To summarize: The Pentel Pocket Brush pen is one of the greatest sketching tools that has been discovered. Sadly, this pen is scarce in North America, and those lucky enough to have found it are revered as holy men. The Canadian art store “Curry’s” no longer ships to the U.S., and although Island Blue and John Neal Books both do, they can take a while to ship.
Now, I say to you this: I have received some of these very pens from the isles of Japan, thanks to a deep cover conspirator holed up there. Should any in the Minneapolis cell wish to buy them this Sunday or thereafter, the only payment this loyal agent requires is comic books. Please bring $15 worth of comics (throw in your own as well, if you could) that can be sent to our Japanese friend, and the pen is all yours.
The pen comes with two cartridges, so depending on how much you draw, you may have to order more of them from Island Blue pretty soon (approx. $5 US). I do not recommend filling a cartridge with fountain pen ink. Although this worked fairly well for me for a couple weeks, it soon gunked up the whole pen and I was only able to salvage it by submerging it in Windex for two days.
Caveat Emptor: The cartridge ink is thin, not entirely waterproof, smudges horribly on Bristol, and bleeds on some other papers. It is, however, unbelievably awesome on ordinary Bond paper, and is a great tool for sketching in thick, beautiful black lines.
See you Sunday!
I love my pentel brush pen… I’ve bought three here in spain
This is a terrific pen. Consistently reliable and fun to work with. However, the ink is not a pure “black,” so not suitable for every type of work.
Heed the warning about using fountain or art inks in the cartridge. I’ve tried several–all work fine for a short while, but eventually gunk up the brush.
So, has anyone come up with an ink formula suitable for this pen?
I FOUND THE GREATEST PLACE FOR PENS LIKE THESE.
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THE NAME OF THE COMPANY IS –
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” SUPPLIER OF FINE ART PRODUCTS “
IN COLORADO
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THEY ALSO HAVE SOME REALLY INTERESTING HADMADE BRUSH PENS CALLED “AKASHIYA EMPORERS PENS “FROM JAPAN- I HAVE 2 OF THEM JUST FOR MYSELF TO USE- EVERYTIME I PULL IT OUT CUSTOMERS WANT ONE.
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Got mine from wetpaintart.com. The fact that the ink is not enterily waterproof is a drawback. I find it practical and easy to carry. Gotta order more refills. If you combine it with the smallest Moleekines, you are on teh road and sketching!
Over the years I’ve used a myriad of pens from cheap ballpoints to expensive fountain pens and although one of the nicest “inexpensive” gel ink models I’ve come to appreciate was the Pilot Dr Grip, my only criticism was it’s bulk. I recently bought a Uniball Premier 207 and found it to be just about the most perfect gel ink pen I’ve
come across yet. Even though they cost about the same, the Uniball Premier 207 is far better feeling than the
Pilot Dr. Grip (which uses the same refill as the G2) and is also a tad slimmer than the Dr. Grip. Writes nice
and smooth too.
these have the full range of these pens in lots of colours and refills and metallics as well.
http://www.dickblick.com/zz228/90/