The set I purchased includes pens in the following ink colors:

• 473 – a bright peach/orange
• 435 – a plummy purple
• 943 – a dark blue black

The set was “inspired by the evening calm of the setting sun that quietly envelops the harbor as it watches over ships.”

I think I was most taken with the packaging on these pens. Even though it is written in Japanese it manages to convey that it makes use of the bottled fountain pen ink colors to create these pens in tons of different shades. The packaging is specific to these three colors, yet also shows the colors available in this format, either singly or in other combinations.

The pen itself has two ends – one with a brush tip, and one with a felt tip fine liner. The fine liner writes beautifully and if I were more skilled with a brush pen, I’d be stoked with that one too. I think this is a fun way to explore Sailor’s ink line without having to buy full bottles of fountain pen ink, which of course opens it up to a wider audience. Of course there are always the bottles if you find a favorite shade or two!

DISCLAIMER: Some of these items were purchased with my own funds, others were provided for free or at discounted cost for the purposes of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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On Friday, I talked about how much I love the Sai Watercolor Brush Pens. What I realized recently is how much I also love the Pentel Fude Brush Sign Pens. I have had one or two of this pens floating around the Desk and frequently reach for them for my daily journal and planning needs but really wanted to have more than just a couple colors so I ordered the 2020 New Color 12-color set ($23) from JetPens.

Like with the Sai Watercolor Brush Pens, the range of colors in the 2020 New Color set featured some unique, non-standard colors so I was very excited to try this set.

The Pentel Fude Brush Sign Pens feature to bullet-shaped, felt-tip style tips housed in a plastic cap. The pens I’ve had floating around the office, I’ve had for months, maybe even years and are regularly used and have not frayed or gotten cruddy so I do tend to recommend these to anyone looking for a more brush pen-look marker. These are particularly good for folks with a heavy hand since these pens have a stiffer brush than the Sai pens.

Some of the colors in this set are quite light. The Pale Blue is even more pale in person than in the photo above but the other colors are all really lovely. The Light Grey will probably get used more for underlining or decoration rather than actually writing titles. The Olive Green is CHEF’S KISS for me. The Blue-Black and Turquoise Green will also get a lot of use for me.

The real joy is how lovely this pen makes my script look. We all have pens that make our handwriting look better and this, for me, is one of those. As such, I will extoll their virtues for years to come.

All these pens are available for individual purchase ($2.50 each)  if you want to cherry pick your favorite colors.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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I don’t normally keep marker or brush pens in the packaging but with a large set like this 30-color set, the sturdy, translucent plastic box is easy to use, easy to see the pens and easy to store so the pens might live in this box for the time being. I do store the box with the tips down or horizontal so that the tips don’t dry out. The 20-color set came in a long flat plastic sleeve that is lovely for presentation but too big to be usable for me so I took the pens out of the case immediately, which may explain why I managed to lose some of the pens.

What I like most about the Sai Watercolor Brush Pens is the unusual color range. Unlike many pen sets that offer the standard ROYGBIV spectrum in smaller sets, the Sai sets all have a more sophisticated, complex color range.

The pens feature clear caps with a clip to keep the pens from rolling away. I did discover that the caps need to be pushed firmly to close the pens completely.

With the 30-color set, I do feel like there are more common colors then in the 20-color set but overall, I think the set offers a great range of colors.

Of all the brush pens on the market, the individual nylon bristle tips on the Sai brush pens are some of the sturdiest while also being the most like a real brush. Other brands feature the soft, flexible “felt tip” style tips which can often dull or the tips can get worn out but the Sai bristles have survived a wide array of paper surfaces and abuse and kept the tips sharp and usable. I didn’t go out of my way to try to damage or abuse them so I’m sure they can be damaged, but in regular use, I’ve found the Sai brush pens to be the most durable while also being the most brusk-like.

Using a standard Tomoe River A5 notebook, I tested the full range of colors in the 30-color set. My favorite colors are the dusty blue in the center of the second row and pretty much all the greens.  I think for nature sketchers, this set has a good variety. Lettering artists will like the spring brush tips and unique color range especially.

The red-orange color always reminds me of ripe, heirloom tomatoes. All things considered, its probably my favorite in the set. It is also in the 20-color set and I used it all the time.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Her at The Desk, we are fairly obsessed with fountain pen ink and the myriad of colors available to us. I have experimented with the Kuretake fill-it-yourself fiber tipped and brush pens. And of course, we can’t pass up a fountain pen ink rollerball pen either. So, of course, when I found the Kakimori Colour Liner series ($5.50 each) I couldn’t resist. There are four options: Marker (with a chisel tip like a highlighter), Brush (with a soft, flexible fiber tip) and 0.5mm and 0.3mm fineliner tips.

The whole pen barrel is clear plastic with a simple metal clip. Inside each pen is an absorbent capillary ink reservoir section. To activate each pen, just choose a bottle of ink and place the ink reservoir section into the bottle.

Once inserted into a bottle of ink, the ink reservoir fills quickly. It’s quite satisfying to watch. Once filled, I wipe the end that was in the ink off with a rag to keep from getting residual ink on the interior of the clear pen barrel.

It takes less than a minute for the capillary ink reservoir to fill with ink. If it does not fill all the way to the very end, the instructions included recommend flipping the ink capsule upside to allow gravity to distribute the ink throughout.

Flip the end cap over to push the capillary ink unit into the pen and make contact with the feed (the little pointy bit visible beneath the pen tip).

The photo above shows the cap pressed halfway in. Push it all the way to make a tight seal at the end and with the feed. (see images below).

Once the ink reservoir is seated into the pen, I set the pens, tip end down in my pen cup for 15 minutes or so to let gravity pull ink into the tip. I doubt it takes all that long to distribute the ink into the tip but I set them in the pen cup and then got distracted answering email and 15 minutes elapsed before I retrieved them, By which time, the tips were fully saturated with ink.

I chose four different inks to try: Platinum Carbon Black (0.3mm) , Montblanc Lucky Yellow (marker pen), Robert Oster Soda Pop Blue (brush pen), and Colorverse Gravity Wave (0.5mm). The Montblanc Lucky Yellow made a nice alternative to neon highlighter ink for me. It’s a little too light to write with the fine point tip on the chisel but for underlining and highlighting, it looks lovely. The poppy Oster Soda Pop Blue in the brush marker performs admirably. It’s such a lovely blue. To my delight, all of the sheening qualities of Colorverse Gravity Wave were visible in the 0.5mm fineliner.

The 0.3mm and 0.5mm are the smallest fill-it-yourself fineliners I’ve found thus far so if you like the finer drawing pens but want to experiment with colors, these are at the top of my recommendation list.

Though it may not seem original or unique, I am pleased with the Platinum Carbon Black in the finest of the fineliner options. I plan to use it for drawing, lettering and various mixed media projects including in my journal/planner since once dry, it will not bleed into other colors.

Initially, I hoped that these pens might be refillable, but it seems unlikely that the capillary ink reservoirs can be rinsed and reused successfully. The ink units appear to be the same size that are used in the Kuretake Karappo pens. Maybe it’s possible to find replacement “wick cores” at some point.

Either way, if you are looking for ways to use your fountain pen inks, I find these fill-it-yourself markers and pens to be a great way to use your inks in new and different ways.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

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It’s planner prep season, and it’s also time to start thinking about (say it ain’t so!) the holidays. I took care of both with one set of brush pens: the Kuretake Zig Fudebiyori Metallic set of 8 colors (8/$17 or $2.50 each).

Although I have a gazillion brush pens and use them frequently, most are black, and I’ve somehow managed to resist color. In the daily scribble journal I’ve been keeping, however (more about that coming soon), color is essential. Since I already know and love the basic black Fudebiyori, these were an easy choice. (If you need more than metallic colors, Fudebiyori brush pens come in 48!)

First I tested them in a Leuchtturm 1917 A5 notebook, which is what I’ll be using for next year’s daily journal. Only silver shows a significant metallic sheen, but it may be because the pigment-based, acid-free ink contains no stinky, toxic xylene or other solvents. I have several metallic pens containing solvent-based inks, and while they are shinier, I’m fine with the tradeoff in using safe, non-smelly markers. I’m showing both a photo, which shows the metallic effect better, and a scanned image, which captures the colors more accurately.

The bold inks ghost on the back of the page, but no bleeding is apparent.

Next I tested them in my red and black Shizen journals, where these metallic brush pens pop and shine. Red even shows up on red paper, and black shows on black! That’s when I saw potential for holiday cards and other festive uses. 

Of course, I also love making winter nocturne scenes on the black pages of my Stillman & Birn Nova Trio sketchbook, so I couldn’t resist a pre-dawn sketch of the front porch and car across the street (I used silver and black brush pens).

These will do nicely for festive writing, daily journal scribbling and even sketching!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

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Unfortunately, once the ball bearing is in place, these cartridges are not reusable.It is possible to buy a set of empty cartridges (5 cartridges for $4.75). Theoretically, Platinum converters are interchangeable with Kuretake and have been known to work with other brush pens though I have not tried it yet with these pens. Since the pens ship with two cartridges, I’ll test these first while I wait for a Platinum converter to arrive in the mail. I am sure I must own a dozen of them but can’t find one.

Each pen comes with a pipette to aid in filling. Though I recommend filling over a towel near a sink because I still managed to drip ink down the cartridge.

I filled the felt tip with Colorverse Extreme Deep Field and the brush pen with Hubble from the new Colorverse series.

The brush pen version has very soft bristles. Because it has actual nylon bristles, it can achieve extra fine lines as well as bend to lay down a thick, wide stroke.

The felt tip is much finer but still has some give and play in the tip allowing it to achieve a range of thicks and thins.

I tested the empty brush pens on Tomoe River because both of the Colorverse inks have been known to sheen and I wanted to see if it was noticeable in a brush pen. In the finer felt-tip marker pen, I did notice the sheen of the Extreme Deep Field ink. In the softer brush pen, the sheen of the Hubble ink was not noticeable.

Both pens performed smoothly. Ink wicked to the tips quickly and both the felt-tip and brush pens kept up with my writing speeds without missing a beat.

I have been regularly using the Kuretake Karappo “wicking” felt tip pens which have been going strong since the day I filled them. I use them at work for writing on post-it notes, adding notations to my task list, etc so I thought I’d also compare the performance of the wicking pen to the newer cartridge-based designs.

The tip of the wicking pen is firmer and finer than the cartridge felt-tip. I would compare the cartridge style to a Fudenosuke soft pen and the wicking pens are more like a traditional fine tip marker pen — think Paper Mate Flair but with the ink of your choosing.

Because the cartridge-based Kuretake Karappo Empty Brush Pens are softer and more flexible than the wicking pens, I would recommend these to anyone interested in using their fountain pen inks for art making, calligraphy or other more creative uses. If your goal is to have new, different ways to write with your fountain pen inks, then stick with the wicking versions.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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I have a few brush pens. (To understand what I mean by “a few,” see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of my review series. And those are only the ones I’ve reviewed.) I tend to divide all brush pens into two categories – the ones with hair-like bristles and the ones without. The latter category of formed felt or nylon tips includes various sizes and degrees of firmness. The Pilot Shunpitsu Pocket Brush Pen with a soft tip ($4.90) belongs in the formed tip group, but I think it may be unique in one way: its length.

Looking through my formed-tip brush pens, I pulled out all that are made of the same type of soft, flexible material, and the Shunpitsu is the only one with a standard-size pen body. All the rest (some of which are double-sided) are about 2 ½ inches longer than a standard pen because they are designed to emulate traditional Asian calligraphy brushes. For artists and calligraphers trained to use traditional brushes, perhaps the longer brush pens feel more natural. For the type of sketching I do, however, I’ve often found the length inconvenient, especially when carrying them out and about. The Pilot Shunpitsu puts the same flexible tip in a compact body.

The Shunpitsu’s brush tip puts out a wide range of expressive thick and thin marks. The dye-based ink is not waterproof, but knowing that, I take advantage of its water-solubility (see sketch of hand below). JetPens’ description says that the specially formulated ink “dries to the touch in just one second,” which makes it ideal for a lefty like me. (I haven’t had problems with other brush pens smearing much, but that could be because I usually draw with them rather than write, so my hand’s not moving very quickly.) (Writing and scribbling samples made in Col-o-Ring “Oversize” book.)

Like memory foam, the Shunpitsu’s soft tip is very flexy but pops right back up when released.

In the sketch below (which was made with my right hand during a couple of weeks of non-dominant hand practice), I used a water brush to wash the water-soluble ink slightly for soft shading. (Sketch made in gray Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook.)

A few days later, I pocketed the Shunpitsu and a Field Notes notebook to catch a quick sketch of a blossoming cherry tree during my daily walk. (The white ink used was a Sakura Gelly Roll.) The fine marks it can make work well on a small page, and the pen’s length is ideal for easy carrying. So no matter how many brush pens I have, I need this one, too.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

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The tip is firm enough to allow both thick and thin lines. The colors in each pen can be blended or faded by adding water like pan watercolors. How successful blending is will depend largely on what kind of paper you are using. Watercolor paper, which is designed to be used with a lot of water will be more successful in more painterly experiments. Multimedia paper (Strathmore, Bienfang and Canson all offer versions of this type of paper) is the next best. Col-o-ring Paper is similar to multimedia paper in a lot of way but may curl or “taco” more easily when wet than watercolor or multimedia paper.

I got individual pens so I could choose colors I thought I would use more than the sets. I did want to have a full range of colors. I missed a purple though.

The physical pens are wide, like most brush pens, but lightweight and easy to hold. The colors range from bright and vivid to light and subtle. If you are considering purchasing these pens, consider what you might want to draw, paint or color and choose your colors accordingly. I like to do florals and silly doodles so I focused on colors I thought might be good in these uses.

I compared the Ecoline Brush Pens to what I consider to be the “Cadillac of Watercolor Brush Pens” — The Winsor & Newton Water Colour Brush Pens. I had similar colors in both brands — not exact matches but close.

While this is probably not a fair comparison, I think both pens are competing for the same type of user. Originally, I thought the W&N brush pens were very expensive but after some investigation, the prices for the W&N Water Color Brush Pens compared to the Ecoline, are pretty similar. Considering that the W&N have dual tips (the brush tip on one end and the fine tip on the other) the extra 20¢ per pen seems reasonable.

But the biggest advantage is that, when wet, the W&N pens blend much more easily and the amount of pigment in each color is much more intense and saturated. If you prefer to layer colors when color is dry, this may not be a deciding factor. W&N colors also show more granulation like traditional watercolors.

When blending, the Ecoline colors did not lift as easily with water or rewet as smoothly. Some “staining colors” from W&N also had some issues blending smoothly but both of my sample blends were not done on pre-wet paper so your results may vary with different techniques.

While both pens, the Ecoline and W&N do similar things and work pretty consistently but I’m inclined to recommend the W&N over the Ecoline because of the dual tip and I have more history with the brand in general. That said, the Ecoline is a solid option.

Tools:

• Paper: Bee Paper Super Deluxe Aqua Bee 6×9 sketch pad ($21) and Col-o-ring Folio (coming soon!)
• Pens: Royal Talens Ecoline Watercolor Brush Pen ($3.40 each)  Winsor & Newton Water Colour Brush Pens ($84 for set of 12) or ($3.69 each from Blick – much better deal and now sold under the name Winsor & Newton Pro Marker Watercolor Marker)

DISCLAIMER: The Ecoline Pens included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Other items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

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Last Inktober, I got a new brush pen (previewed here) – the Pentel Pigment Ink Brush Pen with extra-fine tip ($7; many similar brush pens are available; this one has the model number XFP5F). Although I’d be the first to admit that yet another brush pen is the last thing I need, I still had fun with it then – and I’m still having fun with it now!

The black pigment ink is nearly completely waterproof (heavy applications of ink might require waiting several minutes). The test scribble shown below, made on a Col-o-Ring Oversize page, was swiped with a wet brush after about 10 minutes. Only a trace of washed ink is visible. (Refills are available in other colors, but only the pigment option is waterproof.)

To push ink in the reservoir toward the brush, simply squeeze the center of the plastic barrel. Ink advances fairly fast, so don’t hold the brush over your work as you squeeze in case it drips.

Similar to most reservoir brush pens of this type, it has nylon bristles that taper to a point. The extra-fine Pentel, however, has a point that is about one hair width wide – making it the finest-tip brush pen I own. 

I enjoy using this Pentel to see how minimal I can make my daily hand sketches while still evoking a hand. (My mom was a sumi-e painter, so I like to think I am channeling her with these attempts.) You can see that by using the very tippy-tip hairs, I can make a darn fine mark. I also like the dry-brush look I get just before the barrel needs a squeeze. 

This Pentel is a worthy addition to my (admittedly vast) collection for its exceptionally fine point. The waterproof ink is a bonus.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

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I purchased the pens because I wanted a chance to find new and different ways to use my fountain pen inks. Would these Karappo pens work with sheening inks? Would they work with shimmer inks? I needed answers to these questions!

I also wanted to experiment with the difference between the brush pen and the 0.4mm fine pen.

First, I wanted to know how long it took to fill the pen? Answer? About one minute with regular fountain pen ink.  I did not use any special tools. I just dropped the cotton-y looking inserts into a bottle on ink and watched as they wicked up the ink.

I filled two of the “fine” 0.4mm on the left and three of the “fine” brush pens on the right.

I tested a sheening ink — Diamine Skull & Roses in one of the 0.4mm fine tipped pens and the sheening qualities of the ink are still visible. The advantage, for me, of theses pens over other pens which accept fountain pen ink is that they are fiber-tipped rather than rollerball. As a lefty, I tend to choke rollerball pens or I don’t hold them at quite the right angle to get them to write. With the fine 0.4mm and brush tip Karappo pens, I had no issues with ink flow!

The other fine tipped pen was filled with a delicate grey ink: Colorverse Matter. All the shading properties remained! I like how the 0.4mm pens write. They are very similar to the width of a Sharpie Pen, IMHO.

The brush pens were not super flexible or brushy but just gave a nice bit of line variation and would be perfectly acceptable for embellishing the titles or headers in a notebook or addressing an envelope. Since I tend to buy a lot of very light inks and very fine nibbed fountain pens that do not show the inks to their best  result, these pens are a great opportunity to give some of the paler inks a second life.

My last experiment was to put Pen BBS #111 (a shimmer ink) into one of the Karappo brush pens. While the color looks amazing, none of the shimmer is evident. I don’t think the material was able to absorb any of the shimmer particles. So… that answers that question.

Each package of pens comes with a set of stickers to mark with the color of ink in your pens and attach to the cap.  (Please ignore my winter parched hands.)

Of all the fountain pen ink-fillable pens available, the Kuretake Karappo Brush and Fine Pens are by far my favorites even if shimmer inks don’t shimmer. Now to decide what inks to put in the other empty pens…

Tools:

• Paper: Col-o-ring Folio (available soon)
• Pens: Kuretake Karappo Empty Brush Pen – Fine (Pack of 5 for $17.50), Kuretake Karappo Empty Felt Tip Pen 0.4mm Fine (Pack of 5 for $15.00)
• Ink: Diamine Skull & Roses (currently unavailable), Colorverse Matter ($30 for set), Tono & Lims True Story Hyogo ($22 for 30ml bottle), Robert Oster Sydney Lavender($17 for 50ml bottle) and Pen BBS #111 (no longer available).

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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