Pacific-slope Flycatcher in ballpoint pen

One of yesterday's photos of Pacific-slope Flycatcher at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego rendered in ballpoint pen (BiC round stic medium).

I had never tried to create artwork with ballpoint pen before. It turns out that it can be used in a similar way to graphite pencil. You can sketch very lightly and create layers of tone by going over the same area several times. You can't erase, but I was able to draw this freehand very lightly and any marks in the wrong place were so faint as to be invisible in the final work. Of course, I could draw lightly in graphite first and go over it with pen, if I wished.

The ink in all ballpoint pens is dye-based, as opposed to pigment-based in many other pens. So it is not lightfast. It will fade under the infrared light of the sun or even indoor lighting. So I can't create an art piece to hang on the wall. But it should last many years in my nature journal.

I should have perhaps used the scanner, but instead took a camera phone photo. So there are some bluish shadows in the "white" of the paper caused by the brightness of my desk lamp that appear in this image that aren't in the original.

Pacific-slope Flycatcher in ballpoint pen. Click for larger view.

My reference photo.