Kuretake Bimoji Felt Tip Brush Pen for Manga, Calligraphy & Lettering - Broad Tip (XT4-10S) - Perfect for Comic Art, Hand Lettering & Japanese Writing Practice

This says it's for manga or calligraphy, but that's not quite true. The problem is that while you can vary the line thickness with this pen brush, you cannot do much to change the intensity, it's going to be dark. Calligraphy depends on a uniform darkness, you use different brushes to vary the thickness of the characters. Writing Kanji uses a stroke order and three basic types of strokes, a sweep where the line tapers to a sharp end, a stop where the line comes to an abrupt end, and a bounce where the line sort of check marks again to a sharp end. Calligraphy angles and tilts the brush to accomplish these, each component is a continuous stroke without lifting the brush. This tip does a nice job is practicing your small character writing for Japanese, and maybe Chinese as well.I bought a couple of workbooks, one for Katakana, one for Hiragana, to practice the various Japanese alphabets. I found this worked way better for creating the characters than a normal pen or pencil. It helped me to practice the stroke order and reinforced why a stroke order is used. As for other uses of this pen, you could actually do a fair job of caricatures. Many years ago I worked with a guy who was known as the Phantom, he did fantastic caricatures of people who worked for the power company. Some of these were not flattering to management, besides being good, they were mostly black line, no shading for filling, but made their point. This pen would be ideal for that type of drawing, but things with more detail or shading not so much.Recommended for practicing or writing Chinese or Japanese characters at least in the small size. If you really want to do calligraphy, they use a special paper and much larger brushes for thick bold strokes. Still if you master the smaller versions, the larger sized characters will be easier to do.So I was experimenting for a pen to use with study sessions and classes. I was looking for a pen that has a nice stream of rich black ink where it could be easily read, without it bleeding through the paper, writes smoothly with little resistance/pressure needed, and affordability/ durability. I wasn’t looking for a luxury pen cuz i got enough of those, i wanted something more ergonomic. I found that that felt pens fit my needs most and remembered a few videos of American professors and mathematicians talking about how fantastic the pencils and chalk from Japan is and how they’re superior. So i took their word and that’s how I ended up here! What i have to say is it’s definitely one of the smoothest writing pens with a wonderfully rich black ink that doesn’t bleed and just flows naturally when jotting down notes in a lecture and general studying. The few things Ill have to say is that highlighters don’t pair well with the pen cuz the black ink stain the marker itself, thus darkening the highlights, and it lasted me almost 2 months of intense college courses and studying. It also isn’t quite a practical pen you would carry around in your daily life. However the price of the pen is extremely affordable and when it comes to studying/ note taking, or drawing/ calligraphy, this pen excels above most if not any pen I have ever used!I'm learning to write Chinese and Japanese characters / calligraphy and it was suggested to me that a brush / fude pen would be more convenient than traditional brushes / ink (or even water brushes with a special water pad).Checking out fude / brush pen reviews, it became clear that different pens are designed for different applications. E.g., a brush pen which is great for Manga drawing is not necessarily the best for Chinese / Japanese Characters. And one which was good for European calligraphy is typically not ideal for shading. And so on and so forth. So understand what you want to do with a brush pen and do research before you buy!Also, some brush pens actually used brushes (whether natural or synthetic bristles) as the tip, while others, like this one, uses a felt tip.I found this website very helpful in understanding which pens are good for what: http://www.jetpens.com/blog/guide-to-choosing-a-brush-pen-for-calligraphy/pt/621This Kuretake Bimori Felt Tip Brush is a good pen for Chinese / Japanese character art writing for beginners, as it is easy to control. But since the actual change in line thickness from heavy to light pressure is limited, it is NOT the right brush pen for advanced artistic calligraphy and/or more advanced practitioners of the art of Chinese / Japanese calligraphy.NOTE: Another reviewer pointed out that hers did not leave clean lines. Perhaps the one she received was a bit dried out. The lines left by mine were quite clean, dark and solid. But again: this is a pen probably best for Chinese / Japanese characters rather than European Calligraphy or Manga Drawing. In Chinese / Japanese characters, skipping & streaking is considered part of the art. E.g., properly done, it adds to the beauty of the character.I looked forward to this pen a lot but there was very little ink ☹️ I tried to incorporate it in my art but that was very difficult.this is a good deal for what I'm using it forI received one of these as a gift and loved it so much I ordered more. They're great for sketching with a range of line weight and take marker fairly well, so long as you let them dry for a bit. They're also so inexpensive that I'm not shy about using them to doodle.I only wish this store carried them in "fine" and not just "super fine", as I've found that to be the most versatile size. If you buy different sizes I'd recommend colour-coding them with some tape or something - if you don't read Japanese it'll be easier to distinguish them at a glance.Sign making on an artistic mode..Very nice quality, i knew it was a one-time use only but it feels like it's holding up very nicely. I have been using them since i got them with no change in the ink consistency at all. The lines are perfect and the felt tip is superb. Very nice quality for a one-time throw away! It's saved me countless times as an artist. But i must admit, i usually save them as i can't get my self to throw them out :) But i would recommend when you want something more permanent to move to the next level and get a refillable felt tip brush pen.Brilliant pen, use it in my art journaling. You can use it over paint and other mediums and it's a crisp black, great for outliningNot up to the usual exceptional quality of Kuretake products. I would not purchase again and I think it is too expensive for how little ink comes out of it.Worth the money, a lovely line and durable tip. Tried a few recently, and this is the best.Excellent product & service, ordered three as they were such good value.*****