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FREE DELIVERY ON ORDERS OVER £50.00 - TO MOST UK POSTCODES
Technical pens and markers have been a staple of the graphic artist toolbox for many years. Even with the advent of the digital design age, the demand for top quality pens hasn't waned in the slightest. In this article, we'll take a look at the wide variety of markers available here at ARTdiscount, and demystify some of the terms and technicalities associated with fineliners, brush pens, and markers.
Artist quality pens are broken up into three broad categories, including Fineliners, Brush Pens, and Alcohol Markers. Each of these are adjacent to the other and are frequently found sharing the same pencil case space, complimenting the strengths and making up for the weaknesses of one another.
Fineliners, first and foremost, are precision pens used for drawing and writing. They see frequent use with illustrators for inking the linework of pencil sketches, as well as for architecture, where making clean, consistent lines on plans is paramount.
Fineliners feature a plastic or tough fibre tip and come in a selection of nib widths. These varying nibs enable artists in replicating line width consistently, which can be important for creating visually harmonious artwork and accurate plans.
The ink is often permanent and waterproof, and this will usually be stated on the pen's barrel. Waterproof pens pair well with watercolours, as the ink will not bleed or run when paint is applied.
Brush pens fall into similar role as the Fineliner, and will often feature the same kinds of ink. Where they differ is, instead of a nib, they have a brush tip. This will either be a flexible felt brush style tip, or a synthetic nylon bristle tip which imitates using a paint brush.
Brush pens allow for a greater variance in line width and lend themselves to a looser, more relaxed approach than fineliners. However, they can still be used with great precision by the steady of hand. They also make short work of blocking out large areas with ink, a task that takes much longer when you only have a small nib.
Lastly, while Alcohol Markers were largely superseded in the graphics and design industry as a digital workflow became more prevalent, they still find massive appeal in the illustration and craft market. This has occurred most notably in Japan, where they continue to be a popular choice among Manga artists for colouring covers and pages.
Alcohol markers dry with a smooth, flat finish and can be blended or layered to create smooth transitions between colours when working quickly with the still wet ink. Most alcohol markers feature larger pen barrels than fineliners to account for the ink reservoir inside the pen. They tend to feature two tips in some combination of a finer point for detail work, and a fibre brush or a chisel tip on the opposing side for creating larger blocks of colour.
There are two kinds of ink most commonly found in artists pens today; pigment ink and dye ink. In the simplest terms, the key differences between the two are that pigments are not soluble in water and create opaque inks—like the Indian ink common in fineliners. Meanwhile, dyes are soluble in water and are largely transparent, as such they layer well—such as the alcohol-based ink in markers.
The most common pigment black ink is the water-based Indian ink; a very opaque, strong, non-fading, lightfast black ink with strong resistance to water once dried. Traditionally, the ink is made with black soot, with modern inks still using carbon black as a base.
The quick-drying alcohol inks in alcohol markers use a dye for their colour, and are immediately intense and shift little in colour once dry. These inks can be blended for effect whilst wet or layered when dry to build gradients. They are waterproof once dry, but lack the lightfastness of pigments due to their translucency. This means that if artworks are left exposed to direct sunlight over prolonged periods of time, they will fade in vibrancy.
There are many companies making pens of the highest quality for use by artists worldwide, and we at ARTdiscount stock a broad range of brands that encompass fineliners, brush pens and alcohol markers.
We have collated a list of pens available below, with specifications based on ink type, lightfastness (permanent, moderate and weak), water-solubility, and styles of pen tips so you know where they fall on the pen/marker spectrum.
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Faber Castell – Pitt Drawing Pen & Pitt Brush Pen Ink: Pigment Lightfastness: Permanent Waterproof: Yes Style: XS (0.1mm) S (0.3mm) F (0.5mm) M (0.7mm), *B (brush) *SB (soft brush) C (chisel) SC (soft chisel) 1.5mm (bullet nib) & *Big Brush *soft fibre brush |
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Staedtler – Pigment Liners Ink: Pigment Waterproof: Yes Lightfastness: Permanent Style: 0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.7mm, 0.8mm, 1mm, 1.2mm, 0.3 – 2mm Chisel |
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Uni-ball – Uni Pin Fine Line Ink:Pigment Waterproof:Yes Lightfastness:Permanent Style:0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.7mm, 0.8mm, Brush (plastic fibre) |
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Sakura – Pigma Micron Fineliners & Pigma Brush Pens |
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Pentel – Pocket Brush |
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Pentel – Colour Brush Pen |
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Winsor & Newton – Winsor & Newton Fineliner |
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Winsor & Newton – Promarker & Promarker Brush |
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Copic – Multiliner SP Pen |
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Copic – Copic Ciao Marker |
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Derwent – Line Maker |
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MEEDEN is a company known for providing high-quality art supplies and tools to artists and enthusiasts. They are committed to inspiring creativity and supporting artistic endeavours through their range of products, which include Easels, Artist Supplies storage drawers, Table Easels, and Artists’ Print rack with castors.
