Am I the only insane person in our Figure Drawing studio to use 'pen and ink' on paper comfortably? Honestly it's the easiest medium I have ever used...!

I use an iPad to life-draw so you're not crazy ;)

True story: I did a government sponsored vocational training course in Graphic Design in the early 90's. This was on the cusp of the transition from Graphic Design via traditional methods to DTP so we had to learn both. So we learnt to use a camera, how to set crop marks manually, rubylith and so on as well as how to use a Mac (Photoshop v2.5!). One of our exercises was to draw an entire font set (A-Z, then a-z) using protractors, rulers etc. and - a Rotring Variograph pen. The point being that only Rotring ink would photograph as 'pure black' under the process camera we used to assemble the layout. I used a non-Rotring pen (the Rotring nib scratched and tugged at the paper too much for my liking); basically a felt tip pen with a tiny nib and spent hours on the exercise. The next morning my tutor took one look at it, asked if I used a Rotring Variograph and when I said no - ripped it into shreds in front of the entire class. Well. I re-did it (you had to pass all classes to get your cert) but I also took the ripped up bits of my work into the darkroom where I photographed them and - yes, you guessed it: perfect black reproduction, print/plate quality. I have used the same pen type/model (a Stabilo 88 Fineliner) ever since without a single complaint from printer or client. So: you are not insane, you should use whatever you damn well please as long as it gets the job done to the quality required.

I'm partial to Sharpies myself. You have to definite, confident and unhesitant, since the tiniest flick of your wrist is rendered with stark clarity. Black ink on white paper separates the men from the boys, and the women from the girls.

Well, by way of pen and ink its more intense while visualizing as very less margins for error exist. With pencil/carbon more strokes can be drawn. I too love pen and ink sketching as firstly, there is a color code we following (ink color).   Secondly, without the varying tip size and not too much pressure variables, the pen and ink method tends to replicate what we see (live sketch), but in a format. eg. ink outline, color tinge etc. Its just a depiction of our expression in a particular style. Also, many out there would be very confident due to immense practice. So, they can do just fine with pen and ink. :)

Use what works for you, period, and ignore the rest (unless they're doing something cool you want to try). For 1 1/2 years I followed the instructor's suggestions in my life drawing class - use pencil, use charcoal, use newsprint (ugh!), draw what you see, make it accurate to the model, avoid shading, etc. etc. I hated life drawing and didn't like looking at my own work. Then one day I picked up a brush and some India ink and started using that instead, on decent white paper. It wasn't about what I saw as much as what I felt about the model. Here was another person to draw, not an object posed in front of me. Did I like the model? His/her posing? How was this model different from the previous one? What made them special? This loosened everything up and I was able to carry that expressiveness into other media - pencil and charcoal (good quality charcoal on good quality paper!). Life drawing became interesting and fun again. It depends on what your goals are - realism, expressionism, hyper-realism, impressionism - there are many ways to draw, but don't let the medium get in the way. If pen and ink works for you, be brilliant with them.

For many people, pen and ink is scary. It's so permanent and not as easy to manipulate compared to other media. If you make a mistake, you have to live with it. People are scared to lose control.