Posts filed under Brush Pen

Pentel Dual Metallic Brush Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Between the glitter, the buttons, and the real brush tip, the Pentel Dual Metallic Brush Pens are some of the most playful pens I've ever used. They're very fun, and perfect for use in greeting cards or planners.

Unlike most brush pens, these have actual paintbrush tips instead of the foamy or felt tips I'm used to seeing. The tip is clean, at first--just white plastic fibers. To load the brush with paint, you press a button on the back of the pen, which releases some of the pigment into the tip. It takes a few presses and a small wait to saturate all the bristles, but you can see the paint working its way down, so you can tell when it's ready to use.

Once the tip is saturated, it works just like a paintbrush, ready to do some painting or fancy lettering. I'm not particularly skilled at either, but I enjoyed making swoops very much. Because this pen uses bristles instead of a felt tip, there is a feathering effect to the lines it creates when individual fibers stray from the path. It's a nice effect, unless you're particular about crisp lines.

As with a paintbrush, the pigment in the tip doesn't last long before you'll need to press the button for more. Each press of the button gives you another dollop of paint, but it can be difficult to gauge how much you're getting. Consequently, sometimes my lines felt dry and other times they were oversaturated. It may be something I'd get used to with more extended use, but I do get the sense that there is not as much control over brush saturation as there would be using an actual paintbrush. Also, considering how often I found myself needing to press the button for more paint, I'm not sure how long each pen will last. I also noticed the bristles becoming more frayed as I worked with them, as any plastic-bristled paintbrush would.

But dry or gloopy, the paint from these pens is always very glittery. The sparkle effect delivers! And the pigment did not bleed through my notebook paper, which was a pleasant surprise.

Overall, these are a treat to use, and I think they'll be the perfect thing to address my Valentines this year. They're definitely better suited to being used for a small flourish, rather than a larger project, and I don't think they're the right tool for artists who value precision, but they're wonderful for anyone who needs to efficiently apply some glitter.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on February 4, 2021 by Sarah Read and filed under Brush Pen, Pentel, Pen Reviews.

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen Hard Tip, Neon Color Set Review

One of the greatest pleasures in the stationery world is cracking open a brand new brush pen and making those first lines. Brush pens, like other plastic tip pens, change continuously from the moment you first use them until they run out of ink, or the tip degrades completely. So that fresh tip feeling is fleeting, but there is one type of brush pen - at least for me - that can sustain longer, even with my heavy-handedness.

Hard tip brush pens offer a fun writing experience, and Tombow has been making some of the best ones on the market for some time now. Why do I like the so much? Because I mostly write with them. Sure, they are extremely popular with artists for the fine line variation they have, but for me, they give my lines great character.

I love writing with plastic tipped pens, such as drawing pens and brushes. This type of pen gives my line an edge, as if I were writing with a chisel tip or stub nib. My handwriting looks awesome, and these Tombow Fudenosuke Neon Color Brush Pens add a whole new level to the awesomeness.

Look how bright they are! These are highlighters in brush tip form. Hard tip brush form at that. They make my handwriting look clean and sharp, and the colors leap off the page, as they should.

The colors are so fluorescent, I think I’ll be using them more for marking, highlighting, and notes rather than pure writing. The blue worked well in my Theme System Journal, and is the perfect marker for filling in the habit tracker circles. The ink doesn’t feather, bleed, or ghost.

Shockingly enough, it didn’t bleed through the paperback book I tested it on either. I’m no book paper connoisseur, but the pages in this book did feel a little nicer than the lowest common denominator paperback paper. That said, I thought it would still soak right up and show through to the back side of the page, but it didn’t. Not even the dots at the end of my lines.

This type of performance means there is a place in my stationery lineup for this set of brush pens. Color-wise, I think pink is the best, followed by orange, red, blue, green, and yellow. The yellow is highlighter only it is so light. The red surprised me with its nice coral tone. The only color that would make this set better is purple!

The Tombow Fudenosuke Neon Color Brush Pen set runs $14.00 at JetPens ($2.33/pen) or $2.80 individually. These may be worth going the individual route rather than the entire set unless you think you will get that much use out of them. Regardless, I’ll be keeping one or two of these handy at all times for my notes and habit tracker.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on November 18, 2019 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Tombow, Brush Pen, Pen Reviews.

Marvy Le Pen Flex Brush Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

Marvy Le Pen, purveyors of the world's most okay-est fineliner, have released a new Flex Brush Pen that allows for brushstroke-like lines for drawing or writing. And they are, as one might expect, pretty okay!

The body of the brush pen is identical to the marker pen version, with the same colorful plastic and minimalist design. They aren't the most comfortable to hold or write with and the clips are a bit flimsy. It's very helpful that the color of the body matches the ink. The cap snaps in place, but doesn't post very securely.

The only difference between these pens and the old, familiar fine markers is the tip. These brush pens have a rubberized felt tip that offers a good deal of line variation. They are quite soft and flexible, and very smooth to write with. The tips are petite, so you can get a very fine line with a light touch, and only a little pressure adds the variation. It feels very much like writing with a springy paint brush--more so than some other brush pens I've used that are either too firm or have too much feedback.

So far the pen is available in magenta, burgundy, red, green, teal, oriental blue, navy, blue, amethyst, brown, dark grey, and black. They may eventually come in the wide variety of other colors Marvy LePen offers, but these are good for starters. The ink colors are vibrant and saturated and show up nicely. The ink does bleed a little, even on coated paper. There are also cautions out there about Marvy LePen ink that it may not age well, with fading and yellowing occurring over time. I don't know if these pens use the same ink formula, but I would guess that they do. If that's the case, I'd suggest that these are fun hobby tools, but not good for artists or scrapbookers who want their work to stand the test of time.

So, are these the world's most okay-est brush pens? I think it's too soon to tell, but the good brush tip on these may edge them into better-than-okay territory. I think the body design and ink formula are holding these back. At $1.95, they're also more expensive than their Marker Pen twins, and also 15c more expensive than the Kuretake Fudebiyori Brush Pen, which is a better quality pen. Still, it's exciting to see an old reliable brand branching out into something new and cool, and I enjoyed these more than I thought I would.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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