(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)
The Stabilo Pen 68 Markers are a favorite of many marker lovers. Their huge variety of vibrant colors allow for infinite creativity and they're priced at a point where you don't have to feel too weird for collecting multiple, similar shades of the same color.
Stabilo's latest addition to this marker line is neon shades--six electric bright colors for when your work needs an extra pop or highlight. There's neon red, pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue. The ink is much brighter than it appears in pictures--these could even be used as highlighters, with the 1 mm tip perfect for highlighting finer print. The tip can also be held at different angles to produce different line widths. The tips are bullet-shaped and quite firm for felt tips. They hold up well for sketching, coloring, and lettering, and they're great for coloring books.
The ink is super bright. It's odorless, water-based, and dries quickly with no smearing--so it's great for lefties. Though it dries quickly on paper, through some sorcery it doesn't dry out in the tip. They can be left uncapped for up to twenty-four hours without drying out. That's insane. And great for long coloring sessions. A twenty-four-hour coloring session sounds pretty nice right now. This feature also makes them good kid markers, where creative enthusiasm can sometimes lead to forgotten or lost caps. The small caps are a choking hazard, though--so keep them away from younger kiddos.
The body of the pen is hexagonal, so it won't roll on tabletops. It's a rather long marker at 6.6" capped, 6.2" uncapped, and 7.1" posted. It's also fairly narrow--similar to a pencil in feel. There is no clip and no specific grip area. The body itself serves as the grip section, which allows for some nice flexibility in grip preference, and the hexagon angles are subtle enough that they aren't uncomfortable to hold. Which is good if you're planning that twenty-four-hour color-a-thon. The cap is ventilated and clicks in place. It also clicks to post, and is nicely secure there. The cap is really small, though, and it twists freely so that the hexagon angles don't line up. I confess I've lost some valuable coloring time to fiddling with the caps so that they line up with the body. But I'm also aware that if they put the engineering into aligning the caps, the markers would probably cost more. So I'll let this one go. I mean, I'll probably have to fix it every time, but I'll try not to complain about it.
I generally prefer colored pencils or gel pens to markers, but if I was going to invest in a big set, I'd consider these a good value. I'd personally prefer a finer point, for the tiny spaces in adult coloring books.
I think everyone needs a little pop of brightness and fun in their day--and there's not much more bright and fun than neon art supplies.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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