Smallish Brush Kit with block

Here is the perfect set of brush pens and pads for beginners and more experienced lettering artists and illustrators. The Smallish Brush Kit with pads is your friend on the way to better and more fun lettering! I’ve put together a smaller but still complete set of really fun brush pens and great paper for those who, like me, are hopelessly in love with these types of pens and all they can do. Having a few different pens will make you even better at handling them, the pens have different types of tips, but none are really difficult or fragile. The paper is designed to care for the tips and give a nice background to your letters. The kit is suitable for beginners and experienced artists alike, and is pretty much everything you need to create beautiful cards, calendars or small posters. The Smallish Brush Kit with pads has the following members:

Pitt Artist Pen Brush, Faber Castell, Phthalo Blue 110

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

Koi Brush, Sakura, Blue Green Light

Koi are medium-sized, and slightly thicker, nibs than Pitt Artist. Here you have a felt tip that fills the paper with bright, water-soluble colors. It’s big enough to get a word on a card, for example, and it’s a great Pen to practice with once you feel you have a handle on the smaller nibs, like the Pentel Brush Sign.

Supreme Brush Pen, Artline, Black

I’ve put this Pen in other kits as well, for the simple reason that it’s unique and very cozy to write with. The nib has the ability to switch between really thin 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 hold almost the same resistance as in Pitt Artist. The bonus is that it’s great for drawing shadows if you’ve created block letters with a black fineliner, for example, because it’s so flexible you can get proper shadows!

Brushmarker PRO, Karin, Neutral Grey 2

Yes, 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 the most common), which makes it very durable and long-lasting. It’s very generous with color, and the tip is substantial, probably the largest in this group. I chose a gray shade so you can use it to shade some of your other Pens if you feel like it.

Fine Line Brush, Uni Pin, Sepia

Here we have a fun novelty! In addition to 12 different sizes in its waterproof series of fine liners, the well-known fine liner brand Uni Pin also has a brush variant, and it’s really cute! It’s a smaller size, 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 how 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 is in vibrant Pink Purple.

Lettering pad A5, Ink & Lise, Smooth

One cannot draw letters with pens alone. Seriously though, if you’re going to invest in fancy pens, it’s a good idea to make sure they’re used on a paper that makes them hold their shape longer and not lose their sharpness too quickly. Enter: Letteringblock smooth, which just as the name suggests, provides a great dance floor for the nibs to waltz around on. The paper is slightly yellowed and the block here is entirely handmade by me. It’s pretty much the only paper I use, apart from coated and black.

The Smallish Brush Kit with Blocks is an absolutely EXCELLENT entry into the world of lettering, there are pens that are great to start with and pens that you can develop with along the way and papers that bring out the best in them and preserve the shape of the nibs for as long as possible. Instead of buying a set of the same Pen in a bunch of different colors, I’d argue that this kit does you a lot better. You need to handle each Pen in a slightly different way, and once you feel comfortable with all of them, you should by definition be a brilliant brush lettering artist.

For those of you who only want Pens, I’ve already got it for you: Smallish Brush Kit can be found here.