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| 12/20/23 I love the dry-brush look of the hairy bristles! |
It’s probably obvious that I love brush pens of all types.
Several years ago when I did some massive comparison reviews of lots of brush
pens, one of the distinctions I made was between the “hairy” kind and
the “non-hairy” ones. Hairy brush pens have actual bristles, usually
synthetic, of the type that are found on paint brushes. Non-hairy pens have
tips made of foam, felt or some other formed material with varying degrees of flexibility.
These two types of brush pens represent a long-standing dilemma:
I prefer the more organic, variable look of hairy brush pens, but when I’m
trying to make a quick-as-possible sketch on location, those are harder to
control (this was especially true when I sketched on public transportation a
lot more than I do now). Eventually I decided that the tradeoff for speed and
efficiency was more important on location, and I switched to firm-tipped,
non-hairy brush pens as my go-to. They still have some of the line variability of
hairy brush pens, but they are much easier to control – a good compromise.
I’m not sure what prompted it – maybe some YouTubes I was watching
– but I recently got the urge to use a hairy brush pen again. I picked up my old
Pentel pocket brush pen, which has long been a favorite, even though I
keep buying more to try. It had been unused for at least a couple of years,
still filled with Platinum Carbon Black ink – and it flowed just as well as if
I had been using it daily! (Several others I tried had dried up or just weren’t
flowing well, even if full of ink.) What a reliable workhorse.
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| 12/13/23 Good to have the hairiness back! |
Keeping my usual Uni Pin brush pen in my bag, I added
the Pentel. In a couple of these sketches, I used the Pentel for the trees and the
hard-tipped Uni Pin for the windows, excavator and other human-made structures.
That organic, dry-brush look is made for trees! I love how the difference in
line character between the hairy and non-hairy pens highlights the contrast between
natural and human-made forms. |
| 12/16/23 Pentel brush pen, colored pencil |
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12/18/23 Uni Pin and Pentel brush pens,
Posca marker
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| 12/23/23 Uni Pin and Pentel brush pens, colored pencils |
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| 12/26/23 Pentel brush pen |
It is great that there is such a variety of pens and especially the brush pens. I usually prefer the hard-tipped brush pens for my detailed work when I need to fill in a space. The soft ones are a little too mushy for that, but they do have a nice organic look to their lines.
ReplyDeleteEach type has its own best features -- so I need to keep both in my bag. ;-)
DeleteLong ago I bought a Pentel brush pen because all the Urban Sketchers seemed to be raving about it as well as a woman who uses one for some of her calligraphy work. I found it very difficult to control and didn't have the patience at that time to spend much time working with it. On a whim, I bought a 5 pack of assorted brush pens from Jet Pens and that is when I discovered that there were "non-hairy" brush pens. Normally I wouldn't have thought of them as brush pens at all but just felt-tipped pens, but I found that one indeed could get different line widths with them. I haven't tried every pen in that assortment, but so far the extra fine Bimoji soon became my favorite. I will definitely replace it when it runs out of ink. Love the way you have used your pens in the above sketches, and of course, that bit of white on some.
ReplyDeleteHairy brush pens do take quite a bit of practice to control and feel comfortable with... they are sort of halfway between drawing and painting. I'm only just now getting back into the groove after having using a non-hairy one exclusively the past couple years.
DeleteOne thing I enjoy about the ‘hairy’ Pentel is the dance we do with each other - often I take the lead, and once in a while, I follow its lead. - Roy
ReplyDeleteI love that -- dancing with the brush pen!
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