The Good, the Bad and the Blobby (Le Pen, Posca Updates)

 

The black Le Pen was used for 4 months; the purple one
is new. Not a bad mush-down with my heavy hand.

After four months of nearly daily use, my black Marvy Uchida Le Pen Flex Brush Pen finally ran dry. I haven’t made any direct comparisons on disposable pen ink capacities, so I can’t evaluate its longevity in terms of ink. What I do know is that the fiber tips on many brush pens I’ve used have mushed down under my heavy hand long before the ink ran out. Although the Le Pen tip did flatten a bit, it stayed firm yet flexy and useable to the end. Any pen with a felt tip that can outlive its ink supply is a good value.

It’s really too bad that I don’t care for the Le Pen’s skinny barrel; otherwise, it would be my ongoing, daily-carry brush pen. But I’m going back to the Uni Pin and Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens, both of which have good tips and also the thicker barrels that I prefer. (They, too, lose their points a bit by the time the ink runs out, but no worse than the Le Pen.)

7/5/23 Green Lake (and tell-tale Posca blob
in lower right corner)

7/9/23 Maple Leaf (Hard to beat that brilliant pop of opaque color.)

As much as I go on about colored pencils and color in general, my team of daily drivers continues to be a black, firm tip brush pen and some kind of opaque pen, both to use in a colored Uglybook. They will always satisfy my basic daily sketching need when I don’t have time, inclination or subject matter for color.

The last page in my Uglybook has turned into a Rorschach of Posca blobs.

The black brush pen and the Uglybook are easy to fulfill, but the other partner – the opaque pen – continues to frustrate me. Fed up with my long-time favorite white Sakura Gelly Roll, I’ve been trying Uni Posca paint markers lately. As with Derwent Inktense pencils, I have a “complicated” relationship with Posca markers. While I absolutely love how their bright opaque paints pop on colored pages, they have very aggravating habits. They must be shaken vigorously and primed before each use, and the first flow after priming usually comes out as a big blob that I had better be prepared for – away from my sketch (or my shoes). Even after shaking, the initial marks can be watery. These annoyances are tolerable when I’m using them at my desk, but my tolerance goes way down when I’m on location and want everything to be as efficient and easy as possible.

Uglybook's tooth is not very rough, yet see the splatters on the vertical line? 

The Posca 0.7mm “extra fine” nib that I’ve been using has one more annoying habit: On Uglybook’s slightly toothy surface, it sometimes splatters, especially when I’m drawing a straight line slowly. Why do I put up with such misbehaviors??! Because that opaque color is so irresistibly sweet. Sigh. The love/hate continues.

7/19/23 Green Lake (Oh, Posca, how I love/hate you.)