Cursive with Office Pens

     Happy New Year! (albeit somewhat late) Apologies for the delay in posting; I've been running low on ideas. However, I've decided today to give myself a challenge - writing cursive, but using everyday pens, such as the ones you find at home.

                          I didn't find much of a difference while writing with either pen.                          

     I used two pens: the Staples 1.0 mm, and the Pentel R.S.V.P. fine tip. For reference, here are what they look like:

                                                                  

There are some drawbacks when using ballpoint pens for calligraphy. I noticed that it wasn't easy to recreate downstrokes and upstrokes, as calligraphy pens are designed for doing. I had to push down considerably to get a small difference. However, I've found that I like the clean, simple look of ballpoint pen calligraphy. Even better, these cost about nothing compared to the often pricey fountain pens, which can range from 20 to 100 dollars. That's not counting the pens crafted from high-end brands, often 500 dollars. Part of the reason why is because the exterior body of the pen is carved from expensive materials, such as rare metals, aluminum, steel, and cellulose acetate. (thanks to JetPens, because there's no way I could list this off by memory) Also, the ink formulas are of higher quality than normal pens, which means more money is used for production. 

                     

          

I'm not sure about you, but I definitely do not have one hundred dollars to dish out on this bad boy.

Five hundred dollars? In my dreams.

     Here's a comparison of my brush pens versus the ballpoint pens. I used the Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen and the Staples 1.0 mm tip pen.

Viola! You know who you are.

     As you can see, the brush pen stands out more, while the ballpoint is subtler. To sum it up, I would recommend using ballpoint pens if you want to do some fun and easy calligraphy. They're a cheaper alternative. If you want to do calligraphy as a serious hobby, then you may want to consider purchasing a brush pen.

     Thanks for reading!