Review: Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at Geminica.com.

The Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens (Hard and Soft) initially caught my interest when I discovered they are a favorite tool of the wonderful comics artist Dylan Horrocks.  Horrocks states he has drawn "almost everything" in recent years using these pens.  Well, alright! That was good enough for me.

These really are good pens.  They fill one specific niche perfectly, and it's one that makes them understandably attractive to comics artists/cartoonists: they provide a fine, consistent line that is capable of variation when you want it.     

The comparison below demonstrates that these pens don't behave much like brushes when you don't want them to - when writing with them, they seem as (or more?) consistent than the Lamy Safari EF! And on the right is what you get if you apply a little more pressure with the soft pen and make purposeful use of its variability.

I can't provide a new drawing from the Fudenosuke hard pen, since mine is running dry and is just barely dark enough now to make letters. But here's a panel from the 16-page comic I made that used up all that ink. 

from my first (and very silly) pulp adventure comic about rival coffee buyers, Dangerous Aromas, which was drawn with the Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen (Hard).

That leads me to the pens' only major drawback -  they don't have a vast amount of ink in them. Well, if I'm going to love a disposable pen that runs out of ink quickly, at least it's comforting to know that they were made using recycled plastic.

After drawing the Victorian gentleman at the top of this post, I wanted to try the soft pen with a more brushy style.  Cue the hippopotamus.

 

Normally for this kind of brush work, I would go back to a "real" brush pen (one with separate bristles) since that lets you really paint your ink on - but this pen does have a nice quality to it and is capable of handling the job.  

The internet seems divided over whether this pen is waterproof or not.  I am happy to report that they ARE in fact waterproof.  Presumably on certain paper (perhaps heavily sized?) or in certain environments (more humid?) - and certainly if you apply water immediately after drawing - the ink is less waterproof... but I was impressed.  I am not including a picture of my test since it shows absolutely no effect from adding water, only one minute after laying down the ink.

As for differences between the hard and soft pens -  the hard pen is a little better at lettering, word bubbles, and anything that benefits from a less variable line, while the soft pen's stronger ink flow and increased variability make it better for long strokes, quick strokes, and anything artsy.  

If you are a cartoonist, an illustrator, or just like to doodle silly characters during meetings, I heartily recommend both of these pens. But I may be leaning towards the soft pen.

Now for an Obsessive Addendum: Refilling the Non-Refillable Pen.

Someone online reported having refilled their Tombow Fudenosuke pen with fountain pen ink by prying off the end cap and inserting ink using an eyedropper.  Since my hard pen has in fact gone dry, I decided to experiment in this direction. I don't recommend it.  First off, the recycled plastic is very malleable, so when I pried the end cap off, it got very damaged.  Secondly after I dropped the Noodler's Bulletproof into the ink receptacle in the pen, when I took the lid off it leaked out a bunch of that ink.  Maybe I missed?  Or maybe I put in too much?  In any case, I suggest accepting the disposable nature of these pens.  They are great for what they are!

Pens in Flight: One approach that works

Recently I had an opportunity to test some of the internet's advice for taking pens on airplanes.  I ended up putting together several tips & tricks into a routine that worked quite well. It's nothing fancy but it does the job!

All the pens were placed in a zippered plastic bag, so their tips were pointed in the same direction. The water brush was emptied to avoid any potential issues with airport security.

As soon as we were seated, I pulled out the bag of pens and slipped it into the seat pouch (tips up, of course).  This way not only were they safe and totally secured into an upright position, but I could unzip the bag and use the pens while flying with very little fuss.

I used several of the pens during the flight - including a Pilot Penmanship fountain pen with a half-full cartridge.  None of the pens shed a drop of ink or had any other troubles, during or after the flight.

Surely a bit of bad luck could have caused this to go differently but I feel confident that this routine will minimize the chances of a spill, and mitigate the damage should the worst occur.

Review: Pilot Pocket Brush Pen - Hard

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at Geminica.com.

 Another Victorian, posing with the Pilot Pocket Brush Pen (Hard) in Strathmore's smooth bristol Visual Journal.  Can you tell I didn't like how her face turned out?

A frequent complaint for brush pen users is that the ink doesn't flow freely enough, resulting in a dry brush effect where you really didn't want one.  You'll get that effect if you use toothy paper or if you go fast enough, no matter what brush is used - see the right side of the above drawing - but the greatest strength of the Pilot Pocket Brush -Hard  is that it really wants to lay down an easy lush sloppy black line, packed with ink.   

You can see here that by comparison, the Pilot brush makes the lines from the Pentel Pocket and the Kuretake No. 8 Hair Brush look grey.  They were stocked with good black ink, so this difference is probably entirely due to the difference in ink flow. 

Unfortunately, while the Pilot does lay down a nice black line, it is also a  very thick line.  I found it a struggle to control this pen.  Here are some loose comics I made using the Pilot hard brush which is maybe a better direction for this particular tool.

 

With a wetter application comes more smudging. I recently spent a few minutes sketching at Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square and couldn't avoid getting my hand in the ink (smudges are visible on the main figure's backpack). This drawing also demonstrates that the ink is not waterproof.  It holds up okay if you touch it with some watercolors on a just barely moist brush, but if too much water gets into the paper it bleeds in an ugly, feathery way (see around the bird).

In the end, I feel fond of the Pilot Pocket Brush for its lushness but it isn't really a good match to my needs. I recommend this brush pen if you want something very affordable, prefer a strong ink flow, intend to draw fairly loosely, and aren't planning to add water colors.  It could serve that purpose quite well. Otherwise - your perfect brush pen is elsewhere.

Confession: This review was originally going to cover both the hard and soft brushes, but I lost the soft brush while out sketching!  I was surprised to find that despite having totally different tip shapes, they produced a similar line.  The soft brush might make it easier to avoid the dry brush effect simply because the tip is so much larger, but I preferred the hard brush because it was easier to predict its movement.