Smallish Brush Kit

Here is the perfect set of brush pens for beginners and more experienced lettering artists and illustrators. The Smallish Brush Kit is your friend on the road to better and more fun letters! Here I have collected a slightly smaller but still complete set of really fun brush pens for those of you who, like me, are hopelessly in love with this type of pen and everything they can achieve. Having a few different pens will make you even better at handling them, the pens have different types of tips, but none are really hard or fragile. Suitable for beginners and veterans alike, this set is pretty much everything you need in terms of pens to create beautiful cards, calendars or small posters. The Smallish Brush Kit has the following members:

Pitt Artist Pen Brush, Faber Castell, Phthalo Blue 110

A pencil that gives a lovely gradient on some papers – in the pictures here I have drawn on uncoated paper. The tip is slightly narrower but is not soft and hard but still provides good resistance and flexibility. And, a great thing about these pens: When the tip gets worn out, you can simply take it out (use tweezers), flip it over and put it back in and you have a brand new tip. Good, right?

Koi Brush, Sakura, Blue Green Light

Koi are medium sized, and slightly thicker, tips than Pitt Artist. Here you have a felt tip that fills the paper with bright, water-soluble colors. It’s big enough to fix a word that can stand alone on a card, for example, and it’s a great pen to practise with once you feel you have some control over the smaller nibs, like the Pentel Brush Sign.

Supreme Brush Pen, Artline, Black

I have put this pen in other kits as well, for the simple reason that it is unique and very cozy to write with. The tip has the ability to switch between really narrow and really thick lines, so there is a lot of variation here, which is very impressive. This is because it is very flexible but still manages to have almost the same resistance as the Pitt Artist. The bonus is that it is absolutely excellent for drawing shadows if you have created block letters with a black fineliner, because it is so flexible, you get real shadows!

Brushmarker PRO, Karin, Neutral Grey 2

Well, Karin Brushmarkers may not need a proper introduction, but if you haven’t met them before: You’re in for a treat. Brushmarkers have a tip that is made of nylon (and not felt, which is more common), making it very durable and long-lasting. It is very generous with color, and the tip is substantial, probably the largest in this company. I chose a gray one so you can use it to shade some of your other pens if you feel like it.

Fine Line Brush, Uni Pin, Sepia

Here’s some fun news! The well-known fineliner brand Uni Pin has, in addition to 12 different sizes in its waterproof series of fineliners, also a brush variant and it is very nice! It is one size smaller, about the same size as the Pentel Brush Sign, but the tip is slightly different. You will feel the difference if you try it. Like the Pentel Brush Sign, this is a great pen to start with if you haven’t used brush pens much before.

Brush Sign, Pentel, Pink Purple

Well, if you haven’t heard me talk about this pen before, we haven’t spent much time together. This was one of the first brush pens I tried and the one that taught me to get those letters with varied line widths that characterize this type of pen, and it’s still the one I use most often. Quite small, flexible, and available in 30 different colors, here it’s in vibrant Pink Purple.

The Smallish Brush Kit is an excellent introduction to the world of lettering, with pens that are great to start with and pens that you can develop along the way. Instead of buying a set of the same pen in a bunch of different colors, I argue that this kit makes you much better. You need to handle each pen in a slightly different way, and when you feel comfortable with all of them, you should by definition be a brilliant brush lettering artist.

As usual, they are a bit snobbish about paper choice, and I recommend the Smooth or Coated pads to make them last as long as possible. Dock! All paper wears out the brush pens, it’s a natural law, it’s just the way it is. So if you don’t have very smooth paper, it doesn’t mean you can’t use the pens, it’s just that they might lose their sharpness a little earlier. They are meant to be used, and there are no pens that go to waste unless you don’t use them.

For those who want a complete kit, I have already fixed it for you: Smallish Brush Kit with blocks can be found here.