Five Tips for Choosing the Best Calligraphy Pen

Want to create a beautiful artwork? The most important tool that will help you design a beautiful art is a calligraphy pen. It brings out the beauty in anything – artwork design or writing. Sometimes, creating excellent artworks don’t always demand ornate pens.

You also don’t have to be a serious calligrapher to make your writings spectacular. All you need is the right calligraphy pen to help you get the best result. Here are some tips to help you choose the best calligraphy pen:

Style of Pen

A rectangular cartridge-filled pen and traditional dip pens are the two types of calligraphy pens. Traditional dip calligraphy pens are mostly messy. It makes the writing thicker. On the contrary, cartridge-filled pens are user-friendly and ensure a clear writing. However, it has one disadvantage. You cannot pick the nibs and inks of your choice.

Nibs

Two main types of nibs are available namely Flex nibs and Italic nibs. Flex nibs are rounded and consist of two tines. Line variation depends upon the splitting abilities of these tines. The more these tines split, the more is the line width. Apply pressure while writing to separate the tines. By putting less effort, you can create lines with broader widths. Some examples of good Flex nibs are Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin, Speedball, and others. Italic nibs, on the other hand, are rigid. It has blunt edge and calligraphers use it mostly to write in Gothic or Italic styles. Pilot Parallel and Lamy Joy are two Italic nibs that are in much vogue.

Brush Pen

Brush pens are often used to carry out the calligraphy job. For Western calligraphy, they are simply outstanding. Calligraphers who prefer to write in Chinese characters also prefer to buy them. Brushes can have either synthetic or natural hair. The brush pens are mainly recommended for the advanced calligraphers. Take into consideration your experience while choosing the brush pen. Akashia, Pilot Futayaku Double Sided are ruling the calligraphy brush pen industry.

Felt Tip or Marker

Are you a traveling calligrapher? Go for Felt Tip or Marker pens. You can easily pack them. They occupy negligible space. So, you can carry them wherever you want. Unlike fountain pen, they don’t leak. As compared to a dip pen, they can be handled conveniently. Moreover, these pens are affordable. So, even if you have misplaced them, you won’t be a big loser.

Viscose Ink

If you’re using cartridge-filled pens, use the ink the manufacturer has advised. Filling it with the ink of your choice can clog its nib. However, there’s no such problem with dip pens. Instead of common fountain pen inks, use viscose ink. They are at handy in many colors. Some of them even come with glitter chunks. By using them, you can give dimension and texture to the writing.

An added tip: Avoid the normal printing paper. Rather, buy high-quality paper that has better ink holding capacity. If you can’t decide which paper to use, look for fountain pen friendly papers. From any local arts and crafts shop, you will get the pen. But, getting a good pen for calligraphy isn’t enough to do a flawless job. With practice, you can create your own calligraphy style. They will certainly be Pinterest worthy.