Why You Need Zebra Pens in Your Art Collection

Are you looking for amazing and versatile pens to use in your next mixed media project? Check out these Zebra Pens products with me! If you’ve been following me, you know that I already have more than 684 pens, pencils, and markers. What makes these ones special? Join me as I test a selection of Zebra Pen’s product line and we’ll look at what makes these pens a must have for your art practice.

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Why Zebra Pens?

I’ve seen Zebra pens around at art stores, but I become much better acquainted with the brand at a local creative event, the Creative Scrapbooking Carnival. I had an opportunity to meet several ladies from the company and demo so many of their beautiful art pens. As I started to research more about this brand, I realized that these pens were both amazing and relatively inexpensive considering the quality of the pens.

I was looking to purchase their pens, but they were very kind and sent me an entire box of pens to try!

Zebra Pens for Art

You may think of Zebra pens as being stationary pens, but that’s only one way that you can use these pens. They are fantastic for drawing, for art journaling and other mixed media uses. Let’s get into these pens and what makes each of these pens so special.

Zebra Sarasa Porous Pens

I had an opportunity to try out the Sarasa porous pens at the creative event, and I fell in love with them! I’ve tried out the Sarasa Gel Clip Retractable pens before, but the Sarasa Porous Pens have a completely different writing experience.

The Sarasa Porous Pens have a 0.8mm needle point, which is a beautiful fine tip pen for small and precise lines. They write with ease on smooth paper, like Bristol, and more textured surfaces, like watercolor paper. I would compare these to a gel pen in writing ease, but with a much finer nib and a more flowing ink. These have a similar feel to writing with a micron pen. You get the control and fine detail but with smooth and pigmented ink.  

The Porous pens are fantastic for writing but work just as well for drawing. I’ve been very happy with the artwork I’ve created with these pens. My favorite thing about the Sarasa porous pens is how bright and saturated the color is. I don’t feel like I’m fighting the pen to get the ink flowing, nor do I have problems with it bleeding on my paper. This is a fantastic fineline pen!

Every time I test pens in my sample book, I always test to see how waterproof or blendable the ink is. This ink is considered an archival and water-resistant ink. This doesn’t mean that it’s waterproof, but you would need to use a lot of water and effort to have it bleed.

If I left this ink overnight, it might not blend out at all, but since I just applied it, and I’m scrubbing it with water, it is bleeding a bit. But for having just applied it to the paper, it’s very water-resistant.

Zebra Blen Gel Pens

When Zebra Pens sent me the Blen Gel pens, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They blew my mind! I thought that they would be like every other gel pen, but they have really surprised me.

The Blen gel pens are meant to create a frictionless writing experience. I was a bit skeptical but was blown away once I gave these a try! These have such a smooth feel, and the gel pen has such strong color and pigment. It was so different than any other gel pen I’ve tried.

Let’s also talk about design language. These pens are beautiful. They have a white rubber grip that blends seamlessly into the pen. Just the way it handles in my hand and the entire design language is stunning. As a person who loves great writing pens, this is a pen that had a lot of sophisticated design invested into the making of a beautiful and practical gel pen.

Because the gel pen has such beautiful, pigmented color, it stands out beautifully when used with the Zebra markers and other art mediums. I tried this on a watercolor project and I loved the bold black color and smooth sketching experience this pen gave me.

Just be aware that when the ink is still wet, it can also be blended out with water. This gives another unique opportunity for creativity with these pens!

Zebra Fountain Pens

I love fountain pens! I have curated quite a collection of fountain pens that I use in my art and journaling over the last 10 years. Until Zebra Pens sent me a package of these, I didn’t know that disposable fountain pens existed. I was excited to try them to see how they compared to my Lamy and Plaisir fountain pens.

These pens have a fine point 0.6mm nib that’s a bit thinner than what I tend to use for my art practice, but it has pigmented ink that flows beautifully. These could be used for journaling, but I’ll also be using them for sketching and other projects.

Why I love to use a fountain pen in my art is because of the shape of the pen, I can hold onto them loosely for more dramatic sketching. Because the nib is metal, you can use them on uneven or textured surfaces without worrying about the pen clogging. If you do use them on collage or uneven surfaces and the ink stops working, just write on a piece of paper to get the ink flowing again.

The quality of these fountain pens for the price is fantastic. If you’re not sure if you want to invest in a high-quality fountain pen, start with these. They have good nibs and pigmented ink. They will give you a similar experience to a good quality fountain pen without the need to clean the pens.

Zebra Metallic Brush Pens

The Zebra Metallic Brush Pens are now one of my favorite pens for sketching and drawing on both black and white paper. The brush pens are versatile because they come in a range of beautiful metallic colors. Not just silver, gold and bronze, but also colors like green, blue, and purple. Their color is highly pigmented and the metallics are truly metallic, not just tinted shades of silver metallic. 

The brush pen tips have a beautiful balance because they have some give to the nib but aren’t so soft that they are hard to control. I find them easier to use than most brush pens I own. They can create very thin lines with a little pressure and by applying more pressure you can create thick lines.

My favorite attribute of the Zebra Metallic Brush Pens is how opaque the metallic ink is. They remind me of a paint pen more than an ink pen.  The color is very opaque and shimmery and can be applied on top of watercolors, acrylic paints, and other inks easily.

Even though they have an opacity like a paint pen, they blend out beautifully with water. This gives me a lot of versatility when using these in my art practice.

As beautiful as these metallic inks are on white paper, they’re even more stunning on black paper! I intend to use these on a lot of upcoming projects due to their versatility on both dark and light paper.

Click Art Pens

The ClickArt Retractable Markers are truly a unique marker because they don’t have caps! These pens come in 3 sets: standard colors, dark colors, and light colors for a total of 36 colors. I like that they’ve created the sets this way because you can build on your collection over time but always have a range of colors that will work together.

I have always been curious about how these markers don’t dry out because they don ‘t have caps. It seems a bit like magic to me. It turns out that these pens will absorb moisture from the air, which keeps the ink from drying out.

I think this an amazing technology. Not only because this means that I don’t have to worry about misplacing my marker caps. This works incredibly well when I’m sketching outside or away from my art studio. The less things that I can misplace, the better!

These markers have such a smooth feel and have beautiful, vibrant color. The Click Art pens give out the perfect amount of ink. I don’t feel like it’s going to create bleeding on the paper, instead it feels like it always applies the perfect amount of smooth and juicy ink.

These markers come with a 0.6mm fine point. This means that I can create detail with them with the tip but can also use the side of the pen to color in larger areas. These work beautifully for writing in an art journal but can also be used for coloring and blending. Because I work with so many different mediums, having a pen that is water soluble with this amount of versatility really works for me.

A real advantage of these pens is that they have the quality and feel of an art pen but hit a lower price point than an average art pen. This ends up giving you better value for your money. I like having pens that work for journaling, everyday writing and for art. Pens can add up if you have multiple sets of pens, so the more versatile they are, the better!

Even though each set has a great range of colors, I love using all 3 of these together. The light palette is great if you like to work in pastels or are trying to create highlights on your drawings. The standard colors are greater for the midtones and the dark colors work amazing for shadows.

The colors of the Zebra Click Art pens also work well with the Sarasa Porous Pens, the Zebra Fountain Pens, and the Blen Gel pens. You can mix and match and the colors work beautifully together.

If you are on a budget and are strictly using these for journaling, you could probably get by with just one of the sets. But if you’re using these for art, I’d recommend getting all 3 sets. This will make blending and creating beautiful drawings so much easier!

These pens dry quickly on the surface, so you shouldn’t be getting any smudging. But if you want to take advantage of the water-soluble properties, they do blend out nicely with water. Just be aware that I’m working with Bristol paper in my sample book. If you use watercolor paper, you’ll get more blending once you add water. The darker the color and the more pigment the ink has, the more blending that you’ll get with a particular color.

New Art Pens Coming Soon!

I hope that this review of Zebra pens has been helpful and will help you pick the right one for your creative practice. I’ve been given a very special art pen to try out that will be released at the beginning of August 2024. Come back to see a very new and innovative product from Zebra Pens! Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to see this article!

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My Other Pen Reviews

If you’d like to see another pen review, here’s 3 of my favourite and most popular art pen articles:

• The Best Acrylic Paint Pens: A Paint Marker Comparison
• The Best Inexpensive Acrylic Paint Markers
• How to Choose the Best Watercolor Marker

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