#going though all my inboxes now and. eeheh ive got srt to draw now...

[venomgaia]

A mutual acquaintance wants to try getting one of those fancy pens, got any suggestions for newcomers?

Absolutely!

Despite me always pining for the super pricy fancy pens, some of the best pens you can own imo are less than $20 USD off the bat, and while the "nicer" ones out there are. over that price, you don't really need that to get a really good first experience. I'll offer some super easy pens, some more intermediate pens, and some inks! This is going to be a long ride, so buckle up!

If you don't know where to start and are intimidated by bottled ink and instead want a pen that can write right away, I recommend the Pilot Varsity! You can get them at Michaels here in the US, and theyre slowly becoming more popular in retail shops like Walmart.

Classic steel nib, not much flex because it's steel, but it writes pretty sturdily. I really like that it comes in different colors. They're disposable, so if you don't like them then you dont gotta keep 'em, and if you bust the nib by accident (we all have at least once), you aren't going to have to sell a kidney to replace it like you might need to with pricier pens.

If you want a pen you can put ink cartridges into, or just want a good workhorse of a pen, i HIGHLY recommend the Platinum Preppy. The one I own was $14 USD and came with a cartridge of water soluble black ink. For $4 USD, I got 4 cartridges of Platinum's Carbon Black ink, which is waterproof and smooth! Very versatile!

I REALLY like this one. Ive never had the ink dry out even when i had tucked away for like a month, and if you ever want to use it with bottled ink, you can get a Platinum converter and use whatever fountain pen safe ink you dream of :] This pen only comes in F as far as I know (which is a western EF), but the chinese market has a version called the Platinum Meteor that comes in EF and has a cute shooting star on the nib :] Back when I started writing this I had lost mine for like a month but just found it and it wrote just fine the second i opened it up. The only thing I DISLIKE is that the converter cartridges are sold separately and you HAVE to buy platinum brand for this pen. I already have two bc of my other platinum pens, but. Yanno. Its still annoying to HAVE to do that.

Similarly, the Kaküno is fantastic! all the above statements, but it has the added benefit of having a cute face on the nib as well as some cute collabs sometimes :] They're also about $14-$16 USD. They take Pilot cartridges in various colors, which are $3-$4 USD and Pilot converters.

I highly recommend the platinum preppy for the full fountain pen experience! It's not mega-expensive as pens go, so if you dont like it you havent sunk hundreds of dollars into a tool.

Lamy is having quality control issues that no one seems to want to contest because of their popularity, and the recent "no bro its totally the same color as the old popular one trust me" ink fiasco. TWSBI is another brand thats normally recommended and while theyre good pens, theyre shitheads as a company and like to use their muscle to bully both retailers and also smaller pen companies. I dont recommend either brand right now.

NOW, ONTO INK AND PAPER:

Your nib, paper, and ink are pretty important. fountain pens dont like rough paper, but they handle it better the larger they are (M, B). Dry inks will not always play nice in fine pens (Ef, F), and an EF pen will eat the shit out of rough paper and can get clogged. If you can get your hands on Rhodia paper to practice, good! If not most sketchbooks will tolerate F pens in my experience. Stillman and Birn are my workhorse sketchbooks and the pens work fine in all of their paper styles, but Hobby Lobby's sketchbooks also handle it well, as do BLICK's colorful leather sketchbooks. Don't Buy Moleskine. If you want to get really good ink effects (ie, you bought an ink with glitter or it has some cool effect like sheening or shading), tomoe river paper is hailed as the gold standard, but you can get similar effects on Rhodia or Clairfontaine paper, which afaik is easier to get ahold of overseas (cant speak for other countries on the US continent, but I will say I saw more clairfontaine in france than here on the us).

NOW FOR INK. my favorite part :] :

For both Waterproof and Black ink, i recommend Platinum's Carbon Black. I think it's pigment-based, unlike most dye-based inks, so it can be tough to clean out of your pen if it dries, but its noting a lil soap and water cant fix :3 It's benefit is that it comes in cartridges usable with platinum pens, so you dont need a whole bottle if you dont want one.

For color inks, I really like Pilot's Iroshizuku line. It is a WET ink and is not waterproof, but they come in cool bottles and pretty colors. I own Ajisai, Shinkai, and samples of Momiji, Murasaki Shikibu, Chikurin, Kosumosu, and Asagao. I use them both to sketch AND to color things and write. My workhorse non-waterproof color, the one i draw most in, is the Sailor Studio 343, but the sailor manyo line is also great! If you like and/or miss scented inks, De Atramentis has a line of them!

Be careful with inks that have glitter. I own the J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor and its glorious but if you leave it in your pen...thousands soaks hell attack. That being said if it would entice you, treat yourself to a fun and shiny ink! I have Colorverse Scorpii Glistening and its really pretty! Diamine has an excellent range that are easier on your pen but I dont have experience with them ngl.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD YOU BUY ANYTHING FROM NOODLERS. aside from having a shithead of a company leader, their inks are actually pretty volatile and can blow up both vintage and modern pens and im speaking from experience even though I used to use their eel bulletproof black and a waterproof blue one. I ended up using the blue ink to dye a cu chulainn wig darker for a wip alter cu cosplay. the last ink i bought, Tchaikovsky, also had a strange and suspicious stank about it.

Buying inks in bottles can be super expensive, but Goulet Pens sells 2ml samples that you can buy a shitload of and try them all out! I try to get new samples on the rare occasion when i need a new bottle of my favorites :> I'll probably buy a full bottle of Sailor Nekoyanagi, Pilot Iroshizuku Chikurin, or Diamine Writer's Blood next.

I hope this helps! I had to edit it a few times over the course of the past few weeks bc i went on an entire tangent about bootleg pens I like and uh. realized thats both overly complicated for the base question/bootleg pens tend to need tweaking to work nice. that being said, i'll say it quickly: buying lil nibs from aliexpress has actually worked pretty well for me n my tswbi knockoff (lanbitou 3059) has a fude nib i got that's bent to allow brushlike strokes! but I donmt recommend it for a first pen bc it required some grease and a nib tweak upon purchase and dries p easily bc of the cap.