Which Brush Pen Is The Best?! My Favorite Brush Pens for Beginners | Hand Lettering and Calligraphy

hey friend today I'm going to be sharing with you some of the best brush pens for beginners who are learning how to hand let her we're learning how to use a brush pen for the first time these are some of my favorites but specifically some of my favorites that I think will help as a beginner I know that learning how to hand letter can be difficult and having the wrong brush pen can make it even harder so I've compiled a list of a few of my absolute favorite brush pens for beginners to help you in your journey now I want to add a disclaimer first things like where you live what stores are local to you or whether or not you're able to shop on Amazon can make a difference when it comes to shopping for brush pens I know that not everything I use may be easy for you to find so what I decided to do for this video is break down my favorite brush pens for beginner by size so I'm going to give you a few different and great options in each category of small medium and large brush pens so that you can see which one is available for you personally and which ones you made people to find so the first one I'm going to talk about is small brush pens in my opinion small brush pens can be great for beginners learning how to hand letter because the tips can be a little bit easier to control than a large brush pen they're still flexible and they don't necessarily flop around as much as a large brush pen might also with the easy flexibility I think it can help you to kind of get the feel for what type of pressure you need to apply to get those thick down strokes so even with just a bit of pressure at the tip of a small size brush pen will typically bend to create that large down stroke so this can be really helpful in seeing just how your slight hand movements and pressure can change your hand lettering so the first one is the pen tell touch brush pen I think the pen tell touch is a great option for beginners because it's pretty easy to find for a lot of people it lasts a really long time and it does come in a variety of colors the pen tell touches a fever for a lot of people and I think that one big reason why is because they do not seem to fray very easily fraying can be a frustrating thing with brush pens but this small pen tell touch brush tip seems to just hold up really well I actually don't think I've ever had one of these brush pens dry out except for if I left a cap off overall if you're looking for a durable small sighs brush pen it can help you learn brush lettering this may be a great option for you now with this brush pen you don't have to have as heavy of a hand and like I mentioned earlier I think that's one of the reasons that is helpful for beginners because it's so sensitive to your pressure so you can pretty easily see that when you apply pressure your stroke is going to change there also isn't a huge transition from thick to thin strokes so it's the last time were you kind of trying to transition from that thick down stroke back up to the thin up stroke with a large brush pen this is kind of a big change from thick to thin so it can be kind of hard to know how to ease up on your pressure but with these I think this can help to be able to see what it looks like when you add pressure and just kind of get a hang of those thick and thin strokes next up are these small size zebra brush pens there is actually a pack that I purchased on Amazon that was a pack of four I'm only showing you two here today but let me just be clear right upfront about this one I really like this zebra brush pen sampler pack it was pretty inexpensive and while they're all smaller brush pens it comes in multiple different sizes so you can kind of test out the differences and see which one you might prefer whether you prefer like a really super tiny brush tip or whether you prefer softer or one that's more firm I just really like this option because it's an inexpensive way to test out a few different brush pens and see what might work best for you and your lettering style so if you've never tried a brush pen this small this might be a great one to test I have tried a variety of zebra brand brush pens and I have been a fan of so many of them so on the first one the one that I'm saying is gray it feels really soft and you kind of get a bigger stroke than the one that I'm going to show you second one thing I notice about these types of small and soft brush pens is that for me it can kind of be a little bit harder to create this upright lettering style that I usually write in it's kind of like the tip of the brush pen wants to catch on the paper when I go to transition from thick to thin strokes and it just kind of flips from one side to the other rather than transitioning nicely so I do personally have kind of an upright lettering style but I had a feeling that if I tested out writing a bit more slanted that this might feel a little bit easier so you see how the transitions are a bit more sloppy when I'm trying to write more upright but when I'm lettering it more of a slant on the right hand side these softer small pens seem to do a little bit better so if you are finding your brush tip catching a lot you may want to try adding a bit of a slant and go nice and slowly - and also this isn't to say that you can't write upright with this type of a pen it's just something to think about when you are troubleshooting lettering issues now this one is a little bit more firm I have had these for a little while these aren't brand new brush pens or anything like that but they have a really nice feel to them so the slant issue that I have seems to be more with this softer and smaller tipped brush pens so you can see with this brush pen which is more firm that I'm writing more upright and I'm not really having any issues with it so I personally prefer this second more firm tip to zebra brush pen but if you have a more slanted lettering style or you like a softer pen you might prefer the one that's on the top but that's why I love this brush pen pack because it allows you to test out a couple of different kinds to see what might work well for you also just a quick note about soft brush pens I still do love soft brush pens even with my upright lettering style so don't think that this is an issue with every single soft or bouncy brush pen I think the issue that I particularly have is when it's small and soft and all that just to say that sometimes you might find that a certain pen just works a little bit better for your lettering style and that's okay we all have our preferences we might hold pens a little bit differently or have a different style and different brush pens are just going to perform a little bit differently for us so the next small brush pen I have is the zebra fumari brush pen this brush pen is similar to the pen tell touch in that it comes with multiple great colors in my opinion it starts out a bit more firm but in my experience it doesn't take this brush pen long to soften up a bit and create a little bit more stronger looking down strokes I think this one is a great size and has some great colors again a lot of these small brush pens are really similar so if you can find one of these where you're located I think that's a great option I really wouldn't recommend trying all of them if you're a beginner just because some of them are similar but again I think any of them would be a good option to all right so the next small brush pen that I am going to share is the zig koko euro this pressure pen is one of the only refillable brush pens that I have tried the body is one piece and then the inner part that includes the brush tip and the ink is interchangeable so this means that you can have multiple different colors of brush pens with only this one body of the pen you simply just unscrew it and you are able to grab another color and replace it it is pretty simple to do as you can see now the brush tip of this one is super firm it's also pretty skinny and you'd think that it would just crush under the pressure of a firm hand kind of like mine especially when trying to create those thick down strokes but I haven't found that to be the case I have replaced the inner part one time over my course of using it I also don't use this brush panel whole ton it's just kind of one of those fun ones to try out but with any of these smaller size brush pens I would say that you don't need to have a super firm hand so if you have a really heavy hand which I personally do you can definitely try to lighten up on these brush pens and hopefully give them a nice long life so even though this brush pen is really firm and feels kind of pointy it also feels really smooth when I write with it so like I said I think any of these pens would be good options for beginners I think this last one here is maybe the one that's a little bit more out there than the others but I think they're all pretty safe options especially the ones at the beginning but I did want to mention that in my opinion the more important thing about choosing a brush pen is getting to know your brush pen whichever one you choose just getting to know and feel comfortable with that one since I don't use small sized brush pens a whole 10 any of these brush pens kind of feel a little bit foreign to me when I first start letting with them but I know that with just a day or so of lettering with them I get used to them and get a rhythm and then they start to feel great so like I said even if any of these are great options I still think one of the most important things to do is just practice so now we're gonna move on to medium size brush pens this is kind of my sweet spot when it comes to my own hand lettering I love a big brush pen but I can make it a bit harder to letter more than a word or two at a time they're really small brush pens that I just showed you just don't always lend themselves my style of hand lettering so for me my favorite lettering usually comes with this medium kind of in-between size brush pen I think they are a great combination of super flexible and bouncy kind of like a larger brush pen but also a little bit easier to control like a small brush pen you'll probably see me use the brush pens on this list most often if you watch my youtube channel or follow me or on Instagram so let's get into some of my favorite medium sized brush pens for beginner calligraphy and hand lettering the first one I'm going to show you is this vibrato brush pen this brush pen is my go to for bouncy lettering it's really flexible but the tip is pretty short so it feels a little bit easier to control in my opinion it has a unique set of colors which is great but also I would love to see some pastels the tip is shorter but it's not too skinny so it kind of creates a really nice contrast between thick and thin strokes if you have a brush pen that's much bigger than this you can't bounce too much or your lettering will be really large in you won't be able to fit a whole lot onto the page now as a beginner you may not be wanting to create bouncy lettering so that may not seem like a positive to you but you don't have to use bouncy lettering with this brush pen as a beginner you may want to stick to more of that even style you see here so it is still great for that but as you branch out and want to experiment more this one might also be a great option there as well so you can kind of use the same pen as you continue forward the next medium-sized brush pen I have is the Stabilo pens 68 brush pen this brush pen is pretty new to me but it quickly became a favorite it does remind me a bit of the follow that I just showed you but the color variety is really bold I think the short and flexible tip makes a lettering with a heavy hand great so if you are someone who is also a bit heavy-handed this one seems to be nice and bouncy and flexible so that it will bounce back up when you are coming back for those up strokes the next brush pen is my beloved brush pen it is so hard to think about picking just one favorite brush pen but I think if I had to pick one favorite brush pen this might be it now listen it definitely has its downsides it is super juicy like so much so that it can look a little bit bubbly as it dries I can also imagine it would be really hard to use as a lefty there's also not a great color variety and some of the colors they do have look a little bright on paper I think that's because they're meant to be used on fabric but the size and the shape and the durability of these brush tips just cannot be beat for me I love them so much so much that I'm willing to buy an entire pack when I really only want the black one they are kind of an unlikely favorite since they aren't really meant for hand lettering sharpie even did come out with a hand lettering brush pen but sadly it did not compare to the sharpie stained at least not for me so yes as you can tell I really like the sharpie stain brush marker I don't think I'm alone though I've recommended this for years and heard a lot of great feedback so I think this one continues to be something that is really good as a beginner like I said the tip is just a nice in-between size but it's also very durable I see no fraying here I have no idea how old this brush pen is but those transitions from thick to thin strokes just look so clean I think almost any other brush pen I use you'll see a bit of fraying or like some little hairline strokes there but this one is just so solid if you've tried this brush pen I'd love to hear what you think about it like I said it definitely has its downsides but for me and this style of lettering that I create the size the kind of upright and even lettering it just seems to really work for me and how I hold the pen and all of those things so if you've tried them I be curious to know what you thought but with that we are going to move on to the best large brush pens for beginner calligraphy and hand lettering the first one here is the zig foody Biore Timmy this is just a really nice bouncy great sized brush pen with this one and some of these other ones I don't feel like there's anything like super stand out to say about it other than it just kind of has a lot of the qualities that I think are helpful for beginners it's bouncy it's a good size I don't think that the tip is super hard to control and over time it seems to have just stood the test of time for me and hand lettering this type of a brush pen was actually one of the first ones that I got when I was first learning brush lettering I got the metallic pack which is super fun so if you were looking for something a little bit different the zig Fudo BRE metallics are really fun and one thing that I don't think I've mentioned yet in this video is that I have full pen reviews for I think almost every single one of these brush pens if not every single one so I will link those in the description box below if you want to hear more details about a specific one whether they blend or you know different types of things you can do with them I will leave those below and then I will also leave a playlist for my pen reviews so if there is one in this list that I have not done a pen review on I will try to add that to the list but I think that at least most of them should already have brush pen reviews here on my channel you can also find more resources and tutorials over on my blog at how to Handley door com the next one that I want to show you is pretty large and that is a Winsor & Newton watercolor brush marker this brush pen has been a favorite of mine for a long time I think it's a great introduction to a larger sized brush pen for beginners because the tip is a bit more thick at the base which I think kind of helps you to be able to control it maybe a little bit more a really long and skinny brush tip can kind of flip from side to side with pressure but the design of the Windsor Newton watercolor marker kind of just seems to prevent that a bit at least for me I personally don't like to use mine on watercolor paper unless they're already frayed I know that it says their watercolor markers but for hand lettering I try to keep my brush pens from fraying so I try to use a smooth paper until they fraid but once they are afraid they do dry beautifully on watercolor paper the next brush pen is the zig brushable x' and these have been a favorite of mine for a long time as well I used to use these quite a bit more and I would hear that other people tried them and really enjoyed them as well I think they just have a really good sized brush tip it is a good amount of firmness and flexibility for me I also really like that one of the options is that you can get a brush tip on either side I think usually at least for the ones I've had they're pretty similar in color so you might have two different shades of the same color but you can do a little bit of shading with that I just think these are a really good beginner brush pen that being said one of the downsides is that I do think they're pretty hard to find I will leave some links in that blog post where I have found some resources to purchase these online they have been hit-or-miss for me I think I used to find them in stores at Hobby Lobby but I don't think I've seen them there in a really long time and so these have kind of fallen from being a brush pen that I use really often simply because they're just not that easy to find however I know that we all have different resources available to us so if you are in a place where you can find these for a great price I would highly recommend them and the last one is kind of an honorable mention and that is the coy coloring brush marker in my opinion this brush pen feels kind of softer so if you don't prefer a super bouncy brush pen this might be one that you would enjoy this can help if you are maybe not a super heavy handed letter so if you have a softer approach to hand lettering this one might be a good option for you so the last two things that I want to mention aren't technically brush pens they are Crayola markers but I definitely recommend these for beginners if you can find them locally to you so as you can see in the first one the tip is pretty bent this is not a perfect brush pen at all I mean it's not even really a brush pen this is just to show you that if you don't have a brush pen or you can't find one then these could be a great option for you they're not the easiest to use you do have to push pretty hard and you're going to have to rotate your pen a whole bunch because otherwise that tip can bend to one side and kind of make it harder to create those thick and thin strokes but you can create beautiful lettering with them and I know maybe didn't make that sound really great I really have enjoyed using these four hand lettering but my point with these is more that a lot of times as beginners we don't really want to invest a lot of money into a new hobby especially until we know that it's something that we're really going to like not only that but a lot of us already have Crayola markers at home working maybe grab them at the grocery store or on Amazon really inexpensively so if you kind of want to just test out hand lettering and you have some of these at home already then I think that this is a great place to start I have a whole playlist with my Crayola hand lettering video so I will link that below for you I also have a free seven-day lettering course that you can find out how to hem letter calm slash mini horse so if you are wanting to learn how to hand letter and you're not really sure where to start you can head there to sign up for my free 7-day mini course I also have a free resource library on my website where you can go and you can download different printable worksheets to help you practice your hand lettering and drills and things like that so I will leave a link for those in the description box below as well but if you are wanting to check out the free resource library you can find that at how to hand letter comm slash resource library I hope that this was helpful for you in deciding which types of brush pens you might enjoy and also which ones you might not enjoy because I know we don't want to spend money on something that's not going to work for us so I hope that this video helps you don't forget to check out the description box below because I know I mentioned a whole bunch of different things in this video but thank you so much for watching and I will see you in my next one [Music]

Channel: How to Hand Letter

Views: 101,178

Keywords: best brush pens for beginners, best brush pens for handlettering, beginner handlettering, stationery showdown, brush pen comparison, brush pen reviews, learn handlettering, hand lettering tips, how to handletter, hand lettering for beginners, handlettering for beginners, beginner calligraphy tutorial, basics of handlettering, beginner brush lettering, calligraphy for beginners, calligraphy and handlettering for beginners, modern calligraphy, hand lettering

Id: D9MQ1c-mjc0

Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 23 2020