Review: Pentel Touch & Sign Pen (featuring watersoluble ink)
The Pentel Touch and Pentel Sign are two pens that are great for watersoluble ink sketching.
Design of the two pens is similar except the sparkling bits on the Pentel Touch.
The Pentel Touch features a mini brush tip while the Pentel Sign has a bullet tip. The Pentel Touch is also more expensive. Typical price online is around US $2 to $3 which is quite expensive for a pen like this. The Pentel Sign is almost 50% cheaper. Price will vary depending on where you buy the pens of course. Thankfully here in Singapore, stationery is more affordable compared to Europe or USA.
Pentel Touch is capable of producing thin and thick lines easily. But since the tip is small, there's a limit to the line thickness.
Pentel Sign produces lines with consistent thickness. To get thicker lines, you have to draw with the side of the felt tip. It's easy to produce line variation with the Pentel Touch than the Pentel Sign.
The ink is watersoluble and dissolves quite easily to form a mid-value wash. You can add more water for a diluted wash.
The inks are probably made with dyes which means they are not archival. Colours are going to fade when exposed to light long enough. Even when diluted, as seen above, the colour was already breaking up slightly into orange and red. If you spray fixative on the ink, which you shouldn't, the colours will definitely break up.
The pens are available in different colours.
You can create more interest when drawing with a pen that can produce lines of varying thickness.
Lines with consistent thickness can look quite flat at times.
Both pens are great for watersoluble ink sketching. Notice how the lines don't dissolve completely.
The paper here is different from the one above and the ink dissolves almost completely. To avoid unexpected surprises, test the pen on the paper you have before using them to create actual art.
It's important to test your art supplies before using them to create art. Above is a sketch that I've drawn using the pen and I forgot the pen wasn't waterproof.
I was so shocked when I saw the watersoluble ink.
I had to do a lot of rescue work with the help of acrylic markers.
Conclusion
I'm not sure about the value for money considering the price of these pens. I bought these pens locally at an art shop at a reasonable price so for me, it's still quite worth the money. The main consideration is the ink is not archival so these pens are not suitable for use to create display art. If you're using it in sketchbooks, it should be fine.
You can find these pens on Amazon via these direct affiliate links:
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