Review: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen is one of the more popular brush pens around.

The first few brush pens that I bought had problematic ink flow. Recently I finally got one that had almost perfect ink flow. It took me a few tries, spent a bit too much money than I wanted to, but I'm glad I did it all for the sake of a proper review.

The brush pen is usually sold with two spare disposable ink cartridges. The Pentel FP10 ink cartridges are sold in packs of six. The ink is waterproof and intensely dark.

The whole pen is made of plastic except for the metal clip. It's lightweight and feels good in the hand.

It uses synthetic bristles which are soft and able to hold a sharp point. When you first load the cartridge, allow the ink some time to flow down to the tip.

The brush pen is capable of producing nice strokes of varying thickness depending on the pressure you apply. The strokes above are drawn on smooth cartridge paper.

It certainly takes control and techniques to be able to draw a thin line without any wavering.

The maximum thickness you get is around 5mm but if you use the side of the brush you can get 7mm. If you use the side, then there will be some dry brush effect but if you use it normally then you'll get sharp defined edges.

Some hatching. Go slow for sharp defined edges, or use an even smoother paper.

On the left is another faulty brush pen that has lousy ink flow. On the right is the bus is drawn with the better brush pen.

These are strokes on a fine grain cartridge paper. The brush pen has more tendency to produce dry brush effect at the edges.

Above are two sketches drawn on the fine grain cartridge paper. The paper used will affect the style.

The ink from the FP10 ink cartridge is waterproof.

The lines above are drawn with a fountain pen. To fill up the black areas quickly, I would just dip the brush pen into ink. It also helps me conserve ink in the cartridge.

Here's a video of Scott Robertson demonstrating with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen:

Conclusion

The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen is quite an economical and affordable brush pen. When the bristles get worn, you just replace the whole thing and it's not too expensive.

It's a good performing brush pen for its price. The bristles are able to mimic the natural hair well enough.

Ink is waterproof so you can use water medium on top of it.

As compared to the Kuretake sable brush pens, I feel that the Kuretake brush pens have slightly better control with thinner strokes, especially strokes that go from thick to thin. Maybe it's got to do with the slightly heavier weight of the brush pens or just the nature of the natural bristles. Anyway, you can only feel the difference if you have two brush pens on hand to compare.

To check out other brush pens, visit https://www.parkablogs.com/content/brush-pens-compared-drawing-purposes

Availability
Find more reviews at Dick Blick Art Materials (US) | Jackson's Art (UK)