There are a variety of 3D pen drawing techniques. Our goal is to introduce you to them and reveal some tricks which will help you to achieve better results while using a 3D pen. The resulting drawing will only bring more joy. Are you interested? Then read on!

Aluminium foil technique

Instead of wasting time and money on filling the inside of various shapes with 3D pen filament, it's better to consider possible alternatives. In our opinion, the most convenient and effective method is using aluminium foil. This simple, yet effective trick will help to form the desired size and shape of the creation. The trick will improve the drawing process due to having access to a three-dimensional stencil of the drawing. Then all you must do is hide the foil under the filament layer of the 3D pen. Of course, you can just use a piece of plain paper, but it will not keep the desired form for long. We certainly recommend wrapping both the foil and the paper with adhesive tape, which would prepare your available form for drawing with a 3D pen. It's important to mention that filament “adheres” much better to adhesive tape that to paper or aluminium foil.

 

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Lighter technique

Lighter is used to melt the filament. By melting the filament, you can reliably join the two parts of your creation into one. Also, using this technique, you can make the shape smoother. Take a 3D drawing drawn with a 3D pen and guide it over the surface with a lighter until it's smooth. Do not put the drawing too close to the fire, because filament burns easily. If you don’t have a lighter at home or you think it would be inconvenient – don’t worry! It can be easily replaced with a simple small candle, which is found in most supermarkets.

What makes a small candle better than a lighter?

The main advantage of a small candle is that, unlike a lighter, you don’t have to hold it in your hands. This makes it easier to melt the surface of a product drawn with a 3D pen.

Soldering iron or soldering-pyrographic technique

What is the difference?

A soldering iron is a device used for connecting two metal pieces. It has several changeable nozzles for working with electronics. Soldering irons are usually relatively affordable.
The soldering iron-pyrograph is smaller than a regular soldering iron and that makes it better. The original purpose of the device is to burn wood. That is why the soldering iron-pyrograph is much easier to use because it is more manoeuvrable. Moreover, this device has a big variety of different nozzles that are useful for drawing with a 3D pen. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the regular soldering iron.

What are the uses of a soldering iron-pyrograph?

To start with, a soldering iron-pyrograph with a large nozzle can be used to smooth the surface of a plastic product drawn with a 3D pen. The pointed tip of the soldering iron-pyrograph is able to beautify the surface of an already levelled drawing or carve subtle features in it. Finally, the knife tip can carefully and accurately cut a large portion of a thick layer of filament.

Techniques using paint

We would like to offer you to try the technique using enamel and acrylic paints. It’s no secret that the 3D pen has many coloured filaments. But it won’t suffice for those who want to create the most realistic colour palette. After all, there are so many ideas, yet so little colours to implement them. Luckily, there is a great way to solve the problem: by mixing different shades of paint, you can get many more different shades to implement all your ideas. It’s a perfectly convenient way to achieve wonderful results!

Advantages of acrylic paints - they do not have a strong recognisable smell of paint and do not wash off with water when dry. Disadvantages - acrylic paints easily peel off. Even a slight scratch can peel off a layer of acrylic paint. We recommend choosing this type of paint.
Advantages of enamel paints – the paint lasts long, does not peel off. Enamel paints have a strong smell as they are used with enamel paint thinner. Painting for long periods of time will cause headaches and eye pain. Ventilating is necessary.

Mirror technique

Smooth and shiny surfaces can be obtained by drawing with a 3D pen on a mirror using transparent filament.
We want to share some tips and tricks for achieving better results with this technique. Because the surface of mirrors is smooth, it takes some time for the first lines of 3D pen filament to adhere properly to the mirror. That is why we advise using the 3D pen much more slowly than usual, as the filament can come off the mirror very easily. Due to this reason, you have to be very careful to not peel off the filament. If this happens, the surface of the drawing won’t be as beautiful.
Try this technique with your 3D pen. Maybe the result with exceed your expectations :)

Magnet technique

Another trick we want to share is regarding magnets. You can use magnets to connect two parts of a product drawn with a 3D pen. By attaching the magnets to the filament, you can attach and remove the different parts of the drawing whenever you wish to do it. The magnet technique can be used to create hand-made magnets. How to do it? First, choose a picture you like. It can be your favourite cartoon character, beloved pet, or anything else. Draw it with your 3D pen and after doing so, stick a magnet to the other side. That’s it! Now you will be able to enjoy superb and original magnets which will decorate your fridge. Also, you can attach the drawing to the refrigerator without a magnet. For that you can use a screen protector for phone screens and a double-sided adhesive tape. In order to not damage the surface of the refrigerator, stick the screen protector on it and the adhesive tape between the screen protector and your creation.

Fan technique

We recommend using a hand-held fan to prepare individual parts of your future creation more quickly. It's a great way to dry filament for continuous drawing with a 3D pen. In addition, hand-held fans are very convenient, small, and cheap.

Pencil technique

Pencil technique - this is one of the simplest ways to draw straight lines connecting two parallel parts of a drawing with a 3D pen. While using a pen, you'll be able to draw lines of the desired shape and height.

Adhesive rubber technique

How do you strengthen two parts so that they can be connected with a 3D pen? We recommend using the adhesive rubber technique. It's an extremely easy way to temporarily reinforce any desired part of the drawing so that you can finish working with a 3D pen later. Adhesive rubber can be found for a low price in the stationary department.

5 tips:

Advice #1

Draw 2d details and connect them later. Drawing high-quality 3D details requires superb 3D drawing skills. It can be a real challenge for beginners and a hard job for professionals. Due to this reason we advise drawing the required 2D parts at first, which you can later connect. In this case, it will be much easier to achieve the desired result, and the drawing process will be easier. In the photo, you can see an unsuccessful attempt to draw a 3D detail.

Advice #2

Use other tools besides your 3d pen. Often beginners make one mistake – they want to complete the whole model with just a 3D pen. Many of the models that can be made using a 3D pen are assembled from a variety of tiny parts. For this reason, it would be beneficial to use a simple pencil and correct the mistakes with an eraser. When the outlines with the pen are done, they can be highlighted with a black marker. The result will be much better than drawing the whole model with a 3D pen.

Advice #3

Folding already drawn parts. Another important advice would be that you can manually adjust the shape of the drawing by painting a new layer of hot filament on the already hardened filament. This is especially useful when your creation is thin or/and has small details. Do not wait until the filament hardens. Otherwise, you won’t be able to change the shape of the drawing.

Advice #4

Which paper is best to use? There is a common opinion that drawing with a 3D pen can end with the paper sticking to the filament. What does it depend on? Maybe it’s affected by the type of paper? A simple test was performed to find out. During the test, two types of paper were chosen: printing paper and baking paper (wax paper). The test showed that baking paper can easily be peeled from the filament, even after the filament has dried. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about printing paper – when the filament is peeled off the paper, a part of it sticks to the filament.

Advice #5

When is pcl material used? While drawing with PLA filament it’s hard to draw so that the surface is smooth. Usually that’s not required, but if you want to smooth out the surface of the drawn figure and you don’t have a soldering iron, you can cover the figure with PCL filament.
After covering the figure with PCL filament, you won’t need a soldering iron or sandpaper and the result will make you happy. Moreover, PCL filament can be used to connect two parts of the product – PLA and ABS filament are not as good with the task. It’s important to notice, that it’s harder to use PCL filament compared to PLA. That’s why we recommend using PLA as the main material and PCL as a secondary material. The temperature of PCL filament should not be less than 100 °C.

 

To create 3D plastic figures, artists often need additional filament, order original filament in advance here, and you will be sure that you can realize any of your ideas.