My Dip Pen (Part-1)

Why draw at the traditional way in Digital age?
When I purchased my 1st wacom tablet 3 years ago, did drew some painting in photoshop. Really love digital painting...but somehow drawing on wacom always feels slightly wrong. I just couldn't get the strokes I want. So I did some researched, many digital painting books suggest user to practice on dip pen(nib pen, つけペン), as a way to improve the drawing strokes.

Why Dip Pen?... Sounds very interesting to me...dip pen already exist for 200 years (since 1803) But people still love to use it. It must have something magical we don't know untill we try it.

So I started to play with the dip pen. Another reason why I use dip pen is because I'm drawing Japanese Manga. Dip pen is the basic tools for drawing Manga.

Share my experience

When I started to use the dip pen 3 years ago, I've had a bunch of troubles. Hurted my finger many times during nib installation, and even broken many pen holders. Really got no idea on how to install the nib to the pen holder, and don't even know new nib need to remove the protective oil before use.

So I would like to share my experience. Although those are simple things, but I hope this blog might be helpful to those who have same problems as I did.

(1)Nib (ペン先, Japanese manga nibs )

I mainly use 3 kinds of nibs. G & Maru & Saji

G-pen nib (Gペン)
[ZEBRA G pen]
The most popular of the Japanese nibs. Good for thick lines. I use it for drawing the main lines. Eg, body lines.

Saji nib (スプーンペン、たまペン、さじペン)
[NIKKO No357]
"Saji" means "spoon" in Japanese. Good for drawing stable lines.
I use it for long flowing lines, long hair lines, folds of clothes.




Maru nib (丸ペン)
[ZEBRA No2593 type E] & [ZEBRA No2586 type A]

A smaller tube nib, similar to the crow quill nib."Maru" means "circle" or "round" in Japanese.

I use it for fine detailing. The nib is very flexible, best for "effect" lines such as a flash line. Also good for drawing detail back ground , detail hair , animal fure, background hatching.



Next time I'll talk about Penholder (ペン軸) and Installation.

Please visite my web site to see my drawings.
http://www.jamjamcat.com/