Cheap Thrills With The Yoka Brush Pen

In another effort to broaden the spectrum of my blog, I've decided to try my hand at making art supply reviews! Ever since starting college, I've been quite the art supply enthusiast. Entering an art store nowadays sort of gives me the same high as I would normally in my favorite clothing stores. Plus, drawing and rendering have become such a huge part of my life now that I can't believe it took me so long to share more of that side of my life. This is my personal blog, after all! Haha!

So my first-ever review is going to be on the YOKA Brush Pen! Read on to find out my experience with it! :)

Because of a few people I follow on Instagram, I've become really interested in calligraphy; probably not as hardcore as the people I follow but I knew I definitely wanted to try it out! Coming from a Chinese school, I have a bit of knowledge on basic Chinese calligraphy because it was part of our curriculum. The difference now is that I have to write English words!

Since I only wanted to try calligraphy out, I didn't want to jump into buying anything expensive just yet, so I started with the Sakura Pigma Brush Pen, which I probably won't review anymore because I bought it a long long time ago, but I can say that the Sakura brush pen is more for people with experience because the brush is a bit more delicate, also because it's prone to fraying which probably won't be a problem for long-time calligraphy hobbyists. I may have just been using it the wrong way. Haha!

Anywho, the University of Santo Tomas has three major art stores (which I talked about in my #TipsForUSTArkiFreshies series) and when I passed by Joyce's with my friends I saw that they had this brush pen on display. Long story-short, curiosity and my love for brush pens got the best of me and I ended up buying it especially because it was pretty cheap for 35 pesos. :D

The Yoka Brush Pen looks like any marker out there until you uncap it to reveal the large brush tip. I set my expectations very low with this brush pen. Since it really was quite inexpensive, I expected as much that the large brush tip wouldn't be so amazing. After all, this is just beginner gear, I'm sure.

The brush tip is basically just a larger fine felt tip with minimal bending unlike the Sakura Pigma Brush Pen that works almost exactly like any other paintbrush. The only upside to this is that the brush won't fray at all, but getting the different thicknesses that you want with calligraphy becomes twice as challenging. The thinnest line I ever made was about 2mm and that was already with an extremely light hand, while the thickest line I could make was about 7mm.

Here's a sample of my uber noob calligraphy. Haha! Definitely a decent starter brush pen for beginners. Maybe when I find a brush pen with a softer brush nib, I'll get that one as an upgrade. LOL

Other than calligraphy, I use this brush pen for rendering and detailing for my drawings like the ones above. On the left, I used a Staedtler Fineliner pen for the thinnest lines, Artline 1.00mm Calligraphy Pen for the thicker dots, and the Yoka Brush Pen for the main part of the dress and the thickest dots on the hem of the skirt. On the right, I used only the Yoka Brush Pen. :)

I think this brush pen would work great for artists who specialize in Manga illustration for something to quickly fill in the large spaces that are to be just black. For architecture students, this brush pen is a great tool for filling in concrete walls for sections and floor plans!

Conclusion: As the title says, the Yoka Brush Pen is a fun cheap thrill for art supply enthusiasts like me. If you're interested in trying out calligraphy, I think the Yoka Brush Pen would work just fine but I definitely think experienced people should stay away from this pen since the quality of the nib isn't that great for hardcore hobbyists. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it because it can do a ton of things for me. Will definitely repurchase! :D

Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure where else you can pick it up. Yoka isn't exactly too much of a big-time brand to be distributed everywhere. You can pick this up at Joyce's in UST, Padre Noval Street cor. Espana, and maybe try hitting the nearest National Bookstore or Office Warehouse to see if they have it.

Happy Sunday, guys! :)