Here is a link to the Etsy book that I started lettering with! I started lettering about 1 year ago after purchasing this book from Etsy. It comes with the best beginner pens to practice. It shows you multiple ways to write each letter so you can find your own style.

The pen i'm using in this video is the Micron 08. The glitter gel pens are the Pentel Sparkle Pop Gel Pens.

My FAVORITE small brush pen is the Tombow Fudenosuke hard tip.

Looks to me a lot like the Tombow brush pens I like to use for this style of brush calligraphy.

It looks like one of these, and I love these pens!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M71S9DU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Tombow-Fudenosuke-Brush-Pen-Pens/dp/B01M71S9DU

Yes!!!

Sorry it took me a while, I'm italian and I tried to look for the same items in Amazon.com instead of Amazon.it. Here's the complete list (from left to right, and from top to bottom):

• Speedball 2-Ounce India Ink, Super Black (https://www.amazon.com/Speedball-2-Ounce-India-Super-Black/dp/B0007ZJ8TM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1535785514&sr=8-3&keywords=india+ink+black)
  
• Nikko G nibs
  
• Leuchttrum1917 Hardcover Medium Dotted Journal (https://www.amazon.com/Leuchtturm1917-Medium-Size-Hardcover-Notebook/dp/B00FWRVVFE/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1535786131&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=leuchtturm1917%2Ba5%2Bdotted&th=1)
  
• Tombow 62038 Fudenosuke Brush Pen, 2-Pack. Soft and Hard tIp Fudenosuke Brush Pens for Calligraphy and Art Drawings (https://www.amazon.com/Tombow-62038-Fudenosuke-Calligraphy-Drawings/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=sr_1_4?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1535785738&sr=1-4&keywords=tombow+brush+black)
  
• Rhodia A4 dotPad
  
• Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib Holder, Model 40 (T-40) (https://www.amazon.com/Tachikawa-Comic-Holder-Model-T-40/dp/B000UF2774/ref=sr_1_1?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1535786248&sr=1-1&keywords=nib+holder+tachikawa)
  
• Nib + Ink: A Modern Calligraphy Sketchbook (https://www.amazon.com/Nib-Ink-Modern-Calligraphy-Sketchbook/dp/1419724347/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535786354&sr=1-1&keywords=nib+and+ink)
  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  ​

Assuming your microns are the fine liner type and not the brush pens, you should get on the brush pen train!

This one is really nice and popular.

This one is nice too and would be more like what you're used to with the microns, but with a softer tip so you can vary the line weight easily.

I could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure both of these are waterproof. Playing with water soluble ink and a water brush is a lot of fun too and doesn't require much to try out. Something like this (but try to find just one for cheap.. you don't need a bunch) plus random non-waterproof pens you probably have around the house and you're good to go.

I started with these Fudenosuke pens, which are super cheap on Amazon. If you're looking for a wide variety of color, but still a pretty easy-to-use pen, check out these as well. The trick is to find a pen that has a stiffer tip. The softer brush pens are trickier to learn on, but it can be done. I like the black Fudenosuke pens because they are pretty similar, but the blue one has a harder tip and the green one has a bit more give. It should be able to help you transition into using softer brush tips!

I used these tombow brush pens to address my STDs and might do the same for the invitations. They're great pens and for me I picked up how to do the modern calligraphy (brush lettering) pretty quickly.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU

Seconding the Signo. For the black I recommend the Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen. Those are all what I use, pure white on pure black.

I love these but even they may be too thick. Pentel Arts Sign Pen Touch, Fude Brush Tip, 12 Assorted Colors in Marker Stand (SES15CPC12) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EN0HCH6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OTQ4Db4YCE4BH

Ooh! The other one might be the Tombow small brush pen Tombow 62038 Fudenosuke Brush Pen, 2-Pack. Soft and Hard Tip Fudenosuke Brush Pens for Calligraphy and Art Drawings https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_bVQ4Db1ATYN59. This one is probably more likely to give you what you want.

so r/calligraphy is really helpful. YouTube ideas of “brush pen calligraphy” is also really helpful. I recommend buying yourself a nice brush pen or two off Amazon or from Michael’s. The company Tombow makes the most popular ones. You can PM me at any time if you have any questions about what brush pens to buy, but I recommend starting off by buying brush pens, googling “brush pen calligraphy guide” and just getting started practicing! It’s REALLY easy once you train your hand. All it is is a matter of muscle memory teaching your hand when to press the brush pen down for thick lines and how to lighten your grip on the pen as you make upward strokes. The more you look at examples and practice practice practice the easier it’ll get because your muscle memory will retain how to write letters with different levels of pressure.
I can link you to the pen I used in this photo: Tombow 62038 Fudenosuke Brush Pen, 2-Pack. Soft and Hard Tip Fudenosuke Brush Pens for Calligraphy and Art Drawings https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_kSEKBbVJSVZD5

Only $5 so very affordable for 2 of them. They’re both the same pen but one of them has a more stiff brush tip and one has a more soft brush tip, so you can play around with both and see what works best for you.

Ask r/calligraphy for tips and post your work there to get some constructive criticism to keep improving! If you go to my post history you can see that I once had some pretty shaky calligraphy. But that was back in March. In only a few months, I’ve improved a lot. It’s a pretty easy hobby to pick up and comes in handy to make any letter, or notes, or sign, come out gorgeous :)

Good luck! PM me if you have any more questions. Please don’t hesitate to. It’s reddit that got me into r/bulletjournal which in turn lead me to calligraphy so I want to pass on the favor to other redditors as well. Reddit has introduced me to so many cool hobbies! I’d love to do the same to other people who are curious.

I think its probably the pen you're using. A lot of them have what's called archival ink, so once it dries on the paper (like 2 seconds) nothing else is gonna wash them away.

Micron Pens are really great.

These are my favorite right now:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M71S9DU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For the lettering I used the this tombow brush pen (soft tip), and stabilo fineliners for the flowers!

Edit: I haven’t posted much on reddit so forgive my formatting! ><

Brush pens are difficult, I didn't intend for you to learn to draw with one, I apologize.
Peter Han is the original creator and instructor of the "Dynamic Sketching" class that is popular for many artists learning today. The creator of Drawabox.com, "Uncomfortable", studied under Han and created the curriculum of Drawabox to be based on Peter Han's instruction, but more simplified and rigid for brand-new students. Both Han and Uncomfortable urge students to learn in pen.
It builds line confidence ,and urges you to think before placing something down. As you build line confidence and critical visualization, you rely less on the guess-work of pencil drawing, and digital-with-undo.
So, better to start off that way and force your brain to catch up, I think.

As for pens, I've been enjoying Tombow hybrid brush pens.
https://www.amazon.com/Tombow-62038-Fudenosuke-Calligraphy-Drawings/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=tombow+brush+pens&qid=1570844600&sr=8-5
They're not actual brushes, more like miniature marker pens. They create very fine lines, like a fineliner, but when you press more firmly you can get some shape to your stroke.

Otherwise, Pigma Micron 08's and Faber Castell .05's are both good and recommended often. Drawabox even sells sets of its own personally recommended pens.

If you want to browse recommendations, check out Jake Parker's blog page, the creator of Inktober:
https://www.mrjakeparker.com/tools

I love Jake Parker, he has such a great temperament. He founded SVSLearn.com with some other great children's book artists, and they have a lot of good instruction.

I'm personally working through the curriculum that I created. I've done Proko's Figure Drawing course, Drawabox up until Lesson 7, and Marco Bucci's "Understanding and Painting the Head".
Now that I've created the curriculum, I will be going through Drawabox again but paying for critique to make sure that I have the best evaluation of my skillset before moving on to more difficult things.


And to answer your original question again, I don't think either medium would hamper your growth. Digital allwos some nice conveniences, like laying down perspective lines really quickly and being able to try out painting without a mess.
But physical is still just as valid, and I still prefer going physical. Dynamic sketching at the zoo with some pens and markers is tons of fun, and I do think it requires the most thoughtful process.

Does she like to do paintings, pen drawings, hand-lettering, markers, tape, collage, or just a vanilla bujo, etc? There are sooo many ways to do a bujo so it's hard to recommend something general that she'll like but doesn't have yet haha. I'm going to assume she either likes to do hand-lettering or marker drawings since she was trying a Tombow blender.

If she mostly writes or does ink drawings - Copic or Micron multiliners in different sizes. The Pentel Pocket Brush is also very good for getting interesting lines down on line art or to combine with watercolor painting, but I don't recommend it as a hand-lettering pen.

Do you know what kind of pen she usually does her normal writing in? A lot of bujo-ers have kind of a favorite brand of cheap-ish pen that they like to use (Muji being one of the more popular ones). If you do, you could get her a fresh package.

If she likes to use markers - well, Tombows are pretty much the de facto bujo marker, even if the blender isn't too good. If she already has some, you could maybe take a peek at her collection and see if there are any colors she doesn't have but might like. For coloring, I also like Brushables markers because they're very pastel/soft, and Zebra Mildliners for highlighting stuff.

If she likes doing paintings and pasting them into her journal, you could get her some watercolor paper.

If she likes using decorative tape, you can find the washi tape aisle at Michaels and pick out some stuff.......but honestly it's way cheaper on Amazon. You can also try looking for flake stickers on Etsy, there are SO many options there, too!

If she likes hand-lettering, my favorite brush pen is the fudenosuke.

She may also like some small rubber stamps (for dates or tiny decorative details like floral wreathes), or stencils (especially for dates or circles).

My absolute most favorite pen to just write with day to day is a Lamy Safari fountain pen, if she's interested in that kind of thing (although that's a very expensive path to go down lol).

The one item that I would be willing to get for pretty much any bujo-er, without knowing their current collection of supplies or what they like to do, would be the fudenosuke pen (they sell it at Michaels, too). They're not refillable, so even if she already has this pen she'll likely need a replacement before too long.

They usually come in a pack of both if you get them from an art supply store. I’m sure they have the two pack on amazon. The hard tips just have a stiffer tip for finer control. It’s a lot easier for me to get consistent line width with the hard tips compared to the soft ones.

You can draw with anything my dude. The world is your oyster.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_D2EXBbWCHPNAY

I felt the same when I first started. I'm still not the best but with lots of practice, Ive learned to love it! I haven't quite perfected using the Tombow Duel brush pens but I really like using just the Tombow pens with a hard or soft tip! You can find there here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_35HDzbY161A1C hope this helps :)

Of course! In this video I mostly used my tombow brush pen hard tip, here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/Tombow-62038-Fudenosuke-Calligraphy-Drawings/dp/B01M71S9DU

And the yellow one is just a tombow brush pen, but I think you are familiar with that one.

I like these. There's one firm and one softer one. And they're not expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_yKQvDbVVE0WPM

Tonbow Fudenosuke Pens

Thank you. The first one is with a Sharpie brush pen.

Everything else is Tombow Fudenosuke soft and hard tips

Here's some basic things for both calligraphy and hand lettering brushpens and speedball both will work fine for entry level stuffs also some LaserJet paper usually works well.

It's really good I actually recommend a pen for you to use for inking, it's actually considered a calligraphy pen but it's the TomBow brush tip set, one is softer than the other but still firm enough to make really thin strokes or broad strokes here's a link below but these are cheap and perfect for illustration and lettering, archival ink, lettering styles and composition, these are all things you have to be interested in to get further in being a comic book artist. I've had similar aspirations pm me if you got any questions I might be able to help.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_fmB-BbWGZMN8Z.

Tombow Dual Brush is great ‘large brush’ for beginners. I would say first do lots of practice with small brush pens and then move to ink and nibs. Tombow Fudenosuke ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2pv3AbQ543M8T ) or Pentel Sign Pen ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EN0HCH6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_qGOz3EhHHfH49 ) are great small pen options. And when you feel ready for upgrade, hunt 513 nib and sumi black ink would be great.
Nibs - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BYT4DE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rtv3AbPZNAD77
Pen Holder - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BYU1BI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Utv3AbJBGTJV4
Sumi Ink - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AMLR8M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.tv3AbBVQG8T2
Hope this will be helpful!

Thank you for that suggestion. I’ll have to look for those.

Sorry the Fudenosuke are made by Tombow not Pentel. This is the two pen set of one hard one soft. The soft is very similar to this is what I have from Pentel IMO. The hard is not quite as hard as Cocoiro but close. It’s also a fine point compared to Cocoiro’s extra fine. I love Cocoiros too tho!

I just bought some Artline Stix. They’re a little more firm than Tombow dual brush but I manage to mash those too. Starting to think I need to try nibs instead lol.

I don't know if you still need recommendations, but I strongly recommend the Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens! This set has both firm and soft tips, and it dries quicky so that it doesn't smear.

https://www.amazon.ca/Tombow-Fudenosuke-Brush-Pen-Pens/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=63862077591&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvo_qBRDQARIsAE-bsH8NwedJjp8kqnDtZ0AuwVExGyUSHyQDVpYWw__B_pdQ6D4MVOCgQ7MaAikOEALw_wcB&hvadid=310036908416&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9001295&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=3939099740844915557&hvtargid=kwd-68268628&hydadcr=12188_10123350&keywords=brush+pen&qid=1564769312&s=gateway&sr=8-3

I’ve been practicing for a few months. Appreciate the comment!

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen 2 Pens Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M71S9DU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_w14hAbPZVA0ND

And white pentel gel pen.

Happy stroking ! 😉 (always thin up and thick down)