Fude for thought

I got new pen last week, it's a Japanese style fude pen, which means it's a simulated calligraphy brush. I've seen similar concepts over here a while ago but they were incredible useless, this on the other hand pretty handy, it utilizes real carbon ink, not aniline dye and it's the ideal solution for no-fuss inking. I've done a couple of tests with it and I can report it a pretty effective tool for line work, it does a get a bit tired if you're inking a large area but that's only to be expected as it's intended for calligraphy. Mine cost about £4 with delivery but in asia the price of this model is usually less than a £1, the ink and the pens are available here, at a suitable inflated price of course. The ink itself is very good, supposedly water resistant and dried incredibly fast on the surface I tested it on, which was typo -detail paper, which is quite absorbent but not the best medium for inking.

It's capable of incredible fine detail and I had to get my strong reading glasses out to give it a proper go, I also found that it modified the fineness of my line as I went along, much finer than I usually use.

Here's a snap of the first test 

A close up

I'm not going to finish this particular drawing it was just a test, the drawing need to be refined a bit before it's inked but I might complete a version with this method later. As you can see with the close up the line is a little broken but that's probably a product of the surface more than the pen, I think on Bristol board it will come out a bit more regular.