What Are The Best Fountain Pens For Artists? - Q&A Slices

I see people use fountain pens and even dip pens for drawing and art pieces. What are the best pens/ nibs to use for these applications? Are there specific nibs that work better for different types of art work?
pens are tools, and different artists prefer different tools!
I've seen artists use dang near every pen, though obviously lower-priced pens are more typical

Lamy Joy is popular (swappable nibs, good balance)
Noodler's pens (flex, variation in line width)
Platinum Desk Pen (very fine nib, good balance)
Waterbrush pens (for ink washing)
Pilot Metropolitans (thin fine nib)

Watch the full episode of Goulet Q&A 177 here:

[eileengoldenberg]

Thanks glad you are addressing artists. I have most of those pens, love the desk pen, the metropolitan and the Lamy joy. Also a very popular pen is the sailor Fude nib pens, great expressive nib with thick and thin lines in one pen..there are many Fude pens, hero, duke, etc...

[quadreye]

I'm an artist that sketch a lot and, I say this often, but I love the platinum preppy. It always goes with me everywhere, the cap already cracked and I had to tie a rubber band on it to keep it posted. I didn't like pilot metropolitan as much for sketching, maybe because of the weight

[ArnoHattingh]

Dip pens are amazing to draw with, lines seem more natural, depending on your nib you can get a lot of flex without railroading and feedback from the nibs makes the process so much more enjoyable. There's quite a variety of nibs available; and they're quite cheap too (I've got around 50 of them). There's also a good variety of inks available and if you're the type of person who likes to experiment with stuff, you could easily make your own inks with flowers, berries etc. without the worries of destroying your $100 pen.

[mjpete]

Thank you for sharing this video with us! I am still trying to figure out what pen and nib combinations are right for the kind of inking and Artwork creation I enjoy doing. I am still watching videos from as many sources that I can find, I have found that the videos from Goulet Pens are quite good! I have several pens and nibs in my wishlist on your site, I am going to have to make up my mind soon! Thanks again!

[CaptainWumbo]

The main considerations are line width, if it can reverse write at a finer width, and if it will move smoothly over the paper you're using. Ultimately you probably want 2-3 line widths for pure pen and ink drawing. You really want an extra fine width in there if you want to evoke texture instead of outline. Pilot PO nib is the best, but sailors write an EEF in reverse, and so do my other premium Pilots. Sailor fudemannen also has a pretty nice EF in reverse if you're budget.

I've heard the pilot waverly writes very well over rough bumpy types of paper that would normally get fibers caught in the tines. But if you're all pen and ink, it's probably better to just use smooth paper.

For the most part flex isn't really important, so I wouldn't chase it. You can add weight to lines just by pressing harder, or going over the line again. I do like the pilot FA, though mine seems to behave better than every reviewer would think it does.

At the end of the day tho, if it writes someone has drawn something amazing with it. The glory of fountain pens is that they are very comfortable when you pay a bit of money for them. That in my mind makes the metropolitan a pretty poor recommendation, since it's heavy and not that ergonomic in my opinion. We spend a lot more time on drawings than we do on journaling, most likely.

[vermis]

I find pens with a tapering, 'paintbrush' end to be a bit counter-intuitive for out-n-about sketching, personally. It's one wee thing: you can't post the cap. I've had that with the Rotring art pen I bought; also with Artline fineliners. (Not tapered, but you can't post) You have to hold the cap in hands otherwise occupied with sketchbooks and the pen itself, or shove the cap in a pocket that you have to rummage in afterwards.
Like I say, it's only a small thing, and a silly thing, but there we are. Far more convenient when the pen has a 'built-in cap storage point'.

[SWsuns]

Teoh yi
Peter draws
Are some fountin pen artist's (YouTube's)

[jasonmullins]

My 2 favorite pens for sketching are: Pelikan M205 fine nib and a Sailor Fude De Mannen (the blue pen 40 degree maybe?) Inks: DeAtrementis Document ink black and Noodler's Lexington Grey.

[Inufan]

As far as i know japanese cartoon artists (mangaka) mainly use dip pens for their drawings. So i guess its worth looking for "mangaka nibs" and stuff like that.

[marekbadzynski]

Thanks for covering this topic; one option commonly used by ink artists that certainly is in your area of expertise is the fude pen - such as the ones by Sailor, Duke, Jinhao and others. I might be biased since fude is my nib of choice for urban sketching, but I do observe it is becoming more popular in the western world; also more accessible (Amazon). Regards, Marek in Toronto

[mandy.austin]

I love my TWSBI pens for drawing as well as the platinum desk pen, and a platinum brush pen.I have all the TWSBI nib sizes and I swap them around. For the finest lines the platinum extra fine, or the pilot To me those two pens are very similar but I keep breaking the pilot pens and have to replace them. I use them all with platinum carbon ink, Rohrer & klingner barristers ink or Robert Oster inks if I want colours.

[hannahskoonberg]

So I've been looking at a lot of pens for artists and the main things seems to be modest price, durable, interesting nibs, work horse.

The ones you mention here are all popular. I would add a couple to the list.

I think the Twisbi eco is a good sketch pen. It has a good seal with the cap so it doesn't leak or evaporate as fast as some other pens. It holds a lot of ink and it is pretty easy to change ink colors.

I was reading that the Twisbi mini might be an even better sketch pen because it's balanced while posted so you don't lose your cap while drawing on the go. I just ordered one so I'll find out soon.

The Sailor Fude nib is great for sketching but seems to be very difficult to get in the states. It's designed for brush calligraphy so they don't think it would appeal to westerners but it's really unique for drawing.

The Kuretake fountain brush pen can take a platinum converter and take bottled fountain pen ink. I think it would be great if you guys could carry this pen.

[wakeupFFS]

Platinum Carbon Desk Pen (DP-800S) - an incredible pen and dirt cheap.

[mkbuike]

I returned to art about 5.5 years ago and have mostly been doing Urban Sketching with ink line and watercolor. I agree with all you wrote. I also like the Lamy Safari in a couple nib sizes. I have the Platinum Desk Pen and the Lamy Joy in my kit, too. As far as ink, the best is Platinum Carbon Black. It dries very quickly (3-5 minutes) and is ready for watercolor wash. I'm looking for a light grey ink that's as good as that. I've tried De Atramentis but don't like the color. Otherwise, those Document Inks are good, too. I might try mixing my own.

[nailclipper]

Will you be doing a review on the faber-castell loom gunmetal matte soon?Looks interesting

[HiKimiko]

I do watercolor and the artists I follow use Nikko G nibs on dip pens with speedball india ink. First you sketch in pencil, then ink with india ink and do color washes with water color over the permanent india ink.

The artists that use fountain pens for inking comic books have varying pens they use, most are old sailor scuba wet noodle pens with Noodlers Xfeather in them.

Ultimately, it's a bunch of trial and error to figure out what you like. I also use the Brause steno 361 nib and hunt 101 for dip pens. It just depends on how fine you need the lines and if you want flex.

[susanbradford]

As important as the pen is the ink. If you are going to use watercolor over it the ink must be waterproof. Noodler's make a of inks that are billed as water resistant. Unfortunately not true. Bulletproof Black, Lexington Gray, 54th Massachusetts & 41 Brown are waterproof. The Document Inks fro De Atramentis are great & waterproof.
Brain: suggestion for Goulet - test the inks billed as water resistant to see if they are no matter what Noodler's says. The last three bottles of Noodler's ink I bought from you are now in the trash they bleed like crazy and one of them turns from a rust color to lime green!

[boredgrass]

The main (or first-order) issue for artists is not nib or pen shape. It is the ability of a pen to accept strongly pigmented ink! Most watercolours are not disolved dyes; they are suspensions of pigment particles! Of first and foremost interest is therefore a fountain pen that doesn't get clogged with heavy and constant loads of pigments, if such a thing is even possible. The alternative seems to me an archival ink with a great collection of tones or very suitable for mixing tones.

[thegenericskier]

Any recommendations for a pen case for 5 pens I have been using a old glasses case for my storage I’m not wanting to go over 30

[pbasswil]

It's worth mentioning the Pilot Falcon. Or other Pilot f.p.s that offer the FA semi-flex nib. A lot of artists gravitate towards them for variable line width, since they're a reliable, modern pen with some of the qualities of classic flex-nib pens. No offense to the Noodlers, but the Japanese ones are less finicky – albeit for more $$. Platinum Cool & Balance have modest semi-flex for a modest price.