Baron Barrymore Halpenny
       Artist, Illustrator and Cartoonist

Pen and Ink drawing of Lincoln Cathedral by Baron Halpenny

I have often been asked about my work and what I use etc, especially for my illustrations, the answer is of course, many different tools and materials for what I have handy and what I feel will do the best job.

Normally I just sit down and draw, and I have to admit that I do like to be alone to work as I like to concentrate and detest being disturbed as I enter my own special world and do what I love, creating artwork. That said, I have done some paintings in public and don’t mind showing people how to draw and paint, it’s just when I have to do illustrations for books and magazines or paintings that have been commissioned then I must have privacy to work.

However I have done an illustration of Lincoln Cathedral and taken a few pictures in the process (camera was a Digital HITACHI HDC-751E, my first actual digital camera and the one I still use).

This page and these pictures are not intended as a lesson in drawing, there are far better and useful websites and books that will help you out there. This page is just to show how I do one type of illustration, amongst many others, and yes, I do not use software.

Materials used:

• STAEDTLER HB pencil


• BIC Cristal GRIP biro pen, Medium (black ink), for the overall drawing and shading.


• STAEDTLER pigment liner 0.1, black ink, for the fine detail, especially characters, brickwork etc.


• A4 160gsm Artists Paper (on a spiral bound pad of 25 sheets)

I start with a quick outline to get the proportions and perspective right, and then put in the important structural lines of the building. Once that is complete I start straight in with the BIC pen, this is partly experience, as I use the pencil markers to help keep everything in the right place.

When I was a young lad I would do virtually the whole drawing out in pencil first, (making it easy to correct areas I struggled with) and then going over it all with pen, which back then would have been with black Indian Ink. I still use Indian ink for the record, but not all the time as this illustration/demonstration shows.

Today only pencil markers are used and in many cases I can even dispense with these and delve straight in with the pen. Experience and practise (a lot of practise) enables me to do this.

With illustrations for books and magazines, as well as comic books (especially these) then the whole “scene” is best, if not obligatory, to be drafted out first in pencil and even the final details to be all worked out in pencil first then inked in. Your early sketches will have been done in blue pencil, but that is delving into another area.

I generally work back and forth over the picture, slowly building it up switching between pens as I see the need.

The STAEDTLER pigment liner 0.1 is great at the brickwork and detail for the figures.

Finally when finished, it’s just a matter of carefully and gently rubbing out the pencil lines that are showing and then removing the page from the pad when you want.

These pads have a perforated edge to assist removing the page, but I would advice not to use this alone to take the page out, but to use it as a guide to put a metal ruler along, a cutting board under the page you are going to remove and using a craft knife to cut. Less chance of a tear or damaging the page and a much more professional look.

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