This particular pen is an "Extra Fine" tip and it is one of the first pens I picked out of the lineup on Jetpens.com when I first started. It's very forgiving of the heavy-handed, making it a good choice for the beginner who is looking for a pen they can use for smaller type size. The variation between thin and thick is that noticeable but you can still achieve enough of a difference to create the brush calligraphy effect.
Copic Sketch
If you follow along with my hashtag #CopicsLettered on Instagram, you'll know that I am a fan of these pens -- however, I've always shared with my followers that I do think that they are a bit more of intermediate/advanced pen to be using because of their flexible "Super Brush Tip." (The other side of this pen is a Chisel Tip.)
Another thing to note is that this is not an inexpensive purchase. At the lowest I've found, they're about $6/pen but they do have an extensive catalog of colors to choose from and the prime use for these pens are for artistic coloring/drawing. These pens blend like a dream because they are alcohol based and not water-based -- therefore, using a good quality cardstock (like Neenah Solar White) is an excellent way to play around with the color familiies to see what kind of effects you can add to your lettering. I created my hashtag so that I could show another medium to use for lettering but I would say these pens weren't necessarily designed with that in mind.
I enjoy using these for 'special' projects where I want to include some blended coloring on the words I'm writing or a shaded/highlighted effect. They also have a fairly large nib size so they prove to be a good option for writing at a larger scale on a smooth poster board.
Pentel Fude Sign Pen
Another popular pen these days! I whole heartedly agree and I use this pen on many of my custom orders, especially those where there is a high-word count (e.g. lettered vows). It allows for small type and I believe better control than most pens. It's a great pen for a beginner to learn with because not only is it more user-friendly but it has an assortment of colors to work with and it's at a great price point!
Tombow Fude "Soft"
No surprise here that this is a favorite for Poppy&Mint work -- especially on the smooth texture of many wedding envelopes that my brides send me. This is a well-shared pen and I think most of you probably have it in your arsenal by now if you've been following the lettering world on Instagram. While it is the soft tip of the Tomboy Fude brand, it still gives great control while allowing the user to really get a great variation of thin upstroke to thick downstroke. I prefer this Soft pen over the Tombow Fude Hard only because I feel like I have to work harder to achieve that brush pen calligraphy style with the 'Hard.'
Mitsubishi 'Fine'
This is a dual-tip pen and this Fine end tip is very similar to the Pilot Pocketbrush 'Hard.' There is a bit more flexbility and softness as pressure is applied than you would feel with some of the other pens like the Tombow Fude 'Hard' for example. With that being said, I think this would be a great pen for a beginner to purchase so that they can start to feel the difference of what a hard vs soft tip is and begin to transition towards learning the pressure and light-handedness that other pens require.
Mitsubishi Bold
This is a great dual-tip pen and I like it as an alternative to my Tombow Black marker because the Bold tip has pretty much the same feel for me and the pigment of the ink is darker and more crisp.
Pilot Pocketbrush 'Soft'
I loathe this pen so much I don't even want you guys to watch the video haha! but have at it.
This is just one of those pens that I don't understand how to control the type of tip it has no matter what I try - light pressure, different pen grips, different pen angles, etc. What I find is that it actually seems to rotate on itself and not really write in the direction of the pressure you're trying to apply. I'm not even expecting that to make sense to you but if you're wanting to give it a try yourself, let me know what you think!
Pilot Pocketbrush 'Hard'
This pen is one of my favorites when I'm looking for the look of a more flexible tip. While it is the "hard" style for this pen manufacturer, it's still a little more flexible than most and takes more control to generate the type of writing style you want to achieve. Once you've mastered it however, the extremely dark black pigment is a perk to this pen and I often grab is for my custom lettering orders.
