When I was a young girl, my father took me into the city to see a sports equipment maker. He said, “Chabong, you’re left handed so you’re going to need super cool golf clubs.” In retrospect, golf is a dumb sport that takes up land that could be used for community spaces and I hate that my grandfather made me play it. Long story short, I lost my first and only golf tournament by a landslide (the higher your number, the lower your score, really, only a capitalist could think of this!). But my dad was like, “Hey at least at least you look good.” And in true JoMaps fashion, he added one of his wisecracks.
“If you can’t perform, japorms.”
I’ve lived by his wisdom ever since.
Right. This is a post on art materials. Here’s how I see it: If I can’t draw or journal to save my life, I might as well look like a boss while doing it, right? (I mean, they’re preeeetty.) And say I do get better at my practice, then I’ll have the best tools to work with. Win-win.
Rephrase: An artist is only as good as his tools. And I’m seriously not that good without these holy grail pens.
Writing Pens
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Holy Grail: MUJI 0.38
If you prefer 0.5 over 0.38, you suck.
Pilot GTec 0.3
Specifically the 0.3. It hits different.
Dupe: Dong-A Fine Tec 0.25
In case you’re looking for a Pilot GTec dupe. But there’s a difference in the fineness of their points, so the 0.25 is closer to GTec’s 0.3. (I can’t believe I know this).
Zebra Sarasa
The 0.5 is good for everyday writing, and 1.0 if you want sumn thicc. This one has more point size variety than Pilot Juice.
Pilot Juice
I don’t know enough about this to have a hard opinion. But it’s cheaper than the Sarasa, and there are more colors.
Underrated: Pentel Energel
Why did they name this pen like a caffeinated concoction that will make you hyperventilate for days? Because it hits that good.
Pens for Decoratives
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Tombow Fudenosuke
I mostly just use the black one when I need to do headers in my journal. There’s an assorted color set, too. I like the hard nib, which helps you control the thickness of your strokes.
Uni Ball Signo (White Ink)
For covering up tiny mistakes. Or writing on black ink. Mostly the former. There are some mistakes correction tape can’t undo. Ink is archival quality, baby!
Sakura Gelly Roll (White Ink)
More for writing over dark spaces. Not as opaque as Uni Ball, but it’s finer.
Drawing Pens
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Fan Fave: Sakura Pigma Micron
Get a set, they’re that good. Microns use pigment-based inks so they’re fast-drying, waterproof, fade-resistant, and archival quality. They’re super compatible to work with paints, water-based mediums, and markers.
God-Tier: Copic Multiliner
When I want to go next level, I use my Copic inking pens. Part of the set I got came with a brush type, which comes in handy when I need something waterproof. Plus they’re really made to work with Copics.
For Starters: Uni Pin Drawing Pens
My bet for a good, affordable, starter set of inking pens. Point size range is excellent, and the nibs don’t rub down to a diagonal stump as fast as others—looking at you, Staedtler—unless you’re using these for writing. But they do fade a bit when you erase over them.
Markers
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Tombow Dual Brush Pens
Holy grail. Flexible brush tip on one end, and a fine marker tip on the other. They’re sold in packs of carefully selected color stories, which I think adds to how good they are. Good starter sets are the Skin Tone and Muted or Secondary, then select individual colors that work for you.
Zebra Mildliners
These cute, pastel-colored, dual-tipped highlighters are so closely associated with bullet journaling. Great for decorating notes. Just depends on the pen—some smudge. They come in packs of 5. Upon writing this, I discovered Zebra launched a new one that I do not have and I’m shocked I wasn’t informed.
Faber Castell PITT Artist Pens
So underrated in the journaling community. These use Indian inks so they’re waterproof compared to the other markers mentioned above. The brush tip is firm so you can control strokes, but broad enough so it’s good for coloring. And let’s not discount shade range and color pack selection.
Kuretake Zig Fudebiyori
Softer nib than the Fudenosuke. Smaller brush tip than the Tombow dual. They’ve got a wide range of colors as well.
Copic Markers
I’d sell my soul to Hades to have the entire color range. They’re that good. And they’re on the pricier side. Alcohol markers tend to cost more (the ones mentioned above are water-based or ink-based). They’re also more permanent and waterproof. Water-based markers don’t bleed but they’re not waterproof.
I really do get asked about my fave pens a lot in workshops, so I thought I’d compile it all in a post. And I really can talk about pens all day—like how there’s a noticeable difference between a 0.38 and a 0.4 gel pen, or how F nibs for Japanese fountain pens are so different from European ones. But I guess that’s for a different post. For now, I hope I satisfied a few curious people.
Cheers,
