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Fountain pen inks with the Pentel pocket brush

August 18, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Most brush pens only come in black. Occasionally, they also come in grey, but very rarely are there any additional colors.

My favourite brush pen, the Pentel pocket brush, only has black cartridge inks available. A few years ago, when I picked up a new Pentel pocket brush for a fresh tip, I decided to syringe-fill the old one with grey ink (specifically J. Herbin’s Gris Nuage). This was a great decision, and I’ve really enjoyed being able to use my fav pen to add value to drawings in addition to making the lines.

More recently, Pentel decided to release five limited edition versions of the pocket brush with different colored pen bodies. Alas, they’ve found my weakness… collectibles and colors.

The limited edition (LE) camellia Pentel pocket brush

The limited edition (LE) camellia Pentel pocket brush

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2018 Convention Artist Survey results

July 18, 2019 / / 0 Comments

The 2018 Convention Artist Survey collected 987 artist responses regarding financial and other data for over 300 conventions in North America — how much they made, how much they spent, how far they traveled, how they rated staff communication and organisation, and so on.

And the corresponding report turning that data into relevant charts and graphs is finally done. Snag the 2018 report for $5 or more!

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The survey and report still skews heavily towards anime conventions, but 2018 marks the first time there were enough responses for two furry conventions to get individual reports! Two comic cons also got individual reports, one new and one returning. I removed a few of the travel-related pages and combined some charts for brevity. Most of the travel data here didn’t change significantly between 2017 and 2018, so you can refer back to the 2017 report if you’re curious and want the visuals.

2018 Con Artist Survey genre representation

2018 Con Artist Survey genre representation.

The 2018 Report includes:

  • 24 pages of overall analysis
    • Including such graphs as Gross Revenue by Experience, by Percentile, by Convention Genre, by Convention Size, by Region, by State/Province, by Primary Product, by Artist Recommendation, and many more divisions; Convention Ratings by Size and Genre, 2015-2018 comparison of Average Gross Revenue, Top Cons by Average Gross Revenue, by Overall Rating, and much more!
  • 37 pages of individual con data
    • 18 conventions qualified for individual reports: A-Kon, Anime Central, Anime Expo, Anime Los Angeles, Anime North, Biggest Little Fur Con, Calgary Comics & Entertainment Expo, Crunchyroll Expo, FanimeCon, Further Confusion, Otakon, Otakuthon, Rose City Comic Con, SacAnime Summer, SacAnime Winter, Sakura-Con, San Japan, and Youmacon
  • 84 total tables
  • 139 total charts and graphs

Unsure the report will be useful to you? Get any of the prior years’ reports for a minimum of $0.

2019 Convention Artist Survey Report

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Review: Zebra Usu-Zumi Grey Brush Pen

March 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments

My local Daiso has stocked Zebra brush pens pretty regularly for a while now, and it’s usually where I load up on the Zebra super fines I like so much. While I was in Richmond, BC, though, I stopped by their monstrous two-story Daiso and saw some pens I hadn’t seen before, including this mysterious Zebra one.

Zebra Usu-Zumi brush pen in and out of packaging

Searching around later, it seems this is the Zebra “Usu-Zumi” brush pen (P-WF1-GR), which is confusingly labeled “black” in most places, despite actually being a grey ink pen.

The pen doesn’t seem widely available online, and when it is, it’s usually bundled with the other Zebra brush pens or priced anywhere between $3 and $8 as a single pen, so Daiso’s $1.50 price ($2.00 CAD) was a great deal.

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Review: Monami Olika Fountain Pen

October 6, 2018 / / 0 Comments

So the Ooly Splendid Pen is apparently just a repackaged version of the Monami Olika fountain pen, but the latter comes in more default color options and has an extra fine nib available in addition to the fine.

The Ooly pen was impressive for the $5-6 price point and since the Monami is priced the same, I picked up a Monami with the EF nib in black. A neutral color would give the pen more use cases for me, and I wanted to see if the EF nib was as good as the F.

Spoilers: It is. This pen is wonderful.

Monami Olika fountain pen

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Top 3 Pens for Inking

September 27, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I’ve wanted do some kind of “top pens” post for a while, and with Inktober just around the corner, I figure now is a great time to talk about pens for inking.

Top Overall Recommended

  1. Tombow Fudenosuke hard
  2. Pentel pocket brush (review)
  3. Sakura Micron pens

These are my top picks in each category of felt tip brush pen, synthetic hair brush pen, and technical pen, then ranked in order of which I personally use the most. A Pentel pocket brush, maybe two of the Tombows, and a set of Microns, easily arms you for every kind of line you might want to make and can definitely carry you through a month of daily ink drawings.

“Real” brushes and dip pen nibs weren’t considered here since I don’t use them nearly as often and have way less expertise as a result. No fountain pens either, since I don’t use them to draw as much as I use them to write… but recent acquisitions may well change this in time for next year… That category also open up the wonderful world of inks, which is a whole ‘nother ballgame entirely and something I’m still slowly exploring.

So for now, just pens! But no fountain pens. It’s mostly brush pens. No one’s surprised.

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