As treasured as the traditional calligraphy tools are, there’s a beautiful convenience to brush pen calligraphy. All of the different sizes, gorgeous colors and brands make brush lettering feel like visiting a visual candy shop.
A brush pen is a marker with a flexible tip that is used in modern calligraphy. The tip can be short or long, and can vary in flexibility. As long as the tip is flexible enough to produce both thin and thick strokes, it’s suitable for brush pen calligraphy.
Brush pen calligraphy is perfect for anyone who wants to be creative and spontaneous without spending a lot of time on getting ready, or (even better!) cleaning up after you’re done.
In this beginner guide, we’ll guide you through all the basics:
Want to jump right in with our alphabet worksheet? Enter your details below.
Want to jump right in with our alphabet worksheet? Enter your details below 💕
Brush pen lettering is a form of modern calligraphy written with a brush pen. The flexible marker tip allows calligraphers to create thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes through changes in pen pressure. It’s often referred to as brush lettering, brush pen lettering, brush pen calligraphy. These terms all broadly refer to the same writing style.
Brush pen lettering is different from traditional calligraphy styles because of the ink stored in the pen, unlike a pointed pen which needs dipped in an inkwell.
It’s considered one of the most beginner-friendly calligraphy styles because the pens are similar to craft markers (like Crayolas); they don’t require liquid ink and they’re available at most craft stores.
The brush lettering alphabet can take different forms, ranging from basic to highly stylized (flourished, bounced, expanded, etc.). Here are several examples of the brush lettering alphabet:
→ See more alphabets in our calligraphy alphabet round-up.
Each brush letter is written using a combination of the basic calligraphy strokes. Swipe through the carousel below to see how each letter is written, plus common mistakes.
→ Get a letter-by-letter breakdown in our brush letters guide.
In addition to our free alphabet worksheet, you can download our basic strokes guide sheets to start writing letters on your own.
→ Browse our full worksheet library!
The fastest way to learn brush lettering with in our Calligraphy Together membership. Members have access to 20+ lettering courses, with two entire courses dedicated to brush lettering for beginners (covering both small tip and large tip brush pens).
In addition to the courses, students get ongoing support from the community. Share your work, attend live events or join the conversations already happening in the community.
You know those beautiful works of brush lettering art on Instagram and Pinterest? Whoever made them started at zero and practiced. So congratulations are in order: you’re taking your first steps down the same road!
If this is your first time learning calligraphy, we highly recommend going easy on yourself. Put time aside to practice every day and expect the process to be a slow build-up of skill, rather than a flashy “before and after.”
Let’s take a moment to go over a few important things that will make or break your efforts.
When you start learning calligraphy, we highly recommend starting with one of the large tip brush pens.
Brush pens come with a bit of a learning curve. While small or medium brush pens can make gorgeous calligraphy, the small tip is difficult to control at first.
At first, practicing calligraphy is learning how to use a brush pen. With a larger brush pen, it becomes a lot easier to spot any beginner mistakes that might occur.
The initial part of learning calligraphy has to do with building muscle memory. So, you’d better make sure that you’re practicing the right movements!
A practice sheet helps with getting your brush letters consistent. Each letter needs to be of identical height, slant, and every shaded part needs to be equally thick.
Keep in mind that using a worksheet isn’t cheating. Despite what you may see on Pinterest, even the pros still use them! Hold your brush pen the right way and get ready to write.
When you’re writing normally, every line you create has the same thickness. The most common writing utensil is a ballpoint pen that’s been designed to facilitate fast and smooth writing, creating these even strokes.
However, an essential part of calligraphy is using both thick and thin lines in your lettering.
By applying pressure on the pen, you create elegant contrast within your letters. Since a brush pen is a pressure-sensitive writing utensil, it can be used for calligraphy.
Rather than practicing letters, your lettering starts with the fundamentals, AKA the basic strokes that make up each letter.
Using the 8 basic strokes, you’re able to create every letter in the lowercase alphabet. The trick to achieving beautiful words is to build up the muscle memory on the basic strokes first.
Use our brush lettering worksheets to learn these. Our free practice sheets will walk you through the fundamental strokes based on the size of your brush pen’s tip:
Be sure to print these on smooth paper, otherwise you risk damaging your marker tip.
Keep in mind that 10-15 minutes of daily practice will get you much better results than one 2-hour session once a week.
Once you have the basics down, you’re ready to practice the modern calligraphy alphabet. As you go, routinely assess your letters critically to find any details that need improving.
We have written a free guide on the letters of the alphabet, starting with the lowercase letters. We have learned that dividing letters into groups makes practicing easier. Instead of focusing on the whole alphabet, isolate a set of strokes and practice the letters that contain them.
Besides being beginner-friendly, there are several characteristics that make brush pens the popular tools that they are today:
| Budget-friendly | Most brush pens cost less than $5. On Marker Supply, the most you can spend on a single brush pen is $50+, though an investment on that level isn’t necessary. With the right paper (to print our free worksheets!), you don’t need more tools to get started. |
| Easy to use | There’s a slight curve when it comes to learning how to use brush pens but it’s a very approachable form of calligraphy. |
| Quick and simple | You don’t need to budget time to prepare, let your work dry or clean up. |
| Variety | When you go into the store to buy brush pens, you’re presented with a large variety of all shapes, sizes, colors and special characteristics (more on this in a minute). |
| Versatility | Although a brush pen is a modern tool, you can still work on traditional calligraphy techniques. Using a brush pen involves mastering different levels of pressure to create your wide and fine lines which is a skill that transfers really well if you want to try pointed pen calligraphy next. |
| Portability | No need for piles of tools or worries about liquid inks! Just throw a few brush pens into your bag with some smooth paper and you’re ready to practice anywhere. |
The creative range of brush pens is thrilling, and this is personified even further by the special effects some pens offer.
Although brush pens quickly become easy to use, they come with an initial learning curve. After all, you don’t build up muscle memory in a day, but you’ll see yourself improve every time that you practice.
Over the years, we’ve helped thousands of students learn calligraphy from scratch, so we can already guess what challenges you’ll encounter as you’re learning brush calligraphy.
We’re going to walk through the common speed bumps, but if you have other questions along your learning journey, check out our lettering community! In Calligraphy Together, we learn, practice and share our work together with other lettering enthusiasts.
Learning together and seeing each other’s successes is so energizing!
Brush pens are incredibly fun to work with and many of the beginner problems look a lot more intimidating than they really are. Let’s look at a few of the most common obstacles and how our students normally overcome them.
Creating different-sized lines through pressure control is essential in all calligraphy but it’s also one of the most difficult skills to learn for beginners.
Mastering pressure control has everything to do with muscle memory, which is something that you build up over time.
Pro tip: you’ll develop muscle memory more quickly by practicing a little bit every day, versus practicing just once a week.
As you’re practicing:
Although a brush pen looks like a pen and feels like a pen, you actually need to hold it differently than a normal pen to avoid damaging the tip.
There are two things that are important for using a brush pen:
Applying extra pressure to get those thick lines doesn’t work when your pen is in an upright position; this results in damage to the marker tip.
It’s best to keep your pen at a roughly 45-degree angle.
Once you have the basics of modern calligraphy down, a large part of the fun is developing your own style of calligraphy.
Brush pen lettering is a great tool to help you do this since they can do some pretty cool stuff!
Learning how to blend colors together is a useful skill that allows you to add highlights, shadows or subtle color variations to make your work truly stand out.
To achieve this effect, you need 2 markers of different colors and a colorless blender brush pen. You can either choose to blend vertically or horizontally.
For horizontal blending, start by choosing 2 different colors that work well together. For vertical blending, try choosing 2 shades of the same color.
Important note: blending works with water-based inks. See what type of ink your brush pen has by reading on along the side of the pen.
Brush pen blending is mesmerizing
Achieving a watercolor effect with your brush pens is surprisingly simple and gives you stunning results! All you need are a few water-based brush pens, a plastic bag and some water.
There’s a lot more you can do with this and we encourage you to check out our entire watercolor brush pen tutorial for a more in-depth guide on this amazing hack.
Take your blending skills to the next level and turn your brush letters into ribbon lettering. Although this is a more intermediate style, but the end results are so worth it!
The success of creating beautiful ribbon letters rests on blending as well as overall calligraphy ability.
Keep in mind that there are two areas that need to be darkened. The first is any part of a letter where the ribbon seems to be behind itself, the second are all the parts that are close to a fold in the ribbon.
For the best results, imagine that the thick strokes are in the front and the thin strokes are in the back.
Pro tip: Sometimes, defining the edges of the thick strokes can be tricky. Using an actual ribbon such as a belt or tie is a great way to better visualize where to draw your lines.
With even just a little shadow, you provide a cool 3D effect that makes your brush lettering jump off the page!
Here’s a tutorial on day 2 of our Brush Pen Crash Course. Fast forward to 44:30 to jump right into shadows.
Get a gray brush pen and trace the sides of the letters to make it look like they’re floating in hovering above the page. This super easy trick works with any word you write but we especially love the way it looks when combined with ribbon letters.
Are ideas flying through your head?? It’s time to let you loose on the page!
There are many ways to create shadow lettering. Check out our shadow lettering tutorial for more tips and tricks!
Why is one pen better than the next? With so many different pens on the market, choosing the “right” pen can feel overwhelming. Once you’re ready to move beyond the beginner pen recommendations, it’s important to know what questions to ask and which characteristics to pay attention to.
Choosing your brush pens generally comes down to what style of lettering you want to try. Like all markers, brush pens come in different shapes, colors and even tip sizes and materials. Some are filled with sparkling metallic ink, some are filled with blendable water-based ink; there are endless options.
If you want to skip the research curve to get practicing immediately, then our pre-made supply kit is for you. You can choose blues and greens (Jordan’s collection) or pinks and purples (Jillian’s collection).
Let’s look at a few defining characteristics of brush pens so you can be sure that the next pen you buy is right for you!
There are two main types of brush tips: felt tips and bristle tips. A brush tip made up of bristles is practically a normal brush, whereas a brush pen with a felt tip is more like a marker.
Although it seems like an insignificant difference, each tip type creates different lines:
Bristles create lines that look like they were made with an actual brush with fine hairs. This means that a bristle tip is a little bit harder to control, as the individual bristles can separate and create a frayed look.
A brush with a felt tip is one solid unit, which makes it firmer and easier to control. Felt tip brush pens are much more popularly used compared to bristle tips.
Springiness, or flexibility, is an indication of how flexible a brush tip is and it comes in a spectrum.
A firm brush tip requires significant pressure to create thicker lines whereas soft, fully flexible tips create thick lines with much less pressure.
Flexible brush tips require more control to create contrast between strokes and are generally more difficult to get thin strokes for beginners.
Tip flexibility quick reference:
Brush pens come with two different types of ink: water-based and pigment-based. While they might look similar when you write with them, they each have their different uses.
We’ve already looked at some of the creative things you can do with water-based ink. Blending colors and creating colorful backgrounds is useful, but water-based ink also has a shorter life span.
Both sunlight and time affect water-based ink, causing the colors to fade over time.
If you intend to create something with more longevity, choose pigment inks and make sure you also choose the right paper that will lock in the color over time.
Ink type quick reference:
When talking about the size of a brush pen, we’re really referring to the size of the tip. The size of the marker body (what you hold as you write) doesn’t influence the size of your writing.
A brush pen’s size all comes down to the brush tip. Bags pictured here are from our brush pen collection
Big pen tips make big lines and therefore require paper with guidelines big enough for those big letters.
Also, keep in mind that the tips on bigger pens tend to be more flexible than those on smaller pens.
Brush pen size quick reference:
Many brush pens are what’s known as dual brush pens and come with a tip on each end
Sometimes the tips are of different sizes, different colors or even a combination of a brush pen and a normal pen.
In a minute we’ll share what we consider to be the best brush pens for calligraphy beginners. We’re going to walk you through the best beginner choices, but for a super deep dive, we highly recommend downloading our free supply guide.
For beginners, we recommend starting with a larger brush tip. While the increased flexibility makes these brush pens a little bit harder to control initially, it helps you learn faster in the long run. Plus, it’s a lot easier to go from writing with big brush pens to small brush pens than the other way around.
With a big brush pen comes bigger letters which means that you can look at your letters as if through a magnifying glass. It’s so much easier to spot and correct any mistakes!
And finally, drumroll… onto the brush pens for beginners recommendations!
The Tombow Dual Brush Pen is a favorite brush pen among calligraphers. It’s an affordable pen that’s a good choice for beginners and professionals alike.
This Tombow is a dual brush pen, which means that it has 2 different tips to write with. Since it has both a brush tip and a bullet tip, this pen is extremely versatile.
What makes the Tombow a favorite brush pen:
Learn even more in our Tombow Dual video review:
Tip: the Tombow Dual Brush Pen has a reputation for fraying more easily than other brushes, so remember to use smooth paper. Keep in mind that even if the paper feels smooth, it might be too rough for your brush pen tip.
You may also like: How To Involve Kids In Calligraphy
Like the Tombow, the Zig Brushables brand of dual brush pens is on the larger end, however the tips are less flexible. We wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s firm, but it’s less flexible than the Tombow.
What we love about the Zig Brushables:
Zig Brushables are a little bit pricier than the Tombows, but at less than $4 per pen, it’s still generally affordable.
Our video review goes even deeper:
Here we have one of the cheapest brush pens on the market! The Zig Fudebiyori is a pen that’s a little smaller than the Brushables or the Tombow.
The brush tip is medium size and is less flexible when compared to the previous brush tips, which can make it easier to control if you’re heavy-handed.
What we love about the Zig Fudebiyori:
Learn even more in our video review:
The smallest pen for today, the Pentel Sign Brush Pen, is a neat little brush pen capable of writing elegant letters on a smaller scale.
The Pentels come with a tip that feels firm and can create beautiful contrast between thick and thins.
Qualities to consider about the Pentel Sign:
Pro tip: the Pentel Sign comes in two varieties, a brush pen and a regular pen. Make sure you get the brush pen! Check for the words “flexible” or “fude”.
Watch the video review here:
A perfect resource for mastering your Pentel Sign Brush (or any small brush pen) is our Beginner Calligraphy Workbook.
This step-by-step workbook will help you learn brush lettering in just 15 minutes a day:
Compared to some of the other larger brush pens, this looks like a small brush pen, but don’t judge a pen by the size of its marker body. The Marvy Color-In isn’t as well-known as say, the Tombow, but this pen will surprise you!
When you take the cap off, you’ll notice that the tip isn’t small after all, and do a few practice strokes and you’ll be shocked at how big this marker writes.
Despite having the stature of a small pen, the Marvy Color-in packs a big punch.
Here’s what we love:
Learn even more in our video review:
Calligraphy is very different from normal handwriting and other writing styles:
Brush pen lettering is popular not only because of its beauty, but also because of its simplicity, ease and accessibility.
Brush pens are an amazing writing tool that makes calligraphy more fun, colorful and accessible.
With these recommendations on the best brush pens for beginners, free worksheets and tips, you can start learning and practicing right away!
We hope you’ll make yourself at home here at Loveleigh Loops, and use our blog and YouTube channel as your personal lettering library.
If you want to share your progress, ask questions and meet new hand lettering friends, join our Calligraphy Together membership today. We would love to see you in there and celebrate your success!
Additional reading:
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