Review: Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Soft Brush Pens

 

The cool gray range of Pitt Artist Pens with Soft Brush tip

Over the years, I’ve used Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens (the regular brush tips and the Big Brush tips) off and on in various ways, most often influenced by Don Colley. His urban sketching workshops generally focus on his favorite markers as the main art material. And when Faber-Castell discontinued most of the Big Brush line some time ago, I shared his panic, if only sympathetically. (OK, it was slightly more than a sympathetic panic; I did grab several Big Brushes when I found a store with remaining stock.) In general, however, Pitt pens have never been my primary sketching material, mainly because they are bulky to carry, especially the useful Big Brush pens.

Soft Brush tip

Just recently I found myself perusing new assortments of Pitt Artist Pens (more on that in a moment) when I came upon wallets of shades of gray with a Soft Brush (SB) tip. I knew that black had been available with a soft brush for a while, but the grayscale sets were new to me. Given that I have no willpower where brush pens are concerned, it was time to give these a try. I grabbed the cool gray set. (All Pitt Artist pens contain waterproof ink.)

First, let’s get the annoyance out of the way: the grayscale itself. Faber-Castell’s various marker and colored pencil product lines all offer a numerical grayscale in a range of warms and cools that can be useful when studying values. Years ago in Sue Heston’s urban sketching workshop, we learned to use markers in a range of grays to make value and compositional studies, and I used the handy Big Brush range. In theory, Faber-Castell has an excellent concept. The problem is that the grayscale steps are not evenly spaced – nor are they consistent! I griped about a similar issue among the Big Brush markers themselves several years ago, and now I have to gripe again.

Comparison of Pitt Big Brush and Soft Brush cool grayscales tones

In the swatches above, I show the Pitt Big Brush cool gray scale in the top row and the corresponding Soft Brush scale below. At each step, the Soft Brush grays are darker than the Big Brushes. I’ve always thought the Big Brush Cool Gray I was too pale to do anything with anyway, so I’m pleased to see that it is darker in the Soft Brushes – yet to my eye, it’s not a cool gray; it’s a pale blue. It seems like a shift in hue, not just value. Dark Indigo is a nice addition to this cool assortment, though, as I often enjoy using indigo as a substitute for black. (I’m relieved that they didn’t try to pull it off as Cool Gray VII.)

Left: Soft Brush (SB); right: standard Brush (B) 

OK, OK, I’m being grumpy and snarky; the rest of my review is happy! The Soft Brush tip looks very similar to a standard Pitt Brush (B) tip (not the Big Brush tip), but it is much flexier. Although it’s still a formed foam tip, not made of bristles, it almost feels like a bristle brush. In fact, I’d say that the Pitt Soft Brush is “the brush pen with training wheels” that I thought the Pentel Fude-Hajime might be, given that the latter describes itself as ideal for beginners. The Pitt Soft Brush is firmer than the Hajime and other bristle brushes but softer than any formed tip (non-bristle) brush pen I’ve used. I’d recommend it to someone who wanted to eventually use bristle brush pens but needed an intermediate step.

My favorite way to test any brush pen’s line range is by sketching trees, and bare winter trees are ideal. The temp was in the 30s on the morning that I took a pen on a walk, so the sketches below were a quick introduction to the marks that the Soft Brush can make.

12/1/22 Pitt Artist Soft Brush Pen and white Gelly Roll in Uglybook sketchbook
(Green Lake)

12/1/22 Maple Leaf

Since portrait practice is always on my mind (and Earthsworld’s huge library of reference photos is so easily available), I tried a couple as value studies with the markers. The man with curls on both ends of his head was especially fun to draw with these flexy brush pens. While the stiffer standard Brush (B) pens still have a marker-y look (for lack of a better term), the SB tips impart a slightly softer look. The marks are not as brush-like as a true bristle brush pen’s strokes, but the SB is also easier to manipulate.

11/30/22 Pitt Artist Soft Brush Pen in Moleskine sketchbook

12/1/22 Pitt Artist Soft Brush Pen in Moleskine sketchbook

I like these Soft Brushes, and they’ll probably get me back into using Pitt Artist Pens again, if only for special purposes. My only fear might be that the soft tip will mush down prematurely (before the ink runs out) under my heavy hand; I’ll update this review if that happens.

Right now the SB tip seems to be available only in the cool gray range, the warm gray range, and Light and Dark Indigo. (I certainly hope they don’t come out with more colors, or I’ll be in trouble.) I got mine at Blick, but if you are planning to buy some, check Etsy and eBay, too – I’ve seen a few good deals on the wallet packs.

Ah, yes – back to the reason I was perusing Pitt Artist Pens in the first place: Months ago, Don Colley had shown on social media the packaging of new Pitt product wallet sets sporting his artwork (the cat and mouse is my favorite). This fangirl had been waiting for them to show up in US stores.

Don Colley fangirl cred achieved.