Analog letter making tools

Wes Adams

A discussion to share tool recommendations. Pens, brushes, ink etc.

Wes Adams

For instance, I have found Kolinsky Sable brushes to vary so much in quality, that I no longer import them, regardless of manufacturer. Instead, I've been using Princeton 4050 brushes.

The Raphael Kaerell brushes, often limited by poor quality control, are second best. The bristles are as good as the Princeton brushes perhaps even better. Particularly at the smaller sizes, the ferrules are frequently formed with a dent in the center, a defect that all but guarantees a sloppy hairline. As for sizes they run a half-size larger than a like Princeton brush.

The Windsor Newton 995 is also a decent in my experience. They are more limited with regard to available sizes, and the handle is a uniform acrylic rod which makes handling more difficult.

John Lyttle

I am beginning to learn the craft of sign painting from a mentor who recommends certain tools. Would anyone like to comment if they have experience with these brushes?  

Laura Worthington

My personal favorite is the Pentel colorbrush for pointed pen lettering. I also like the DaVinci Maestro and Escoda brushes are nice as well. For felt tip brushes, I find that the Tombow brushes last the longest, and are worth the extra expense.

For pointed pen lettering, I usually use vintage fountain pens (wet noodles and music nibs are my favorite, Waterman Ideal #2 being at the top of my list) but I also like standard steel dip nibs. My favorite dip nibs are the Nikko G, Zebra G, Brause Rose and the Hiro Blue Pumpkin. The places I buy nibs at are through John Neal Bookseller (who also has a sample kit of every nib they sell so you can test them all out!) and Paper and Ink Arts.

For ink, I use Moon Palace Sumi ink and for my fountain pens, I use Noodlers brand, Heart of Darkness. Aside from fountain pen ink (which is crucial to buy the right stuff) I've found that it's easy to buy ink for brushes and dip pens - I've never found an ink brand/type I don't like. I've used Higgins, Winsor Newton, Pelikan, McCaffery's, ink sticks and other brands/types of Sumi ink. Out of all of the things that go go into pen or brush lettering, I think ink is the easiest to figure out. Nibs, brushes, paper... for me, that's been the real challenge.

My favorite paper is the Rhodia dot grid pads and Borden & Riley Boris pads. They're both inexpensive (I go through a LOT of paper!) but are excellent for brush and pen. I use Canson Vellum and other "nicer" papers as well, but the Rhodia and Boris pads are part of my daily life.

I also like to use "Magic" brush stroke paper (also referred to as Zen or Buddha boards) to warm up before brush lettering because I don't like to waste paper on a bunch of random and somewhat shaky initial brush strokes.

John Lyttle

Thanks for such an extensive reply, Laura! I'll have to try out some of those items, especially the Pentel colorbrush. I have played around with Buddha boards – bookshops and museum boutiques sometimes have samples available for customers to try but I hadn't considered that they'd be useful as a tool to a pro. It makes sense to save on paper when warming up.

Wes Adams

Moon Palace is a nice ink. I've been trying Best Bottle out for the past couple days and its also good. I haven't had a chance to compare the two directly. I've not had great luck using Noodler's with a brush, with a nib it is very nice.

Wes Adams

John, curious how that Sharff brush is working out and what style of lettering you're using it for

Chris Lozos

My favorite is hardened block charcoal on watercolor paper.  I love the feel and resistance and the ability to vary speed of movement considerably more than brush or pen.  I don't use it as a final tool, just a way to feel forms.

John Lyttle

@Wes Adams – Sorry, Wes. I didn’t see your comment/question until just now. I am learning to paint with One Shot poster and enamel paints, first practising Gothic sign lettering (something similar to Frutiger/Gotham), then progressing to casual, then thick-and-thin serifs and scripts. We paint on paper, coroplast, wood, aluminum, etc.

I like the Scharff bruses (quills, we call ’em) but I found out that if I don’t clean it well after using, then treat it will Neatsfoot oil, the bristles can be easily damaged.

Ray Larabie

Mechanical pencil: Zebra Delguard 0.5. Scanned, processed and printed in cyan ink. Traced over again with overlapping strokes, classical animation style, using same pencil. Drawing gets scanned, cyan ink gets filtered out and hard black lines are autotraced. A recent example is my redrawing of Heavy Heap.

StephenRapp

@John Lyttle if you're on Facebook there is a sign painters group that you might find useful. It's run by John Downer.

Winston Scully

I really love the synthetic brush pens like the Zebra & Tombow Dual. Sakura also makes a brush pen I've grown fond of called the Pigma MB. (pretty sure I bought them all through JetPens.com) 

I use Staedtler 2mm lead holders for pencil drawings & tracing sketches. Blackwing pencils are great as well, if you're into wood & graphite. 

Laura Worthington

Another interesting lettering tool I'd like to mention is the Folded Ruling Pen. There a several different styles available, however, I've only been able to find them on calligraphy retail sites such as JohnNealBookseller.com and PaperInkArts.com

Folded Ruling Pens create very unique strokes and effects virtually unachievable by other traditional tools. The width of the strokes may vary depending on the angle of which the tool is held, the shape of the tool itself, and if it's an adjustable ruling pen, how wide the aperture is opened. For a beginner, I'd recommend one with a flat edge; curved edge ruling pens are a bit more difficult to work with.

Here's a quick link for review of many available options: http://www.johnnealbooks.com/prod_detail_list/s?keyword=ruling+pen

AbiRasheed

brushpens: tombow, zebra, kuretake. If you mean ink as in calligraphy ink prolly iron gall, sumi, windsor & newton & dr ph martin's.

Wes Adams

Silver 1502S is another great broad edge brush. They're somewhat easier to find stocked than the Princeton brushes. Longer hairs than the Raphaels make them easier to handle.