be green. This class is perfect for releasing any creative inhibitions you may have and approaching the blank page with a sense of fun and wonder.

Now Playing

More Sketchbook Explorations: Gel Pen Drawings on Colored Paper

Lisa Congdon

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In this 3-part series, artist and teacher Lindsay Stripling teaches you core watercolor techniques, and then encourages you to use your creativity to make the medium your own. Throughout this series, you will learn watercolor essentials like mixing colors and handling brushes, and then move on to more advanced techniques like adding depth with glazing, working "wet into wet," playing with light and dark, and creating textures with masking fluid and salt. This comprehensive course is the perfect skill-builder for those who want to push their artistic limits.

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This project appeals to a range of personalities, since you can be loose with creating the watercolor effect and then add structure with a crisp silhouette. Christine shows you different watercolor techniques to build texture and dimension, from layered washes to dry brushing and splattering. The result is a fresh update on the classically Victorian way to capture the likeness of someone you adore.

Acrylic Painting for Beginners

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Get a firm foundation in acrylic painting with this fun three-part series taught by artist and professor Lisa Solomon. Lisa covers the basics of Acrylic Painting for Beginners, from learning about different tools and brushstrokes to creating your very own masterpiece. This class is chock-full of information, so grab your paints and get ready for an engaging journey in Acrylics 101.

Introduction to Drawing: Learning to Make Lines

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Though it may seem deceptively simple, most artistic ventures begin with learning how to draw a humble line. Using pens, pencils and other elemental art materials, acclaimed artist and designer Molly Hatch shares the basics of line drawing. This class is chock full of tips and tricks, plus classic mark-making exercises like blind contour, implied lines, and line networks. With practice, your hand and brain will learn to work together, and your humble lines will quickly start to transform into beautiful, interesting shapes.

Introduction to Drawing: Learning to Define Shape

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Learning how to add dimension and shape to your line drawings is the key ingredient that will bring your drawings to life. Molly shows you how to use simple lines in different combinations to make beautiful, dimensional artwork. Focusing on several different styles – abstract, geometric, representational, and organic – Molly shares tools to help you define shape, including positive and negative space exercises, and lessons on how to use shading to add definition. Whether you're using pencils or pens, this class will take your line drawing to the next level.

Who's Recently Taken This Class

Meet other Creativebug crafters who have recently taken this class.