I’m not a pen expert at all, but I’ve received some questions on what pens I use in my art journal and I thought I’d just show you all what I use here! This is my big big pen box that I love so much:

My big pen case

It sits on my work place and I dig through it when I need something to write with in my Art Journal! It’s usually stuffed with a lot more pens but I’ve just kept my favorites for this photo! If you want to be able to journal (write) over anything and in different styles and colors you will of course need several different pens. I live in Sweden so I don’t have access to all the cool pens existing, but I have managed so far. Let’s check them out!?

To the left in the box:
My big pen case
The Vellum Writers by Kuretake have two ends, one thick bullet tip (1,2 mm) and one fine tip (0,5 mm). Mine have lasted for a long time and are still going strong with great colors that will write over acrylic paint, magazine clippings and so on. These are pigment inks that are acid-free, archival quality, lightfast, waterproof, fade-proof and non-bleeding as stated on the pen. Maybe all that is important to some people, not to me though.

The Gelly Roll pens by Sakura are thin writing pens that I first didn’t appreciate, but they are quite nice to doodle with on magazine layouts (follow outlines of people or things for example). I have Metallic silver and some Med that glitter! They write smoothly but will smudge for a while because of the excess ink; so slow down and let them dry before you continue on a page.

To the right in the pen case (the pen case isn’t really a pen case, it was storage for knifes we bought or something like that I think):
My big pen case
From the back you see some different colors of my Calligraphy pens Zig Memory pens, also from Kuratake in Japan. These also have two tips, but the big one is 5 mm and I think it’s way to big to write anything but one or two words unfortunately. The ink is more transparent than the Vellum Writers but has great color and are nice to write with! I got a couple of these for my birthday two years ago from my friend Emma and I’m still using them!

My big pen caseThe blue Zig Memory pen is just called Writer and has metallic blue color. It’s a cool pen, I need to get me some more colors!

The white pen I have and like is called Uni-ball Signo and made by Mitsubishi in Japan. I had two of these that kind Michelle sent me, but both are now empty and I need to go look for new ones!

The only black pen in this box is a Micron 0,5 mm archival drawing pen. I love to draw with these and I have several pigment liners like this one and other brands too. They are mostly to thin to write on acrylic paint or any bulky surface, but they produce a great black line that I can’t be without even though these are the most expensive ones of my pens.

Pens are expensive and I usually only buy one or two at a time and test them out. I hope that helps you a bit, but as I said I’m not a pen expert. I’ve linked to some resources below, check them out and have fun with the supplies you already got!

And I’d love to try any pens you don’t need. Send them my way! ;-) Have you checked out the eco-friendly pens at Stubby Pencils [via angry chicken]. Such cool pens and crayons they make! I want to try Smencils and Soy Crayons! Then I want to set it up like this and tell you all what color my day was!

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