Part 1 Brush Pen Guide

This initiates a series of blog posts about our favourite thing… BRUSH PENS! Starting out with the fude brush pens, then felt and lastly the bristle brush pens. There are a lot of pens out there and I won’t be writing about every single one, just the one’s I have tried so far and that I would recommend others to try. At the end of the series there will be an ebook available for free download! It will be easier to choose the right pwn just for you once you have that in hand.

Fude Brush Pens

Fude is from the Japanese language and it means “writing brush” or brush pen. Brush Lettering artists might use the word fude when they refer to small brush pens because many of the smaller tip brush pens has the word fude in their name. These 5 fude brush pens in this post are all felt tips* and are some of my go to pens for smaller lettering. Hope you find one you like!

*Felt tip vs bristle tip? See this post 

The 5 Fude Brush Pens, on the left there are examples of a thin upstroke and a thick downstroke created by each pen.

1. Tombow Fudenosuke Hard Brush Pen

This pen is great for lettering smaller text and to start learning the essentials of brush lettering. The hard tip makes it easy to control, remember to only put as much pressure on it to make a downstroke, pressing to hard on an already hard tip won’t do you any favors once you decide to try the softer pens.

2. Tombow Fudenosuke Soft Brush Pen 

For most beginners a softer tip is harder to control, especially when starting out with the hard fudenosuke, but don’t let that intimidate you cause these pens are so easy to use and it will quickly make your list of favourites. Great to have when you want a little more contrast between your thick and thins compared to the hard tip or when you want a little bigger lettering.

Note: If you love this pen you’ll love the Fudenosuke Twin Tip and the Pentel fude touch (see below)

3. Tombow Fudenosuke Twin Tip Brush Pen

An amazing fude brush pen with similar firmness to the Tombow Fudenosuke Soft. The Twin tip gives more variety to your lettering in terms of colours or shadowing effects with the grey tip.

4. Kuretake No.10 Tegami Fude Letter Pen 

Amazing for writing super small text, it is however dry so you’d need to go slow to avoid streaky strokes if that’s not the look you’re after. The pen is on the more expensive side but buying refills and in many different colours makes up for it! The refills come with actual new tips, so you don’t need to worry about cleaning the brush between colours or ink stains from cartridges.

Which to choose

The most beginner friendly of these in my opinion are the Tombow Fudenosuke Hard and the Pentel Touch Fude. The latter is amazing for more advanced lettering as well, so if you’re more seasoned and want to add to your collection, it’s a must buy. And it comes in different colours!

Ebook Guide

At the end of the series there will be an short ebook guide available for all the subscribers with some information and more comparisons of the brush pens mentioned in the posts. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss it! (There are other freebies for you to grab as well!)

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Have you tried these pens? Which is your favorite, how does it feel to letter with? Let me know in the comments below!