Sketch of a pile of croissants

Getting my Pen Ready for Sketching Toulouse

A while ago, when I was still in my honeymoon period with my Vac-700 Twisbi pen, I wondered whether I could just live with one fountain pen – instead of the stable of pens I’m currently in a long-term relationship with. I haven’t fallen out of love with my Twisbi, but just recently – since the temperature gauge in the Algarve has been consistently +30c, I’ve been having problems with my fountain pens, and not just my Twisbi’s.

In the lead-up to my Toulouse trip to the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium, I’m been packing my art materials in anticipation, and test driving my favourite fountain pens, none of which are cooperating. They’re getting scratchy and dry, because the ink flow isn’t what it’s meant to be.

I’m not sure whether it’s because I use F or EF nibs, or whether I haven’t been storing my ink properly, and the ink is evaporating slightly in the glass jars and getting thicker, which is stopping it from flowing so freely.

Sailor Fude Pen

I had a bit of joy with my Sailor Fude pen, and was using it for a couple of days without any problems, but then I mislaid it somewhere, and had to move to plan B, which was the Noodler’s Flex Nib pen. I’d coveted one of these Noodler’s pen for years, but I couldn’t justify the price tag for a pen I wasn’t sure if I’d like writing with.

Sailor Fude Pen vs. Nooder’s Flex Nib Pen

The Fude pen and the Flex Nib pen both offer line weight variation, but whereas the fude pen’s line weight is achieved based on angle the pen is used at, the Flex Nib pen achieves line width variety based on the pressure you apply. The elongated tines on the Flex Nib pen spread apart under pressure, and as you write or draw, you can adjust the pressure naturally to achieve a nice assortment of line weights. You can also write with the back of the nib for an even finer line.

I loaded up with Flex Nib pen with Octopus Grey Meerkat ink, and it seems to be cooperating beautifully so far, and is the top pick for a fountain pen coming to Toulouse.

Line Weight Variety of the Noodler’s Flex Nib Pen

There’s basically four main line widths achievable from this Flex Nib pen, going from thickest to thinest:

• Flex Nib Pressure: Applying pressure to split the tines for the thicket line weight.
• Writing Pressure: Applying pressure, but not enough to split the tines.
• No Pressure: Basically bring the pen in contact to the page for the ink to flow, but not applying any pressure on the nib.
• Back of the Nib Pressure: When you turn the pen around 180 degrees, you can write with the back the nib, which creates the lightest line weight with potential for broken and lost lines.

My Noodler’s Flex Nib Pen

I bought this Noodler’s Ahab Flex Nib pen off Vinted, and the description warned of the pen having an odour, which is does. This is because the Noodler’s pens are made of bio-based cellulose resin which is eco-friendly, but gives off a slightly odd smell. But only when you hold it up to your nose for a sniff. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s noticeable.

I really like the piston filling system, and it holds between 1.7-1.9 ml of ink. After doing a little bit of research I discovered that the model of Ahab I have is the Poltergeist Pumpkin version, hence it’s odd orange and black design.

Testing Out the Sketching capabilities of my Flex Nib Pen

As well as doing the line weight swatches, I did a sketch of a pile of croissants and also decorated the page with some text to see how this pen performed, and I have to admit, I really like using this Flex Nib pen.

I sketched this pile of croissants from a photo I took in Toulouse when I visited in January 2020.

I also did a double page spread in my A6 sketchbook to test out sketching buildings, lettering and people. All good so far.

In the past, I’ve messed around with using a two different angles of Fude Nib pen, and also have an assortment of different sized Parallel Pens, but I haven’t really fallen in love with using any of them. This is the first time I’ve used this Flex Pen to sketch with, and I think it’s going to be fun, putting it through its paces in Toulouse.