For the last several years I've done all of my ink work using brush pens that I'd found at Japanese stationary stores in San Jose or San Francisco (in the Kinokuniya mall on Geary). Prior to that I tried using #1 and #0 round paintbrushes like the way all the comic bookers recommend but that's kind of a pain in the ass because of the amount of setup and cleanup involved and loading the brush with the same amount of ink every time is a learned art. So finding these brush pens was kind of a revelation at the time, I could take advantage of all the line qualities afforded by a brush without having to dip it in india ink every few lines or setting up my workspace or cleaning up when I'm done or anything.

Unlike the tapered felt nib on a "brush pen" you'd find at an ordinary art supply store, these brush pens are actually brushes, like with actual bristles that you can use to make actual brush strokes, which is technology that still somehow manages to elude American art supply manufacturers.

But the problem with them is I have a hard time telling anyone else that wants to use them how to find them. I mean I didn't even know what brand they were because all the writing on them is in the crazy moonman kanji jibberish that the Japanese people call writing, and I'd thrown the packaging away.

The Mai-Do stationary store on Santana Row in San Jose is currently my go-to supplier for these things, and last time I was up there I had the good sense to google what little English there was on the packaging of what I picked up.

Two of them are by a company called Zebra, and I have their FD-301 and FD-502 models, which look like this:

FD-502, $8.25:

FD-301, $5.00:

And I should clarify that the FD-301 is not a true brush pen, it has a spongy flexible rubber nib that behaves enough like a brush to keep me from complaining about it - it's still vastly preferable to a felt tipped impostor. I like to use it for quick studies and life drawing - I can make very thin delicate lines with it, and very bold heavy expressive strokes as well, depending on how I hold the pen and how I move my hand. The ink that it uses is water-soluble, so I can start with linework, go over it with a wet watercolor brush and create controlled-bleed ink wash effects with it easily. I drew the paper tiger with this pen.

I also use a pen that has a similar brush nib to the FD-502, this one Mitsubishi's PFK-301N model, which I could only find one reference to with Google, and the page is entirely in Japanese. The brush is functionally identical to the Zebra FD-502, but it's three dollars cheaper and it doesn't have the little felt-tip nip on the opposite end that I never use anyway.

I don't know how useful this information will be to anyone but at least now you know what I use, and if you're interested in trying them, what to look for should you happen to have a Japanese-imports stationary store near you. If you search J-List for "fude pen" you'll find some similar items. I have two of the Pentel refillable fude pens, but the only one I use is the fine line one with the light blue cap (which J-List doesn't even appear to offer), and that one only rarely. It's because these things are so hard to find online (for anything approaching reasonable prices, anyway) that I'm always so evangelical about dragging artist friends to Mai-Do whenever the opportunity presents itself.