Review: Pilot Pocket Brush Pen - Hard

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at Geminica.com.

 Another Victorian, posing with the Pilot Pocket Brush Pen (Hard) in Strathmore's smooth bristol Visual Journal.  Can you tell I didn't like how her face turned out?

A frequent complaint for brush pen users is that the ink doesn't flow freely enough, resulting in a dry brush effect where you really didn't want one.  You'll get that effect if you use toothy paper or if you go fast enough, no matter what brush is used - see the right side of the above drawing - but the greatest strength of the Pilot Pocket Brush -Hard  is that it really wants to lay down an easy lush sloppy black line, packed with ink.   

You can see here that by comparison, the Pilot brush makes the lines from the Pentel Pocket and the Kuretake No. 8 Hair Brush look grey.  They were stocked with good black ink, so this difference is probably entirely due to the difference in ink flow. 

Unfortunately, while the Pilot does lay down a nice black line, it is also a  very thick line.  I found it a struggle to control this pen.  Here are some loose comics I made using the Pilot hard brush which is maybe a better direction for this particular tool.

 

With a wetter application comes more smudging. I recently spent a few minutes sketching at Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square and couldn't avoid getting my hand in the ink (smudges are visible on the main figure's backpack). This drawing also demonstrates that the ink is not waterproof.  It holds up okay if you touch it with some watercolors on a just barely moist brush, but if too much water gets into the paper it bleeds in an ugly, feathery way (see around the bird).

In the end, I feel fond of the Pilot Pocket Brush for its lushness but it isn't really a good match to my needs. I recommend this brush pen if you want something very affordable, prefer a strong ink flow, intend to draw fairly loosely, and aren't planning to add water colors.  It could serve that purpose quite well. Otherwise - your perfect brush pen is elsewhere.

Confession: This review was originally going to cover both the hard and soft brushes, but I lost the soft brush while out sketching!  I was surprised to find that despite having totally different tip shapes, they produced a similar line.  The soft brush might make it easier to avoid the dry brush effect simply because the tip is so much larger, but I preferred the hard brush because it was easier to predict its movement.

Guest Review: Nomadic Virgo-Attrezzo Pen Case

The reason I have chosen to review the Nomadic Virgo-Attrezzo standing pen case is because I won it right here a few months ago! A great giveaway. Sorry if the pictures are a little blurry I am still deciding on a new camera and had to make do with my BlackBerry.

Starting off, this is what the pen case looks like empty:

It is around 20cm high at the very back, 5.5cm wide and its length is around 6.5cm. The material feels as though it could stand wear and tear pretty well.

Now, on to how many pens it can fit. The picture directly below is showing some the case with some pens. There are 26 in there along with a couple of refills although it could probably take 2 or 3 more before zipping it shut would not be as easy. To stand the pencil case up you can fold down the top part, but I don't tend to do that and the case still stands fine. As you can see in the second picture down, there are 2 pouches, one on each side (of equal size). Now, these are large enough to fit spare pencil leads or a box of paper clips etc but I use them to clip on pens that I need to find easily - although I could still use the pouch itself if I wanted to.

At the middle in the back, the same height as the pouches is an oversized loop. The small tag that came with the case showed how a ruler can be placed here which is what I use it for, but it can also keep refills snug or if you carry fountain pens with you they could be clipped on to this - although I have never done this as I am worried I would end up taking the pen cap off trying to remove it!

Towards the front of the case there is a small pouch which can be used to fit an eraser and sharpener and other small things such as page markers.

This is a great case especially for students as it can fit lots of pens and other things you need.

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Thanks so much for the review Shabana!  If anyone else is interested in doing a guest post on The Pen Addict feel free to send me an email using the link on the sidebar.

Guest Review: A Brand Called ED’s ‘Pencils’ Case

This is my first review of a pen case, and I chose to do one because I was stoked to find such a decent pen case for under 10 AUD. 

My name is Ben, I live in Australia, a wonderful country where it is almost impossible to find most of the pens reviewed on this site, and where good quality pen cases are virtually unheard of. When I can find good pens and accessories they are usually double, if not triple the ordinary retail price. 

Hence my surprise when I found this case in my local Officeworks store. The case is Tri-fold, and despite having the word “PENCILS” boldly displayed on the cover, I think this case would be better suited to carrying pens; It only has 3 elastic loops, 4 pouches, and one token zipper compartment, that could hold at max 10 pencils. 

Unlike other pencil cases made by this brand, this model has very good quality stitching, and is made of a strong, woven material ( I think it’s polyester), with light padding between the inner and outer layers. The lining is made of the same material, with the result that pen clips won’t potentially damage it (something that can’t be guaranteed with a few models of Nomadic cases). 

Now for the Negatives: The elastic loops are very loose, and there really should be 6, with three at both ends of the case, such that writing instruments are held in place at the top and bottom, to provide a more secure hold of pens/pencils. 

The zipper feels cheap, and probably wouldn’t like strenuous use. I guess the biggest downside is that the case can only hold 6 decent sized pens (as can be seen in the photo) and is a bit bulky when filled ‘to the brim’. However this suits me to a ‘t’ because I wanted it to hold a couple of fountain pens and ballpoints, without them rattling around in my ordinary pencil case. 

The case is available in Black, Blue, Pink, and Green, and retails for 7.99 AUD

http://www.abrandcalleded.com.au/

 

   

Thanks Ben for the excellent review!  If anyone else is interested in writing a guest review for The Pen Addict, please feel free to email me using the address on the sidebar.