Hand Lettering...Which Pens I like best

Hello all!  What's this?  A craft related post.  I can't believe it myself.  I've taken pretty much a hiatus from everything crafty.  We've had a lot going on in our lives the last month.  I've really been enjoying hand lettering lately.  I usually sit at the table in the evenings when Erik and I catch up on our days and write.  It's relaxing for me.  I also set up a tray and night and practice while we watch TV.  Currently, we are watching Sons of Anarchy.  It's really good.

I know I have a TON of practice to do.  I just wanted to share some things I'm using with you guys.  There is a ton of information on the internet.  Tons and it's easy to get overwhelmed.  I've always like handwriting and been interested in all kinds of fonts, etc.  What gave me a good jump start was a class I took from Studio Calico called "Love Your Lettering" by Jasmine Jones.  She gave a lot of really great tips.  She suggested using this pen:

I actually love this pen.  It has a drag to it that I like.  I also like the thicker tip.  I can't decide which pen I like more.  This one or my Sharpie.

I love that the Sharpie is so smooth when it writes.  I also like the fine tip.  I get that this is opposite of what I love about the Papermate.  It's just that I really like them both for different reasons.

As I was getting started on the hand lettering, I was filling in the downstrokes of the letters to make them appear more "Calligraphy" like.  To be honest, it was time consuming so I decided to try my hand with brush pens.  I started with this one.

I got two of them.  One was black and the other was True Blue.  They were good pens and I like the dual tip.  However, I noticed a difference between them.  The black marker was firmer than the colored one.  I heard a lot about the Tombow brush pens.  I decided to try them out.  You can see the pen in my first photo (Hello November).  I love this pen!  Love it!!

This pen is awesome.  It's firmer than the Prisma Colors so it's easier to control.  It doesn't have a strong odor..which sitting for a couple of hours and writing the smell can get to you.  I also really love the thin tip.  I used it in the picture above to write Roald Dahl.  It took a bit to get used to the brush pens, but I like the results far better than drawing the letters and filling in the down strokes.  It is far less time consuming and looks much smoother.

I should mention that I am also writing in a tracing paper pad that I bought at Target. I like that the paper is slippery and the pen slides nicely over it.  It's thin enough too, that I can put a paper with lines underneath as a guide.  I might buy a sketch book eventually, but I'm happy with the tracing paper for now.

Well, I hope this post helps if you are interested in hand lettering.  Have a great day.