Sorry about this being late. I haven’t actually gone through answering questions that I wasn’t going to answer with a picture reply (this goes for anyone elses).

As for the pen thing; I’ll be honest, I suggested people use it simply to build confidence, not because I think it’s better. It’s a tool used for a purpose, usually for popping out finished line in graphic works.

Because it’s permanent, it’s rather difficult to feather and in turn, forces people to try and make accurate strokes instead of just being complacent with drawing and erasing over and over, because that will always be very time consuming.

It’s like using the undo button in photoshop: Yes, it’s nice and useful and there’s no reason to avoid it, but if people just keep making the wrong line because they know they can undo it over and over until they get it right, they’re not trying to get it right on the first go. Wouldn’t it be awesome if, when you drew a line, it was exactly where you wanted it to be in your head? That’s what people need, myself included. As soon as you take away the ability to undo, you’re forced to think about line placement ahead of time, and to get it down correctly if you want it to look good. This is often times why pencil is used in tangent with pen, because the pencil can be as messy as you want to establish space, shape/form, and composition within a piece, where the pen can then be applied neatly over it to complete the work. You then just erase the messy pencil, and can even go back over with the pencil to reestablish nice values.

Drawing isn’t so much about drawing, but getting an idea onto paper or a surface in a visual form. You want to break down the barriers that inhibit your ability to get what you see in your mind down on paper.

Increasing hand-eye coordination (confidence) is one of the big ones, because then when you want a specific line, you can get it without thinking so hard about it; you can then instead focus your thought power on an interesting design.

That’s why it’s generally good to understand things, like how our eyes see (perspective), or how a creature moves (anatomy), or why something is appealing to look at (composition), because it means you don’t have to think about these things as much when drawing, they just happen. You don’t have to worry about whether that hoof is in the wrong spot, or if the picture doesn’t look how you wanted, or why it never keeps your attention, because you’ll automatically do these things for whatever your drawing.

Well, that was more than I thought I was going to write. Anyways, I had made this picture a while ago when I thought I was going to have more structured tutorials. Since it fits with this perfectly, I’ll post it.

This was meant to be a little thing for building line confidence. Drawing a draw straight, curved, and circular lines in a single stroke as best you can, in varying degrees of size.

Yes, it’s boring. Yes, it’s time consuming, but this will be the fasting way to build hand-eye coordination. Even I don’t do this, but I did start this blog; guess how many circles and lines I draw a day because of it? All while enjoying it, too. :)

Oh, and about pen size, I wouldn’t say it matters. Again, it’s a tool. If you need tiny, ittsy bitsy lines, get a 0.001. If you’re just blocking in large areas, get a 10+. In the end, it’s about how you’re using them, not their size…

PS: Oh, btw, I like the last few drawings you did, Karanakia. :) As much as I like to put on a show of being a fluttershy any saying “It’s about the art!! Not me!", I still appreciate adoration people give me. ^_^’

Edit: Someone wanted to reblog, so I just reposted it as a photo.