Kuretake ZIG Clean Color FB 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.)

When I was a kid, my mom always had a lot of brush pens. She was studying Japanese, so they were a useful tool. Occasionally, my brother and I would find them and have a blast. The Kuretake ZIG Clean Color FB take me back to that play, only without the time-out that usually followed.

Brush pens have certainly improved since then--I remember them drying out and fraying quickly, though that may have been due to my childish coloring techniques. But these pens were very smooth on both Rhodia and watercolor papers and didn't dry out on me during use. I expected to feel some feedback or even see bits of tipping or paper on the watercolor swatches, but they were perfectly well behaved.

The ink is a water-based dye ink. It is most likely not lightfast. It can be blended with water for a paint-like effect, though not all of the colors are equally successful with this. Some spread easily and completely, while others barely moved at all, and many still showed the original marker lines underneath. The ink is odorless, xylene-free, and AP-certified nontoxic. So they're great for leaving them out where your kids can find them and foster and early love for stationery.

The colors are very vivid, even when diluted with water. The Pure set includes carmine red (022), cornflower blue (037), gray (090), green (040), May green (047), mustard (067), oatmeal (064), orange (070), pink (025), platinum brown (903), violet (080), and yellow (050).

The felt brush tip is not super flexible (it may loosen up after some more use), but using the side angles of the brush can create some great line variation. The tip is not replaceable and the ink is not refillable.

The body is a sturdy grey plastic and the snap cap is clear, with a nice wide clip. I suppose the clear cap might help to identify the color, but many colors look fairly indistinct through the plastic. In order to identify the color you'll have to check the bottom disc of the pen, or navigate the novel of text on the pen body looking for the color name. This drove me bananas when I was using these. If you have them in a pen cup or stored in sleeves, you're better off just memorizing the color numbers, because all that info will be hidden. Unless you store them upside-down, which may be a perfectly good option with these. This brand's other lines of brush pens have a colored plastic section, making color identification quick and easy. I'm not sure why they didn't go that route with these.

As far as price goes, at just under $2 per pen, these are right in the middle of the road. I did notice that there is almost no cost advantage to buying the sets. A set of twelve costs only 2 cents less than buying 12 open-stock pens. One the one hand, I think that's a bit of a bummer, but on the other hand that means you can just pick whatever colors you want without feeling like you're not getting the best deal.

I don't think these pens are great tools for artists, but they're a lot of fun for more casual use. I'm looking forward to trying them in coloring books and leaving them out where my kids can find them.

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

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Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Menso Brush Small Kolinsky Hair Review

(This is a guest post by Nick Folz. You can find more of Nick and his work on his blog, Smallberry Drive, Twitter, and Instagram.)

Whew! I'll do my best to unpack that name as I go. The first thing you should notice is that this is a brush.

I really like brushes, and I have quite a few. They vary from a cheap, clear plastic handed short brush that was in a bag of twenty other brushes I bought from a big box store for $2.50, to the Windsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Pointed Round #3 that ran me $45 and got as birthday present. I often go by the same advice that my mom gave me on cooking spaghetti noodles "You got to throw some at the wall and see what sticks" and buy a variety of brushes just to see which one I gravitate towards. Brush differences can be completely obvious or very subtle, a lot of times the only thing separating a brush you could pick up for spare change and one they keep behind the counter is the varnish on the handle. There has been virtually no correlation between price and how often I reach for the brush. Plenty of my friends disagree, but I insist that the emperor is a total nudist.

Menso means small or details

The Kuretake brush in question tapers to a very small tip and it is fantastic for the thinnest of lines. The general shape of the bristled tip comes into play here and I will do my best to explain why with a story. I once knew a sign painter, a 60 year old guy whose clothes were perpetually covered in paint and whose hands were more cracked than the pepper at a fancy restaurant. He also did pinstripes for auto body places. I was curious, so he brought in his pin striping kit. To my surprise the brush was almost no handle but the bristles were four inches long. I asked about it and he showed me, once the very tip of the bristles touched the surface of whatever he was painting on, the sheer amount of distance in bristles between his hand and the contact made any hand shake or tremor disappear. So the length of the brush acts like an insulator or a shock, absorbing the inconsistency.

This brush with the longer than average tip has the same effect, very smooth lines, especially when drawing towards you with a low degree angle. This will also produce a consistent line width, For more variance and thinner lines try it out at more of a 90 degree angle, but watch your hand control. I found myself tilting it to a low angle for the smooth, consistent lines when outlining and longer ink strokes, and switching to a high 90 degree angle for details and finishing touches. The wide variety of uses makes this a versatile enough brush to be the only one I keep in my bag at the moment.

Kolinsky means weasel hair

Kolinsky hair brushes are held in high regard for one main reason, they have tendency to snap back into shape. This makes the action of the brush more pleasurable on the page and cuts down on time trying to reshape your brush into a fine tip in between ink dips. I was a little worried about this brush being able to snap back since the length of the bristles were so long, but they never failed to spring back on their own. The shape of the brush really lends itself to longer line work and bring up another shape issue worth noting in brushes, ink retention. Typically, the more rounded the base of the bristles, the more ink you can load into the tip. The needle-esque shape of this tip made me worry I would be dipping early and often, but it could hold much more than I thought it would and would often have enough to do large areas of black. It didn't hold more than my Series 7 but it was darn close.

One of the areas where this shines is the personality of the dry brush, Often times I would dry it out by dabbing it on the side of the ink well and then rolling it on a paper towel and make patterns with the drying brush (see the inside of the tree trunk), then go back and add further ink. It is really pleasurable and the unique long tip makes a variety of fun shapes and patterns that a hand more skilled than mine could make beautiful things with.

Sure it's not a pen, or even a pencil, but if you were ever thinking of trying out brushes or if you have a few brushes you like but none you love, this brush would be worth checking out. It has quickly replaced three brushes I kept in my art bag and I have not found myself wanting.

The Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Menso Kolinsky Hair Brush is available at Jetpens.com for $14 along with its horse and goat hair bretheren.

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

Deleter Neopiko Line 3 Drawing Pen Review

Deleter is known as one of the premier Japanese manga supply brands, releasing various sets of pens, markers, and paper for those interested in manga artwork, and comic art in general. I’ve used their products in the past, and Brian Draghi reviewed the Neopiko Line 2 for The Pen Addict when it was imported by JetPens in 2012.

The Line 2 is a good pen, but not a great one when compared to its peers in the drawing pen market. I found the tip to be a little soft and the price a bit high compared to pens like the Sakura Pigma Micron but it was something different, was kind of cool, and worth having one laying around for a switch up from time to time.

Because of that, I was happy to grab the Deleter Neopiko Line 3 when it landed at JetPens and try it out. The barrel looked nice and the price was even less than the previous model, but I discovered something strange when I uncapped it the first time. This pen is a Deleter in paint job only. The pen itself is the Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Mangaka Outline Pen, also known as my number 1 plastic tip pen.

White label production is not a new thing. Many companies across many industries use this type of manufacturing for various reasons, primarily to increase the bottom line. There is no issue with this, and it is actually a benefit to the consumer in many cases, allowing them to buy a similar quality product for less than the original marketed and advertised product. Unfortunately for Deleter, that’s not what happened here.

(Note: I'm making an assumption that Kuretake is the one making the pen for Deleter. Could it be the other way around? Yes, but I think that is very unlikely.)

I didn’t catch it from the exterior design at first, but the second I opened the pen and before I even wrote with it I said wait a minute, this looks familiar. I grabbed the Kuretake Zig from my desk, uncapped it, and set it next to the Line 3 and I was right. It is the exact same pen. Literally.

That’s good I thought, because the Kuretake is a great pen. My next thought was to compare the price. The Deleter should be cheaper, or at least the same price, right? Nope. It’s 50% more from JetPens than the Kuretake, and comes in fewer options. Bummer.

If you are a Deleter fan and swear by their products this shouldn’t sway you from paying more for the same pen. I pay more for Copics because I like them and their style even though they are overpriced compared to the competition. But just know what you are getting with Deleter. If you want an awesome drawing pen, save over a dollar per unit, and have more choice, then buy the Kuretake Zig Cartoonist and don’t look back.

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