Faber-castell PITT Calligraphy Pen, Pentel Brush Pens

Last week I left out one other calligraphy marker I had: 

This is the PITT Calligraphy Pen by Faber-Castell. They come in a variety of nib styles, sizes and colors, the others of which I'll post on here some other time. When I made my last order on cultpens.co.uk, I ordered two of these along with the Pilot parallel pens just in case those turned out to be crap. I'll do a brief review of the PITT calligraphy pen to get that out of the way:

Just get the pilot parallel pen.

Here's a picture of the PITT's stroke in between the Itoya and the Pilot. PITT pens use india ink, which is always a plus. However, it's ink seems to be lighter than both the Itoya and the Pilot in a strange turn of events. Another downside is that a fresh PITT nib is already pretty soft and round, as well as prone to disfigurement. The strokes it produces already have quite damaged edges just after a few doodles with this thing. Using this thing on it's side would simply destroy it.  A shame, since the PITT Brush pen (to be reviewed some other time) is generally held in high regard. PITT pens aren't anywhere near as expensive as copic multiliners, but the Pilot parallel pen would still be a better investment in my opinion.

The brush has never been my favourite tool for inking, because for a beginner especially it's hard to control. Even more of an inconvenience is having to have lug around a jar of india ink all the time, and having to clean your bristles after every drawing session. In came a solution:

This is the classic Pentel brush pen. I found this baby years ago at a local drawing shop. They come in several colors, but again I only cared about the black one. The mechanism is easy to use (even with the instructions being in Japanese). 

Here's a picture of an unused pen with the bristles still clean. It's a brush-tipped pen with a handle-shaped ink reservoir. Squeezing the handle results in ink being forced into the bristles. The cap prevents the ink from drying up in the bristles. The ink is high quality as well. Here are some sketches I made with this thing. 

 

The bristles are made of high-quality synthetic hairs. While they work fine, they lack the spring of a traditional brush because of the lack of a round belly. I treated the bristles on this brush pen pretty rough, and the last few months I've kept it almost completely dried. 

 

The controls over ink flow is useful for those who want to work both with smooth strokes and rougher lines. I found it a bother however, so recently I found a replacement:

The Pentel Pocket brush pen is an updated design which eliminates the need to squeeze the ink cartridge. Instead, it uses a fountain pen construction. It's ink flow is simply perfect, and I haven't had any leaks with it either. While it's plastic, it's got an incredibly sturdy construction and a nice clip added on, as well as being compact. It definitely lives up to it's "pocket" name.

Only downside I have about the construction is that the handle has no texture or material for a tight grip. Not a huge problem however. On the plus side, the pocket brush pen also has a finer tip, making it better suited for lineart as well. No other tool has given me sharper lines than this thing. You need a fairly light hand for it though: the bristles are quite soft. This bums me out, since I generally prefer tougher tips. 

 
Once again, the brush lacks the spring of a traditional brush. The problem seems to have only become worse with the finer tip. Several hairs at the tip seem to bend separately from the rest of the brush sometimes. I don't know if this is just my pen, or if this is a common problem. Feel free to comment if you have any similar or other experience with this pen.

Still, the Pentel Pocket brush pen is a fine product, and the standard brush pen nowadays. It's great for both inking and sketching. Like I said previous week, it's the preferred tool of Japanese artist Yoji Shinkawa, known for his work on Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders.

Before MGS4's release, Hideo Kojima toured the world with several production members, including Shinkawa. I managed to meet him during their visit to the Netherlands. I didn't care that much for meeting Hideo Kojima (probably rare amongst the hundreds of fans who attended) but meeting one of my favourite artists was pretty cool. Took pictures, and got my copy of MGS2 signed by Kojima, Shinkawa, and one of MGS4's voice actresses. Shinkawa also did a 10-second portrait of everybody who attended along with his signature. I must have looked so sad.

Yeah, I'm one of the five dicks who bought MGS2 on PC.

That's enough posts about my tools for now. Next week: the mystery project I've been working on for Guerilla games!