Comparing Rapidograph Pens
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Rapidograph technical pens are pricey little buggers that can be intimidating for the uninitiated. I'm not claiming I'm not intimidated or uninitiated, but I've got a couple of Rapidograph pens in my growing overpriced pen collection, and I thought I'd share the little I know.
1. I am AWARE of two brands currently producing Rapidograph tech pens- Koh-I-Noor and Rotring. There may be more brands, I just haven't encountered them. Within these two brands, I know that Koh-I-Noor Rapido-Sketch pens are different from their Rapidograph tech pens. I bought the Rapido-Sketch pen a couple years ago because it was on super sale and I wanted to test it out (having heard good things about Rapido-Graphs), but I've never been able to get it to work.
From top to bottom: Koh-i-noor Rapido-Sketch filled with Koh-i-noor drawing ink (not the ink at left, that was included with my Rapido-Sketch) in a ridiculously small size (.03, I believe), a Koh-I-Noor Rapido-Graph technical pen in size .8 (which I use for ruling out borders) filled with that same ink, and a Rotring Rapidograph in a .7. I have yet to use the Rotring, so I can't talk about performance.
The Rotring comes with a prefilled cart, but the nib is not assembled (its in the plastic casing to the right of the Rotring cart), so there probably isn't much ink choice. The Koh-I-Noor is filled by the user, and the ink container is fairly small. Depending on where you buy your Rapidographs, you can pay anywhere from 14$ to 29$, and some of the Koh-i-Noor sizes are on backorder.
Rapidograph technical pens are pricey little buggers that can be intimidating for the uninitiated. I'm not claiming I'm not intimidated or uninitiated, but I've got a couple of Rapidograph pens in my growing overpriced pen collection, and I thought I'd share the little I know.
1. I am AWARE of two brands currently producing Rapidograph tech pens- Koh-I-Noor and Rotring. There may be more brands, I just haven't encountered them. Within these two brands, I know that Koh-I-Noor Rapido-Sketch pens are different from their Rapidograph tech pens. I bought the Rapido-Sketch pen a couple years ago because it was on super sale and I wanted to test it out (having heard good things about Rapido-Graphs), but I've never been able to get it to work.
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| Pure class at MY house. |
The Rotring comes with a prefilled cart, but the nib is not assembled (its in the plastic casing to the right of the Rotring cart), so there probably isn't much ink choice. The Koh-I-Noor is filled by the user, and the ink container is fairly small. Depending on where you buy your Rapidographs, you can pay anywhere from 14$ to 29$, and some of the Koh-i-Noor sizes are on backorder.
Haha, I had to look up what a Rapidograph tech pen was and what the difference they were to other pens. I've never went to art school so excuse myself from being a noob. lol Comics just are a hobby but it's nice to learn different comic tools.
ReplyDeleteHere's a wiki link for all you other noobs like me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_pen
I recently was given a (vintage) set of Koh-I-Noor Raphido-graph technical pens, and I haven't used them for one reason: they're really intimidating. Not only is the ink fairly expensive, but they came with insanely long instructions about cleaning. It's daunting really, and it makes it seem like these would have to be pens you use A LOT to make them worth it. Are they as difficult to use as all that, or am I blowing this out of proportion?
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