Goodies from Japan … Thanks Mom ! (n_n)

Hi, CR8TiV Birdies !! So my Mom just got back from a trip to Japan and she always brings me back some goodies from Japan. This time she brought me some Kuretake, Tombow, and Sakura items. Yay !! \(n D n)/

Umm … I’m not really sure how or what the Kuretake letter set is *Pictured above ↑*. I’m gonna have to clarify with her what it is. But I’m really loving all the items she sent me. The one I am really loving is the Kuretake Fudebiyori Brush pen set *Pictured below ↓*

In case you don’t follow my Instagram or Facebook accounts *@MYTCR8TiV – Facebook.com/MYTCR8TiV* I’ve been getting into Hand-Lettering using Brush Pen markers. My last blog post was a product review/comparison between Tombow’s and Immersive Color Brush pens.

Now for these Kuretake Fudebiyori Brush pens they’re a lot like Tombow Brush pens and the Brush tip on them is very similar to that of Tombow as well. The medium stiffness of the Brush tip made it very easy to do Brush lettering. So if you are a beginner in Brush lettering I’d recommend trying the Kuretake Fudebiyori Brush pens. I know JetPens.com sells them and I’m sure you might be able to find them on Amazon. I was told that the Fudebiyori Brush pens are just Japanese versions of the Kuretake Zig Brush Pens here in the US. But since I haven’t tried Zig Brush pens, yet ! I can’t confirm that. I’ll get back to you on that once I get a set of Kuretake Zig Brush pens.

Umm … a short update to the Tombow .vs. Immersive Color post is I’ve been using the Tombow Brush pens more than the Immersive Color Brush pens as I stated in the review the Brush tip of the Tombow Brush pens are a bit more stiffer making thin strokes and thick strokes a bit easier where as the Immersive Color Brush pens the Brush tip is soft so you really need practice on the pressure to get the consistent thin and thick lines.

Anyways the next product my Mom got me were these Tombow highlighters *Pictured below ↓*

I did not even know Tombow had highlighter pens. But the chisel tip is perfect for doing calligraphy and the ultra-fine tip on the other end is great for journaling or planner writing and the colors are very vibrant ! I think I will use these for vibrant Florescent Doodle arts and Calligraphy of course.

On to the next items which is the Sakura Coupy-Pencil *Pictured below ↓*

I’m not really sure what the Coupy-Pencil really are. They feel like long crayons without the wrappers. Each one is about 4½” long and come in 12 colors. I tried to see if they are colored pencils as they are called Coupy-Pencil but they feel very waxy like crayons. Only difference is unlike Crayola crayons that leave white spots when you color … these lay down a smooth even coverage of color.

Umm … as far as blending ? I tried to blend the colors into each other like I took Red and Yellow to see if it’ll blend into an Orange color but it didn’t blend at all ! I then took a cotton swab with Rubbing Alcohol to see if I can blend it out like I do with my Prismacolors colored pencils and they did not blend out or do anything at all. Next I tried using vaseline *Petroleum Jelly* to see if they’ll blend out with that … It also did not blend out or do anything. Lastly, I tried Baby oil and again it did nothing ! Oh and I tried a water brush to see if they are water soluble but like I suspected they are highly wax based bcuz all the water did was bead up on top of the area I colored aka water resist.

As far as coloring they work like ordinary crayons ! You can layer colors on top of each other but they don’t blend together via blending mediums or blending into each other. They just seem like ordinary crayons. Unless I’m wrong ! Comment below if you’ve used Sakura Coupy-Pencils and got them to blend or have other techniques for using them other than coloring books.

My Mom is still awaiting another large package of goodies shipped from Japan so I will definitely post up another post of what Goodies my Mom has brought back from her trip to Japan. Until then have a CR8TiV Summer, Stay Cool, Stay Hydrated, and I’ll post again reall soon !!

 

Brush Pen Review … Tombow .vs. Immersive Color

Hi, Everybody !! Happy Father’s Day weekend ! Hope you have something wonderful planned with your family this weekend. So today I am going to do another Product review and I believe this is going to be a very popular review. Hopefully the contents of this review will be helpful and useful to you. So let’s get started !! \( n 3 n)/

The review is on Brush pens and I am doing a comparison review on the Most Popular Tomwbow Brush Pens and a less known brand called Immersive Color Brush Pens. I have to say my reason for purchasing these Brush pens was first from my previous review about the Spectrum Noir Aqua markers being comparable to the Copics. I love the brush tip of the Spectrum Noir Aqua markers. I use the often for coloring in stamped cards and handrawn art.

Now Brush Lettering seems to be a trending thing in the Hand-Lettering world. And the #1 Brush pen lettering pros use is the Tombow Brush pen. I have watched and followed enough Brush Lettering Artists on Instagram to get a general idea of Brush Lettering but I was never able to afford the Tombow markers. But thanks to my BFF’s help I was able to get the Bright set of Tombow markers !! \(n0n)/ YAY !!

I ordered them off Amazon along with a 128gb SD Micro Memory card for my tablet which I previously did a review on. It runs a lot faster now ! So I also purchased a Travel Lap desk which I’ll do a review on later. But in order to qualify for the *FREE* Shipping on Amazon I needed to add something more. So I grabbed these Immersive Color Brush Pens they are $19.99. I am happy to create a side by side comparison review of these two(2) brands for you !! (n_n) Aww… I know I’m too kind ! L0L

So below is a bit of a comparison chart I made of the Tombow Brush Pens .vs. the Immersive Color Brush pens. ↓

I’ll start with the Tombow Brush pens. I’m not really sure if it’s because they are Brand *New* but the brush tip on these pens feel a bit stiff. Also compared to the Immersive Color the Brush tip seems more Fine ? I guess you could say. If you look at the tear drop shapes examples I made which is done simple just by pressing the tip down on the paper. The size of the tear drop is quite small and narrow compared to the Immersive Color one.

Umm … I know there are 96 Tombow Brush Pen marker colors which is a nice variety of colors to chose from and I like color variety. The Fine tip end writes like a Fine point Sharpie marker and will be perfect for drawing in fine lines or details. Both Tombow and Immersive Color are water-based markers so they should blend nicely with both water and to themselves but I couldn’t get them to blend very well. With a water and a watercolor brush I was able to pull the color to sort of a gradient fade but trying to blending together Yellow and Orange didn’t blend together well if at all.

I have always adore the Brush Lettering words or quotes using the gradient effect where one color trails off into another. With Tombow Brush Pens I was told the technique is done by grabbing a lighter color and touching a darker color to the tip of the lighter color just for a few seconds. In my example above I grabbed a Pink/Magenta and Maroon/Burgundy color and the gradient effect didn’t work out too well.

Overall the Tombow Brush Pen is definitely easier to Brush Letter with as the stiffness helps when doing the thin line and thick lines in Brush Lettering. *Gotta practice more on that* But they are great markers for both coloring and lettering. But definitely Brush Lettering is easier with these Brush Pen markers.

Now to talk about the Immersive Color Brush pen markers. Well, right away I liked how nicely the tear drop shape was and easily made daisy flowers and hearts. The Brush tip on the Immersive Color brush pens are more flexible soft and Medium to Thick size whereas the Tombow’s were more of a Small to Thin size. The Brush tip on the Immersive Color Brush pens resemble the tip on the Pentel Aquash Brush pens. To me these performed a lot more like an actual paintbrush. The Fine tip point is more of an Ultra Fine tip like that of a Pigma Micron pen unlike the Tombow Fine point is more like the Fine Point Sharpie marker.

The Immersive Color variety is limited to only 24 colors but it’s still a decent amount of color variety to keep you happy. Umm … like the Tombow Brush pen markers I had trouble getting these to blend with water and each other as well. But unlike the Tombow they somewhat blended. In the example chart I first scribbled down Orange then scribbled over with Yellow and the Orange did somewhat lighten to a Lighter Orange when I went over it with the Yellow. As far as blending with a water and a watercolor brush the results were the same as the Tombow Brush pens. I’ll need to experiment some more with blending using both these markers.

But the Gradient technique works great with the Immersive Color markers. I grabbed same or similar colors to the Tombow a Pink/Magenta and a Maroon/Burgundy color and I touched the Maroon/Burgundy color to the Pink/Magenta for approx. 10 seconds and you can see in the example the Maroon/Burgundy in the beginning then fade back to the Pink/Magenta color. Getting a gradient effect seems easier with these Brush pens than the Tombow Brush pens.

Now as far as Brush Lettering the Immersive Color Brush pens will require more practice in getting the thin and thick lines of Brush Lettering as I previously said the Brush tip on these pens are more paintbrush like so getting a thin line and thick line will require a bbit of practicing as far as pressure and less pressure goes. From my experience you barely have to touch the paper almost floating over or very softly brushing the surface of the paper to get the thin line but thick line is pretty easy.

Overall I like the Immersive Color Brush Pens compared to the the Tombow Brush pens because they are more affordable $19.99 for 24 Brush Pens over $27 dollars *Retail price* for 10 Brush pens. If you want to stretch your color variety and have the money go with the 96 color pack of Tombow markers. But if you’re going to use these Brush pens for Brush Lettering I highly suggest the Immersive Color Brush pens as the Brush tip gives you more weight to your letters. It just requires more practice in getting the thick and thin lines.

If you’re interested in trying out these markers … Here’s the link to them on Amazon. I think Amazon has the best price in my opinion for the Tombow Brush pens. Other sites cost twice as much as the price of Amazon. Can’t beat $16.99 with *FREE* Shipping if you spent $35 or more. The other sites that cost twice as much tack on Shipping and tax and what not.

Immersive Color Brush pens 24 colors : https://www.amazon.com/Fineliner-Duplicates-Watercolor-Sketching-Coloring/dp/B01ES37THG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466224528&sr=8-1&keywords=Immersive+Color

Tombow Brush Pen 10 colors “Bright Palette” : https://www.amazon.com/Tombow-Brush-Markers-Bright-10-Pack/dp/B00JVB8FBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466224560&sr=8-1&keywords=Tombow+Bright

Hopefully this product review was helpful and when I get a set of Sakura Koi Brush pens I’ll do a side by side comparison to all three(3) Brush pen markers … the Tombow, the Immersive Color, and the Sakura Koi. Until next time B3 iNSPiR3D, B3 B0LD, B3 Kind, DR3AM BiG, and B3 CR8TiV ~ MYT CR8TiV

Affordable Art Tablet … (ⁿ-ⁿ)

Hello, CR8TiV cats ! Hope you’re having a great Monday ! I think I’ve owned this tablet long enough to do a decent review on it. My husband for my Birthday got me this Acer Iconia One 10 tablet. It is a 10.1″ tablet and I am loving it for practicing digital artwork. It’s an Android tablet and runs on the Lollipop OS. I won’t go too much into the specs of it as you can just Google that yourself. But one thing I highly recommend is a 128gb micro SD memory card and a good screen protector. I haven’t removed the screen protector or film that comes on the tablet as I’m afraid of scratches and I’ve never been too good at adhering screen protectors without a mad amount of ugly bubbles.

Umm .. the tablet does come with a lot of Bloatware as most Acer products do. My Laptop turned Desktop is also an Acer and it too had a lot of Bloatware eating up memory space. It doesn’t affect the performance of the tablet too much but it does lag a bit sometimes. So far my #1 art app I use is called Painter. I’ll update this post with a list of all the Art apps I downloaded and review each of them.

The stylus I use is the Adonit Jot Pro but I also use this stylus I bought from the Dollar Tree than resembles a stubby No. 2 pencils and it responds quite nicely to the tablet screen unlike a stylus I was using for an old iPad. A lot of Art tablet users like the Huion, Cintiq, etc. wear a glove to protect your palm from reacting with the touchscreen while you draw. I was considering purchasing a glove since it’s about $6 on Amazon but my CR8TiV mind just made a DIY one. All I did was cut a thumb hole and finger holes through a sock that lost it’s partner. It works great !! It keeps your wrist and hand warm so it kinda helps prevent cramps.

Umm … I guess this isn’t really much of a review since I don’t really know what to really say about the tablet. One con that I have about the tablet is that not all Android apps are compatible with the tablet so some apps won’t work. It works great for basic web browsing, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest that sorta stuff. A few games run fine but watching movies like I was watching a movie from YouTube the playback is a bit slow meaning the mouth movement were a bit delayed from the audio.

But definitely an excellent tablet if you want an affordable Art tablet that is a bit more affordable than say a Cintiq. The 10.1″ screen is large enough to give you plenty of space to draw and there are many great drawing apps for it. Painter being one of them ! If you wanna try out digital art like I am … this is a great practice or beginners tablet to learn with then later in the future you can upgrade to an actual Cintiq, Huion, etc. Art tablet. I just like that this one is portable so you can carry it around easily for those random moments are art inspiration.

It cost just under $16o dollars. It’s actually $139 but with tax and all that roughly under $160. So affordable than say an iPad Pro or an actual Cintiq. Comment if you wanna know something specific about the Acer Iconia One 10 tablet.