n i j o m u

My first post about nibs keeps attracting comments, so I thought I’d post about my four favorite nibs at the present time: the Hunt 100, the Gillott 303, the Brause 66ef, and the Brause 511. What I am always curious to see when I do internet searches about nibs is how they draw, what kind of lines they make. So I thought I’d focus on that. I’ve shown a bit of this in a previous post, but I haven’t done it for the Brause 511 even though I’ve mentioned it before.

Hunt 100

The Hunt 100 used to be my favorite nib. It’s called the “artist nib” and it’s incredibly smooth and flexible. The flexibility has a drawback; the nib doesn’t last too long.

It’s also not a very good nib for hatching. If you look at the example to above, you can see that I had trouble keeping the hatch lines at a similar width. This may be a personal failing, but I don’t have as much trouble with this when I use other nibs. So I think the Hunt 100 is best for contour drawing and not for consistent tonal work. I’d suggest using it when you want a really expressive line in a straight contour drawing.

Gillott 303

The Gillott 303 is a great sketching nib. It’s very strong and yet also offers a lot of variability. Though it may not look like it has the finest point, I’ve found that it produces a finer line that smaller Gillott nibs, such as the 1950. And it’s not as scratchy as the Gillott 170.

As you can see, it’s not as fine as the Hunt 100, but the nib is a workhorse. And, as you can also see, it is capable of offering a nice range of line variability. There is a tendency for the 303 to lose the ink flow when it’s pressed too hard. This problem can be reduced by properly treating the nib, say soaking it in vinegar, and by making sure you dip it deep enough into your ink well.

Brause 66ef

I’ve been using this nib for Carnivale. This is a really nice nib. It’s probably one of the easiest to use finer point nibs I’ve ever seen. And doesn’t it look cool? It has a very springy feel, but it delivers a very stable line. One nice thing I’ve noticed about all the Brause nibs is that the ink flow is very consistent, no matter how hard you press the nibs (as opposed to what I said about the Gillott 303 above). Some sites about nibs refer to this as “consistent ink capacity.”

As you can see, the Brause 66ef offers very flowing lines. Also, the swell of the line is very consistent. What I mean by this is that as you change the pressure on the nib, the resulting line varies at an even rate. Compare the last line in the example above with the similar line in the Hunt 100 example. As you can see with the Hunt 100, as you release the pressure there is a sharp reduction in line width. The resulting line looks like a sharp slope. Conversely, the Brause 66ef widens and thins at a consistent rate. So if you want control, this nib offers much more of it than the previous nibs.

Brause 511

This is my new favorite nib. All the recent sketches posted here were done with this nib. It’s finer than the 66ef, but it’s not scratchy, which the Brause 513 is.

When I first used this nib, I thought it was too stiff. Yet that was before I understood that with a bit of pressure, the nib actually offered a lot of variability. So it’s not as immediately responsive as the Hunt 100, but it’s a more solid nib and it lasts longer. It also offers much more line consistency. Compare the hatch marks here with the ones done with the Hunt 100. The other advantage to this nib is that it works well on different surfaces. Recently, I’ve been using it over gouache, which is not possible with the Hunt 100.

• • Comments [4]
  • Categories [art supplies, drawing, painting, nibs]