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
MYT CR8TiV 