Review: Gray Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen

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

The Kuretake Fudegokochi gray brush pen is a water-soluble pen with a soft felt tip and middle-toned gray ink that seems especially suitable for use in drawing.  

The pen costs around $3 and has been a real workhorse.  It does have one quirk, however, which is that sometimes upon opening the cap I find the ink has beaded up around the nib like so: 

Luckily, the design of the pen keeps me from putting my hands in the ink, so it just stays where it is around the nib.  

The ink is not only water soluble, it's very water soluble.  Once the ink is down it can be washed out like watercolors, as long as it's used on sized paper such as watercolor or mixed media paper - or this vintage accounting ledger paper I've been trying out after meeting urban sketcher and illustrator Lapin.  

(Actually, this drawing captures another urban sketcher trick as well; it was Liz Steel that clued me in to wearing an absorbent wristband as a convenient alternative to a watercolors rag.  Mine is actually the top of an old cotton sock, and it works great.)

But back to the Fudegokochi!  In the drawing of my hand, I used the Fudegokochi first to sketch and add shadow, then added black line and watercolors, washing away the gray lines in most places and sometimes adding more back in to darken.  You can still see the initial gray shading in some places, and it's also influencing the tone of the watercolors in a way that I really enjoy. 

My other favorite way to use this pen is to imply distance, using the gray to add buildings that are farther afield and a warmer tone in the foreground.  That's what I did with this drawing that you already saw in the last review, pairing the gray pen with J. Herbin's Lie de Thé fountain pen ink. You can see that the water solubility again worked to my advantage.

In case you can't tell, I really love using this pen as a fast way to add soft gray to a drawing, and highly recommend it for this purpose.  

Sunday Streaming

I did an unscheduled Ustream.tv session this afternoon, and at the prompting of Chris from Pens'nPaper, I clicked the record button on this one.  A little bit gets lost in the translation because I was answering questions from the readers who were logged in to the chat session, so I apologize for that.  Also, my kids were runnig around like maniacs, turning about 20 minutes worth of content into a 50 minute broadcast.  But, it can be found for posterities sake right here if you are so inclined.

Ink Links

-- Pen Review: Pilot P-700 Fine Gel Roller  (The Pen Bin)

-- Axel Weinbrecht Beta Pen  (No Pen Intended)

-- Page 12  (Ratfist)

-- Pen Obsession  (Torn Angel)

-- New Pens and New Illustrations  (Claudine Hellmuth)

-- Noodler's Flex Pen Cleaning and Disassembly  (Ink Nouveau)

-- An interview with James Leech from Stylus Fine Pens  (Writing and Scribbling)

-- Gifts From a Reader: Rollbahn and Field Notes  (Notebook Stories)

-- The Noodler’s Creaper flex pen (with a side dish of Black Swan in Australian Roses)  (Leigh Reyes)

-- Which Traveler's Notebook Box You Like Better? (Scription)

-- I've got the blues (and I love it)  (Economy Pens)

-- Zebra F-301 Compact Ballpoint Pen Review  (Derek's Pens & Pencils)

-- TWSBI Diamond 530  (Whatever)

-- OHTO Needle-Point Slim Line II Ballpoint Pen  (Pocket Blonde)

-- Steinbeck’s favorite pencils  (Pencil Talk)

-- J. Herbin Orange Indien  (Writing and Scribbling)

-- Notepad Review: Rhodia dotPad  (Rants of the Archer)

-- Do you match up pen and ink colors?  (Note Booker, Esq.)

-- Ohto Auto Sharp Mechanical Pencil Review  (Dave's Mechanical Pencils)

-- Meta-Review: Behind the Curtain  (No Pen Intended)

-- Quo Vadis Prestige Note 27 weekly planner  (Plannerisms)

-- Sharpie Pen Retractable Fine Point test doodles  (Lung Sketching Scrolls)

-- New Pens and Inks  (Drawing with a Squirrel)

-- Moleskine Pen Test - Results  (Journal Addict)