In the last nibs post, I mentioned that I might try to get the Esterbrook 356 off of eBay. Well I did.
Ten Esterbrook 356 nibs arrived in the mail today. I was getting ready to go to work and had drunk too much coffee when I opened the package, but I wanted to see how the Esterbrook 356 compared to the other nibs I had. So while the lines below are a bit shaky, they give you an idea of the different qualities of the various nibs.
The Hunt 100 still provides the most flexibility (at least out of the nibs pictured here). The Esterbrook 356 is a really solid nib, like the Esterbrook Falcon 048. But also like the 048, the 356 is a bit stiff. This means that it will probably last longer, but it also means there is less variability to the line. The line is slightly smaller than the Hunt 100’s line. The Brause 66ef produces a slightly thicker line than the Hunt 100 and the Esterbrook 356, but it’s a very responsive nib. The Gillott 170 (I didn’t mention the Gillott nibs in my previous post, as Mahendra Singh pointed out) has a light feel, but it’s not as flexible as the Hunt 100 and the Brause 66ef.
Here’s a closer look:
I added the Gillott 303 to the line-up above. This is one of my favorite nibs also, and I didn’t mention it last time. It actually produces a thinner line that the 170 and it has more variability of line.
This image also show the color variations in the nibs. Both the Hunt 100 and the Brause 66ef have a traditional steel look. Some Hunt nibs have more of a copper color. The Esterbrook has a gold tone, which came out more coppery in this photo. The Gillott nibs all have this cool blue steel color to them.
Obviously, what nib you use is a matter of taste. As you can probably tell, I preference flexibility and smoothness of feel over stability. That’s why I still really like the Hunt 100 with all its faults. But I’m looking forward to actually drawing with the Esterbrook 356.
I want to end with a story. I saw Jim Woodring give a talk in San Francisco a few years ago and afterward I asked him what nib he used. He told me that he used the Hunt 100 Imperial:
But he said that he was dissatisfied with how much ink it held. It tended to run out of ink before he was able to finish a complete line (take a look at the long lines he uses in his art through the link above). The way he found to solve this problem was to attach a piece of tinfoil to the nib so that it would hold more ink. I think he just wrapped it around the base, but I’m not sure. I just wanted to share this, because it’s not something you’d learn about in a traditional how-to book. It also shows you to what lengths pen and ink artists will go to keep using their favorite nibs.
And I think that’s about enough geeking out over nibs…
What’s interesting to see, from a non-comic geek perspective, is how so much of the character of your artwork is due to the quality of the lines you get from the nibs. It’s like having a great guitar player explain why their particular combination of guitar, pickups, strings, pedals, amp, and speakers produces such a kickass sound.
And this nib… It goes up to eleven!
[...] 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 [...]