Taking a look at a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen Review today! These pens have been hanging around on my desk for almost a year now but I am finally getting around to checking them out! I had made some assumptions about these pens, thinking they were water-based markers like the Tombow Dual Brush Markers. But these are India Ink-based pens (we’ll get into that below). I did my normal pen testing process and I have thoughts! You can check out my blog post here!
(This review is not sponsored and I paid for these pens myself!)
Pitt Artist Pens
These aren’t your ordinary brush pens! For one, they are a pigmented India Ink base. The formula is waterproof and they are light fast – meaning resistant to fading, odour free, acid free, and pH neutral. This means that the ink colour won’t yellow over time. They should be stored flat (which I didn’t do 😔), and they have a name and number. Although I couldn’t figure out the numbering system.
They are sold individually, or is sets. A set of 6 costs about $20 dollars, so they definitely aren’t cheap. There are 60 pens in total. They have a flexible tip that allows for easily creating thick down strokes and thin upstrokes. But they are marketed as drawing/illustration pens.
Pitt Artist Pen Review – Testing
Since these pens have a very different formula from the water-based pens, I haven’t included them on our brush pen comparison list. I did, however, do the same testing on them as I do on the water-based pens, since that was my original plan.
I tested on 160GSM dot grid paper. This is the paper I use for all of my journaling and artistic endeavours, so this is the paper I test on. You want to make sure you are testing on the paper you are going to use.
I blended 2 colours on paper, used the pick up method, and then tried a water brush pen for blending as well. These pens blew me away! The blending was beautiful and the water brush blending was fantastic! Now, given the nature of the ink, the colours only blend where there is colour. What I mean is, the colour won’t spread outside of the line you are blending (specifically with the water brush pen). The ink is also waterproof when dry. I thought this was really cool and loved the effect they created. There was no bleeding and maybe just a slight ghosting of the ink, even after blending.
The tip is longer than a fudenosuke, and flexible, but super easy to use. This is arguably one of the easiest tips to brush letter with. It used a lot less mental energy and effort to letter with these pens than with any other pen I have tried. The tip itself resembles more of felt tip marker in appearance. Allowing the ink to be distributed evenly (based on pressure you apply).
But now on to the formula!
What is India Ink?
As I mentioned earlier, these pens are a pigmented India Ink (vs a water-based ink that we’re used to seeing here). The most common variety of India Ink is made from a fine soot, called lampblack or carbon black. This can be mixed with water or another kind of binding agent to create an ink. Depending on the binding agent added to the soot, it can be waterproof or not. The waterproof nature of the binding solution kicks in once the ink is dried. You’re still able to do blending when the ink is wet, but once dried, it won’t budge.
The Pitt Artist Pens seem to have a water-based binding agent but dry water proof. This is great for mixed media projects or layouts. I am super excited to put them to the test in my art journal.
Pitt Artist Pen Review – Overall Thoughts
I went into this review not feeling overly excited or positive about these pens. They have been sitting on my desk for close to a year now and I think I used one once. After this review, I am in love with these pens!! The more time I spend using them, the more fun they are to use.
Negatives
- Price – they are expensive
- Muted colours – wish they were a little brighter
- Pen barrel colour doesn’t match the ink colour
- Don’t understand the numbering system
Positives
- Good colour variety
- Different from other pen formulas
- Easy to letter with
- Comfortable to hold
- Lot’s of different ways to experiment with
- Pen names are super specific
While these pens are really easy to letter with, specifically modern calligraphy, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend these pens to beginners. This is based solely on price. Outside of that, I absolutely love these pens and will be growing my own collection.
I hope you found this review helpful! If you are looking for some more pen reviews, you can check out some of my other reviews here.
Please let me know if you have any comments or questions!
Talk soon!
