Sometime in late 2022 or so I started to get back into drawing on paper more than drawing on my digital tablet. I can't remember what caused me to switch over but it stuck and I've been drawing almost exclusively traditionally for over a year. I started drawing on a tablet maybe around 2009 and was almost exclusively digital for a decade, sans some trad work I did for Goodman Games here and there. It's very nice to get back to the ink stains and feel of paper.
This has lead me to explore traditional tools again. When I left off in 2009, my jam was mostly Pitt brush pens with Paris paper for pens (a magical combo, try it out!). These days I'm leaning much harder into "real" brushes via natural hair or synthetic fiber brush pens. So I wanted to do this post or series of posts about brush pens.
First, if you don't know what a brush pen is, allow me to elaborate.
A brush pen is a pen that has a natural hair or synthetic fiber tip. It is a brush. It's not a fake brush. It's just a brush. If you've ever used a paint brush, then this is just that. But the difference is that the ink (or watercolor or whatever) is in the pen body and feeds by gravity like a fountain pen. These are essentially or identically like fountain pens, but they have brush tips.
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| What a felt tip brush pen looks like after a few uses. |
Now, I need to be clear here. Because there are tons of disposable brush pens that are not actually brushes. They don't have hairs or fibers, they have felt tips. The Pitt, Micron, and Copic Miltiliner brush pens are not "real brushes" in that they are felt tips shaped like a brush. They are called brush pens, and that's fine. I'm not here to gatekeep these wonderful disposable tools. I used them a ton. Just wanted to be clear about what I'm referring to. Herein when I say "brush pen" I do in fact mean brushes with hairs or other fibers, not felt tips.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
There are a small handful of brush pens that get talked about the most. They are the most common and easiest to get your hands on. Here's a short list of them.
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| Pentel Pocket Brush Pen |
Pentel Pocket Brush: I think this is the most common one. I bought one in the mid-2000s and loved it. I still have that one and even though it sat unused for a decade it's still a good brush pen to this day. This little bastard is great. The tip is synthetic fibers but very durable, from what I can tell. The tip is super responsive, the flow is good, and you can get super thin lines or fat ones if you want. It's biggest downfall is that it is not designed to take an ink converter... meaning you have to use the Pentel ink cartridges designed for it. That's fine. They are not very expensive and the ink is pretty good. And, hint hint, you can refill them with a blunt syringe or hack an ink converter to be used with them. It's not hard to do. This one is around $15. Worth it.
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| Sailor Profit Brush Pen |
Sailor Profit: I'm not sure how popular this one is, but I see it reviewed a lot next to the Pentel. So I think it's fairly widely popular but not nearly as easy to find as the Pentel. I love this pen. The body is thicker than a typical pen body, being based on the "profit" pen body style: a cigar shape that is a bit thicker and feels better in the hand. The tip is a very nice synthetic brush, very responsive and easy to get a fat line out of. I don't think it holds the super fine tip as long as the Pentel, but honestly I prefer the Sailor over the Pentel. This one is about $20 or so. Worth it, I think.
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| Kuretake 50 |
Kuretake 40 and 50: Kuretake makes a lot of cool stuff. The 40 is a synthetic hair brush pen while the 50 is a natural sable hair brush pen. Both are functionally the same. The 50 has a metal body, which is very nice. The 40, I think, might also have a metal body but of a different color and feel. I don't have a 40. What I noticed about the 50 is that when you post the cap it can/does scratch the coating off the body. Not a good feature. The brush tip is fantastic. It's a natural hair, so it is feels and IS just a sable brush tip. If you like a good sable brush, this is one. The flow is good. It can take an ink converter so if you don't want to use the Kuretake disposable ink cartridges you can use whatever ink you like. I had a bad experience with mine because I think the ink I was using didn't agree with the pen. I'm not sure but that sable tip is still not in good shape. I replaced it with the synthetic fiber (you can buy replacement tips). Good tool, but finicky. Price is high (like $40-$50 range). I'm not sure it's worth it. Very good tool, pleasure to draw with. If you have disposable cash, then go for it. But honestly the use of this tool is not much better than a Pentel.
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| Pentel Fude |
Pentel Fude: This is a simpler brush pen with a disposable ink body (you can buy replacements or you can refill them with a little simple ingenuity). It's the type that you can squeeze in order to get more ink into the brush. It has a longer brush tip than the others, slightly narrower. Gives a very fine line. It's fun to play with. Price point is around $7, so not too bad. Well worth picking one up. When the ink runs out, either buy a new ink barrel or pry off the top of the barrel with a knife and squirt some ink into it.
So... out of these, the big dogs of brush pens, I gotta say I love the Sailor best. And it's really down to the feel. It just feels better in the hand. But popular opinion is that Pentel kicks ass. And that is not wrong. You can't fail with any of these. If you're on a tight budget, get yourself a Pentel Pocket if you can. Barring that, get the Pentel Fude and just refill it on your own.
But there's more to this story. Next up: some alternates. One of them being even less expensive and more useful than the Pentel Fude.
