Light Rail Commuters (Plus Culled Brush Pens)

 

4/25/25 Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

My favorite tool for making quick sketches of light rail riders (and people in general) is my very old but reliable Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. With actual hairy bristles (not a felt or foam tip) and filled with Platinum Carbon Black ink, it does require some confidence and boldness (or foolhardiness) to wield, but I’ve come to love its expressive line so much that I shrug at the inevitable mishaps (see the mess I made on May 9, end of post). (It’s important to note that I only use this brush pen when I’m commuting by train; on a bumpy bus, all bets are off.)

4/28/25 Pilot Pocket Brush Pen

5/7/25 Pilot Shunpitsu Brush Pen

Just lately, I’ve been using a Pilot Shunpitsu Brush Pen (with a hard rubber tip) for some of my comics-like sketches, and one day I tried it on the train (May 7, above). Compared to the Pentel, it’s much easier to control – I could probably use it even on a bus. The tradeoff, though, is that its line is not nearly as expressive as a real brush, but it still has some good thicks-and-thins to it.

5/9/25 Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

One day during my downsizing, I put all my brush pens together – hairy, non-hairy, waterproof, non-waterproof, colored ink, black ink – all of them. I had many, many more than I ever reviewed here or at the Well-Appointed Desk. I had a lot! (I regret that I didn’t take a photo of the entire collection, but I was on a mission at the moment and forgot.)

Unfortunately, quite a few had issues of various types – ink that didn’t behave well; caps that didn’t post (or posted upside-down! What kind of idiot came up with that design!); barrels that were too skinny to hold comfortably. I culled mercilessly.

Now the brush pens I’m left with (still quite a few) are all ones I enjoy using (shown below are only the black ones; I’ll show the color ones another day). It’s such a pleasure to reach into a cup and know that whatever pen I pull out will be a good one.

Brush pens that made the cut: waterproof on the left, non-waterproof on the right