The Best Pens for Brush Lettering
Something I often get asked, and what I asked others in the beginning, is can I just use any old brush pen to do brush lettering? My answer is totally yes you can, however, you may not get the results you’re wanting.
While any old brush pen should be fine for practising, even those $2 shop pens, if you are wanting pens that last and that create quality lines you may want to upgrade. Here are some of my favourites that will guarantee you some great outcomes if you do want to upgrade, and some aren’t even that much more expensive.
Artline Stix
Yes, these may be marketed at children but even children could get nice brush lettering out of these pens, they're my go-to for any brush lettering particularly colourful pieces as they're rather bright and don't tend to bleed. Plus, as they are aimed at kids they’re rather cheap which is a bonus. You can get a set of 6 in NZ* for $10!
Tombow Dual Brush
If you want to try more of a difficult pen then the Tombow Dual Brush pens are for you. The payoff for learning their ways is excellent so it is definitely worthwhile if you’re hoping to stick around in the brush lettering game. They’re by far one of the best pens if you can learn how to use them, as their nib is rather hard but flexible. Plus, the colour range is incredible so they’ll be a colour for whatever you feel like doing.
Crayola Supertips
Another aimed at children, but another excellent for beginners! Again, the positives about pens aimed at children are they're cheap and cheerful, they do the job and as they're not sold as lettering pens you can get a 10 pack for under $7*. They have smaller tips than the Artline Stix so are better for smaller lettering or if you’re wanting larger text with less contrast between the upstrokes and the downstrokes (if you missed the chat about stroke contrast check it out here).
Tombow Fudenosuke Brush
The smaller tip for the smaller lettering. If you want to try mixing it up between larger and smaller words then this is a useful pen to have on hand as it’s the smallest of the four in this list. There are two types, a hard tip and a soft tip, for starting out I recommend the soft tip and then graduating to the hard tip as they’re harder to get right.
If you're an absolute beginner and not really sure if this is your thing I recommend either the Artline stix or the Supertips depending on what you can get your hands on. But, if you've tried lettering before or are a creative who already have these on hand then I recommend the two Tombows. I personally love all four for different reasons and uses.
- Sophie
A shorter version of this article appeared in December’s Newsletter. Not everything in the newsletters end up being reposted on here so make sure you’re subscribed below so you don’t miss out on even more creative content!
Sign up to my newsletter. Monthly emails full of articles and freebies!
Pin for later!
If you found this useful be sure to share it to Pinterest to come back later, and so others can find it too! Use the Pinterest save button by hovering over the image below.
