Mix red, blue, yellow and green in varying quantities, add some white or a little black or even some gold and you get brown: Burnt Sienna, ochre, sand brown, chocolate, saddle brown, mahogany, sepia, Van Dyke brown. Or pick up a pen. Manufacturers of art pens have created pigment ink in shades of brown that match traditional colour pigments that can be found in pastels, acrylics or oil colors.
Art Brown Pens by Faber-Castell
Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens are very popular with artists for their acid-free, waterproof India ink and their vibrant colours. PITT Artist Pens are perfect for sketching and drawing and their nibs range from extra superfine for detailed work to brush.
PITT Artist Brush Pen Terra Wallet contains pens in Terracotta, Cinnamon, Raw Umber, Caput Mortum and Walnut brown. PITT Sanguine and PITT Artist Pen Sepia Wallets have 4 pens each in superfine, fine, medium and brush nibs. Faber-Castell PITT ink can be used on canvas, wood, fabric and ceramic with great results.
ZIG Brown Art Pens
Japanese company Kuretake are the makers of the renowned ZIG pens and their range of products for Arts and Crafts. ZIG are a favourite with professional artists and amateurs alike and are great for sketching, illustration and cartooning. ZIG Artist Sketching Pen comes in sepia and produces a fine 0.5 mm line. ZIG Millennium carries archival quality, waterproof pigment ink which is acid-free, non-bleeding, waterproof and odourless – it also comes in brown.
If you are looking for an art pens in shades of brown, look no further: ZIG Art and Graphic Twin has them all: mahogany, dark beige, warm sepia, Vandyke brown, burnt sienna, bistre, dark sand, fawn, flesh, gold ochre. This art pen carries blendable water-based ink and features two tips: one flexible brush on one side and one 0.8mm nib on the other.
Brown Artist Pens for Drawing and Sketching
PILOT DR Drawing Pen is a popular technical pen with water-resistant pigment ink which comes in sepia. There are 5 tip widths to choose from (0.28mm to 0.8mm). Pen 68 from STABILO offers 46 vibrant colours and features a high-quality fibre tip for strong lines. It comes in light and dark ochre, sienna, umber, brown and light flesh tint. STAEDTLER Triplus Colour comes in light and dark brown.
Another king in the world of art brown pens is the TOMBOW ABT Dual Brush Pen with its water-based, acid-free, odourless ink which works like watercolour paint – perfect for cartoonists and graphic artists. It comes in saddle brown, sand, chocolate, redwood, light and dark ochre, light sand and brown.
Brown: dull, drab and dreary it is not. “Give me some mud off a city crossing, some ochre out of a gravel pit and a little whitening and some coal dust and I will paint you a luminous picture,” 19th-century artist and art critic, John Ruskin wrote.
Lito Apostolakou - Lito is a historian with an interest in digital archives and online historical resources. She is the author of blog Palimpsest.
