Fountain Pens for inking?
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@demotlj i was where you were a few months ago. The only one I found I liked was the metropolitan pilot. The jinhao 750 i only got to replace the nib with a number 6 goulet nib. I prefer the liveliness of the dip pens though.
Pentel also has a sketch pen its the “tradio” but its very sketchy with heavy ink flow but great for sketching.
I learned to love the dippyness of it all it makes me feel really cool... and a nerd..
instagram and twitter: @artofaleksey
alekseyillustration.com -
@Aleksey There is that appeal of feeling more "at one with the art" when I use traditional materials. I think the more digital our lives become, the more I appreciate the sensory experience of working with real paper, ink, and paint. Of course, I also still really really like the "undo" button on my iPad
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Sheaffer is my favorite fountain pen; it takes less pressure to use and has improved the quality of my handwriting.
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Depending how you want to ink find an old Pelikan M120 fountain pen. There are still some new nibs kicking around on ebay. Bought a couple 35+ years ago and they still work great.
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Hard to believe it's been so long since I started this thread. An update -- I did get a fountain pen -- a Lamy Joy -- and I love it for writing but I ended up going back to dip pens for inking illustrations. It's easier to change color ink with dip pens and the fountain pen nib isn't quite as flexible as the dip pen. I use the fountain pen for text.
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LAMY Joy is also great. I love this set. The widest nib produces such pretty writing with wider and narrower lines just like a calligraphy dip nib but with the consistency of a fountain pen.
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@chrisaakins I, too, like the lines the Pentel brush pen makes! I’ve been practicing drawing with it for a while now and I’m finding it really tricky! I still can’t get consistent lines. Still trying to get a feel for how to control it. It’s definitely worth the wait and patience.
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I love the Kuretake brush pen, and you can buy third-party waterproof cartridges for it also, which is very important to me—so many brush pens I tried came with ink that wasn’t permanent.
I’ve searched and searched, and nothing exists that is exactly like a nib pen. I created a brush in illustrator a number of years ago that mimicked a nib pen about as closely as was possible. It took me weeks to get it right, and it still wasn’t perfect, but I drew webcomics with it for a few years. Now I’m fiddling with procreate brushes, trying to find the perfect nib brush for me, and the Rusty Nib brush set from True Grit is the closest to the real thing that I’ve come across.
Still, a beautiful fountain pen with a flexible nib will always be on my wish list…
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@Randi-Gordon It might not be a full solution but it may be worth reaching out to Jimmy Reyes . He spent a bunch of time developing realistic inking tools for Clip Studio along with some demos for sale on gumroad. And I thought he was talking about doing it for Procreate at some point. Not sure if you are familiar with Jimmy but he has been in the industry and inked over David Finch some time ago as a traditional inker.
I have very limited traditional inking experience so take this with a grain of salt. I think part of the "feel" of digital inking tools is also related to digital stylus tech. I originally used the Clip Studio brushes from Jimmy and wasn't that excited running on a non Wacom. I then started using them with a Wacom display tablet/stylus and it was a much better experience. Other than Apple, I still think Wacom has the edge on pen feel for sensitive brush simulations (even though they seem behind on every other dimension)
I also looked into a fountain pen flex nib setup but never found something that made sense on performance or price. Ultimtely I recently decided to focus on brush pens and have been working with Kuretake no 8, since it is the same nib as no 13 but in longer format and closer to traditional brush hold, at least for me. The number 85 is supposed to be the same but with a more water proof ink. I prefer both types depending on if I want a wash effect or not.
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@davido interesting—the brush I mentioned I’d created in illustrator was one I used with my old Wacom Intuos, so you might be onto something regarding the sensitivity issue.
I’m not familiar with Jimmy Reyes, will check him out.
After discovering the iPad, and not able to spring for a Cintiq, there was no going back to the Intuos. When I try to use it now it feels so terrible, haha—probably has something to do with my iMac being from 2010 (still a great machine for most things).
After a frustrating few weeks scribbling on my iPad, even with the Rusty Nib collection (hats off, great brushes), I’m back to my Kuretake and good old paper. Not sure if I have the #8 or the #13–I’ve got three of them—but nothing comes close to the beautiful line work I get.
Bought an ultra-cheapo fountain pen off Amazon yesterday for seven bucks,
will report back with my review/disappointment.
