Stabilo Brush Pen Review for Learning How To Hand Letter

Can you believe that Stabilo has brush pens? I had always thought that they carried highlighters and fineliners only! When I first tried these Stabilo brush pens after hearing about them nonstop several months ago, my initial reaction was that they’re good but not worth the hype. However, this week, when I pulled them out, I realized my first reaction was wrong! I will share a Stabilo brush pens review with you, including how they compare to other brush pens, how they blend, the different strokes you can do with them, and overall, if they are worth the price.

I purchased my Stabilo brush pens in the ten pack. They have bigger packs, but I didn’t want to spend too much before knowing if they worked for me. I think the ten pack has a good range of colors although it doesn’t have pink, which I always need. But, would it be worth it to buy the bigger pack solely to get a pink brush pen? These aren’t the cheapest brush pens, so they have to be worth it. Let me show you what else I did to try to decide that!

Stabilo Brush Pens Review Compared to Other Popular Brush Pens

So as I was lettering with the Stabilo brush pens, I noticed they have a medium nib, which felt slightly like my Kuretake Fudebiyori brush pens. You may know I love and recommend the Kuretake Fudebiyori brush pens to beginners because they’re a great medium nib. Have you tried them? Lettering with these pens side to side, I was able to see that the Fudebiyori is actually a lot longer of a nib. This also made me think of the Edding brush pens. The bounce feels pretty similar when you are hand lettering. I realized that I actually might like the Stabilo brush pen better than Fudebiyori. This surprised me and made me consider if I would recommend them to hand lettering beginners over the Fudebiyori.

However, it does come down to the cost. The ten-pack Stabilo brush pens were at least double the price of the 12 pack of Fudebiyori. That’s a pretty big difference, especially if you’re starting to learn how to hand letter on a budget!

Stabilo Brush Pens Review on Large Hand Lettering Practice Worksheets

Since these have a pretty short medium-sized nib, I wanted to see if they can letter on practice worksheets for large brush pens or if it’s better to use them on worksheets for small brush pens. I’m using the worksheets in my book, Hand Lettering for Beginners, to test this. If you don’t have it yet, my new book includes everything you need to start, practice, and begin creating unique lettering projects. These large worksheets in the book are the same size as any of my other large practice sheets available on Etsy. When using hand lettering practice worksheets, I always use tracing paper to reuse the worksheets, but also, tracing paper has a smooth, almost shiny surface which makes the ink look really cool.

I was actually surprised by how well these Stabilo brush pens did on the large worksheets. By now, I am sure you’ve noticed I have been surprised in a lot of ways by the Stabilo brush pens review! The brush tip is smaller, but it’s really flexible, making it simple to use on large practice worksheets. It seems like it has better flexibility than some of my large brush pens. This means you can get a good contrast of thick and thin strokes, and you can get several different thicknesses of downstrokes.

Stabilo Brush Pens Review on Small Hand Lettering Practice Worksheets

Before we get into blending, I wanted to see how well these would do on the small practice worksheets, and I found that they do work! You can easily get pretty small lettering with these brush pens. I will say, though, they aren’t going to get as thin of upstrokes as an actual small brush pen, so there isn’t as much of a contrast. But this shows that they have a good quality brush tip since the hand lettering can look good in multiple sizes.

Blending with Stabilo Brush Pens

Alright, on to blending. With my pen reviews, I often get asked about blending. Let me show you a couple of different ways to blend these. For the first blending technique, I’m using Bristol paper to blend. The type of paper you use is most important for blending. These brush pens are water-based, which is nice for blending, and they have a good amount of ink, so they blend really well.

The other blending technique I wanted to try was with my rainbow watercolor background. I like to do this so I don’t have to use my nice brush pens on watercolor paper since it can fray them sooner. So I used a palette to lay down the ink first, and I noticed that it doesn’t lay down that much ink on the palette. I have other brush pens like my Karin Markers that are much juicier for this technique. I was struggling to have enough ink to blend with, so it’s a little lighter of a rainbow blend which is okay if that’s the look you’re going for. But because the Stabilo brush pens are water-based, they’re going to be great to blend as if they’re watercolor.

Stabilo Brush Pens Review: Are They Worth the Price?

Now for the big question: Are these brush pens worth it? Do you need to have them in your hand lettering brush pen collection? I would say, if you’re looking for another unique pen that’s going to be a good quality brush tip and you have a little bit more to spend, yes, you should definitely get these. On the other hand, if you are starting out and only have enough to buy one pack of pens at the moment, I would recommend getting the Pentel Touch brush pens since they are small brush pens. The Pentel Touch brush pens are a little easier to start with for some hand letterers.

I hope this Stabilo brush pen review helped you out and gave you more clarity in your hand lettering journey, whether you are a beginner or a more seasoned letterer. I love getting to do brush pens reviews for you and getting to hear your experiences using these pens. If there is a specific type of brush pen that you have been thinking about purchasing but aren’t sure about yet, send me a DM on Instagram and let me know. If I have it and can do a review on it for you, I would be so happy to do so!