Pentel color brush pen review

I recently purchased a bunch of Pentel color brush pens. I was planning to use them on my sketchbook.

I like to sketch on location, sometimes with little time to spare, so I thought these would help me achieve more vibrant tones from the beginning.

Vibrant they are, indeed. I don’t think the colour charts I saw online did justice to the almost blinding intensity of the colours (I imagined the pink, olive green and sky blue would be more subdued… but that will teach me to go to physical shops and test products in person before buying next time)

Anyhow, back to my review: After testing the brushes I realized there was a problem with the drying times: All of them took at least 30 min. to dry.

I tested them on Canson 300gsm paper. I did several tests on various strips and scanned them together.

The results are written on my notes on each strip:

All of the colours took at least 30 min. to dry. Olive green took as long as 5 hours (?!)

I tried also different ways of mixing the colours: mixing wet on wet (as the paint took so long to dry the mixtures feathered wildly)

I tried then raising the paper to paint, creating dry brush marks. These seemed to dry faster than wet applications.

I also tried dry brush marks diluted with water from a waterbrush (I like this option as then the ink dries faster too)

I tried watering down the ink when mixing colours (that also helps shorten the drying time, although the colours also lose saturation)

I wish someone had done similar tests before I bought my Pentel color brushes.

I still think the design of the brush is beautiful: they hold the ink without leaking and only release it when I press purposefully on the barrel. The bristles are very flexible and long enough to allow a variety of strokes and widths.

However, the very long drying time is putting me off using them outdoors or on my sketchbook at all.

It’s a shame that such an appealing brush is let down by the ink.

On the other hand, if you like slow-drying inks and are able to use them in studio settings, disregarding how long they may take to dry, these may be ideal for you.

I plan to mix mine with other watercolours and inks and use them indoors for the time being. Once the ink is used up, though, I plan to refill mine with liquid watercolour or coloured fountain pen inks.

UPDATE (a few days later):

Just for the sake of double-checking my impressions I decided to take the color brushes with me to the park. I took my usual sketchbook (150gsm paper, which probably didn’t help in the situation) and used a palette for mixing. I applied the colour with my waterbrush.

(I emptied the olive green brush pen due to its extra-slow drying time and refilled it with brown fountain pen ink, from Waterman)

These are the results:

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The color brush pens, even diluted with water, took so long to dry that the colours kept bleeding and messing the drawing. The Inktense pencils, also mixed on palette with a waterbrush, and sketched minutes later, were damp in places but allowed me to have better control over my drawing.

 

UPDATE (March 2019)

I’ve been in contact with Pentel to let them know of my experience. The replacement brush pens they sent me seem to suffer from the same slow-drying ink… So I’ve definitively given up on using them for quick sketches.

On the other hand, it would’ve been a shame not to use them at all: I decided to draw at home from my sketches.

I was quite pleased with the results: I used smooth watercolour paper and kept drawing for several days, experimenting randomly and having fun.

 

 

Thanks for reading this.

*(Update April 2019: I’ve blogged about the pen again. Part 2, leaving the ink out)