Eight brush pens carrying the ink Sakura built their name on. Pigma is the archival line, invented and patented in 1982, and it is the reason a Sakura pen is the default recommendation for anything that has to still look right in twenty years. This is that ink in a flexible brush tip and in colour, which is a much rarer thing than black.

Perfect for

Brush letteringIllustrationUrban sketchingComics and mangaJournalingArchival work

The eight colours

Approximate colour reference only, screen calibration will change how these read.

Worth knowing if you are collecting them: Sakura make Pigma Brush in nine colours. Sepia is the one that is not in this set, so if you already own a Sepia you now have the complete range.

What a flexible tip actually gives you

There is no nib size on this pen, and that is the point. Sakura describe the tip as a flexible brush that responds to instant changes in pressure or direction. Barely touch the paper and you get a hairline. Press down and drag it sideways and you get a stroke several millimetres across. The width lives in your hand, not in the pen.

That is the difference between this and a Pigma Micron. A Micron has a rigid tube nib that draws exactly one width however hard you lean on it, which is what makes it the technical pen. Most people who draw seriously end up owning both, because a Micron does the linework and a brush does the weight, the shadow and the energy.

What you are actually getting

Getting the most out of them

Ink first, then water. Pigma is waterproof once it has cured, so you can lay a watercolour or an alcohol marker wash straight over the top without dragging the line into the paper. Give it a couple of minutes longer than feels necessary, because a brush stroke carries far more ink than a fineliner does and a thick stroke is still wet underneath when the surface looks dry.

For lettering, keep the pen at a consistent angle and let the pressure do the work. Heavy on the down, light on the up. The colours are also worth using as a set rather than singly. Brown and Sepia tones for the drawing with Black reserved for the darkest accents reads far better than black alone, and it is a trick illustrators have used since long before these existed.

Questions about the Pigma Brush set