One of the most familiar ways of creating value in a drawing is with a pencil, but after having admired the ballpoint pen doodles of many of her high school art students, the author thought it would interest them to seriously pursue it as a new medium. The author was also inspired by the work of artist Steve Assel, whose figurative ballpoint pen drawings are rendered with extreme sensitivity to light and shade, and by the work of Don Stewart, who creates highly detailed ballpoint pen composites. In this article, the author describes how she introduced the process of ballpoint sketching to her students. (Contains 2 online resources.)