Review: J. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie

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

When I first saw J. Herbin's Ambre de Birmanie fountain pen ink, I thought this would be perfect for taking on a vacation to the Mediterranean.  Can't you just see Italian villas and Spanish castles in this shade?

 

 Here I am in the wet, green, cloudy Pacific Northwest, but in the end I'm still finding this color very useful and really  a joy to work with.  It implies a sunny day even if it's not literal...

It's dark enough in a fountain pen to work well for line drawings...

You can use it in a brush pen to add mid-tone.

Brush it over some fountain pen inks and it will make mud... but over others it makes magic.

This ink is great in fountain pen or brush pen. I see the most potential for use in sketching, but if your pen lays down a nice dense line, it's beautiful for writing as well.  

Review: Platinum Japanese Art Pocket Brush Pen

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

The Platinum Pocket Brush Pen is in the family of brush pens that aren't actually brush pens.  Instead of individual bristles, these pens have a single molded tip that mimics the silouette of a brush but doesn't fan out against the paper the way a true brush would.  Something about this design makes for a very diverse assortment of products!  These false brush tips can be wet or dry, sturdy or fragile, floppy or stiff - it's a minefield and a treasure trove out there, with each pen feeling very different from the next when you get it in your hand.  

(A few examples, top to bottom: Copic Multiliner brush, Uniball brush, Pilot brush, Platinum brush)

The Platinum brush stands out visually due to the gold flowers stamped onto the barrel and a sparkly gray clip (that likes to come off in your hand when you try to remove the cap).   It looks and feels a bit cheap - but it is cheap, at $3.  

This pen gives a thick line in comparison to the others. You can get a fine line out of it here or there if you're careful, but it takes some effort and goes against the pen's wishes.  

Among the various brush pen options, the Platinum Carbon does have a unique set of characteristics: it is waterproof,  fairly dark, and has decent flow. The other options are either not waterproof (the Uniball and Pilot brushes), don't provide a large wet line (Tombow), or aren't as dark or smooth (Copic).

The nearest equivalent to this Platinum Pen is the Copic.  If you like Copic brushes in general, I'd say there's not a lot of cause to try the Platinum unless the slightly darker ink is a big advantage to you.  Personally I haven't had a lot of luck with Copic brush lines, and actually prefer the Platinum brush to work with even though it's cheap and kind of stubby-tipped.

 I won't lie to you - I don't love this pen.  I prefer to be able to get a finer line, and if I'm going bold I prefer the feel of the Uniball brush even though it's not waterproof.  However, if you are looking for a moderately wet-writing disposable pen with a waterproof line for the purpose of doing bold sketching, this Platinum brush is certainly worth $3 to try!  

Review: Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush

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

The Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush has some of the same functionality as the Kuretake Blendable Brush Writer featured in my last review, but it's smaller and more affordable ($3, compared to the $7.50 Brush Writer).  So is it a good deal?

For me it isn't, though I have to respect it as a good tool that probably works very well for someone else.

The Clean Color brush has a nice brush tip, similar to the Brush Writer and other Kuretake "hair" brush pens, but a little smaller.

This bright yellow color is bold and slightly orange with no trace of brown or amber - a very nice color.

The body is more standard in size than the large Brush Writer, but  here's where we get to trouble - it doesn't allow you to squeeze to increase ink flow, which turns out to be a problem for me.  I want to be able to move fast and get a really wet line on demand, and the Clean Color brush just doesn't serve that function. I suspect it couldn't hold up to that use as well anyway, since it's a smaller, lighter pen that probably holds significantly less ink than the Brush Writer.

The other problem for me is color, despite how nice this bright yellow appears.  Like the Brush Writers, many very loud colors are available, which seems great until I think about actually sketching in those colors.  I gave it a try in combination with a dark line, but I feel like this would have been more fun if I'd just used watercolors.

It does merge very well with watercolors and with other water-soluble inks, just like the Brush Writers.  In the flower sketch, I used Diamine Red Dragon ink in a fountain pen with the Clean Color brush in yellow and a waterbrush to blend.

Here's yet another experiment, this time using a waterproof line drawing and adding some colored pencil and graphite, trying to determine if it makes sense to use such a bright color as a base for other colors.  It didn't really ring my bell, though I can see how it might suit someone else's style.  It seems like a useful thing that this pen can cover areas of your page in a brilliant tone without leaving it particularly wet as it would have been if you were using watercolors.  I can imagine this brilliant yellow being useful to have in a pen while traveling in the Mediterranean.

The pen works well for what it does - it provides water-soluble ink that acts like watercolors in a convenient pen body with a good brush tip.  If you like to work with bright colors and like having those at hand while travelling, and prefer something small and disposable, these pens are great.  Otherwise, well, watercolors can do a similar job, and the Kuretake Brush Writer is another  pen option that gives you more control and more ink for a little more money.