The Stylo Pen is an interesting take on a classic nib. I saw a website promoting the Stylo as a Pentel sketching fountain pen (don’t get me wrong, it is) so I ordered one. Upon it arriving and me uncapping it I saw the nib and thought, what the heck is that?! To try and describe it as best as possible it’s a small flat triangle with a cylindrical ridge going from base to tip. Sounds weird right? Looks weird. The rest of it is a smooth brown barrel with a cap and metal clip. No design and no grip. Before I put pen to paper I have to admit I was skeptical. Would Pentel fail me for the first time?

I love carrying around small portable sketchbooks for sketching and doodling. Sometimes it’s a pain also trying to carry a set of markers or a watercolor set to color while on the go. I usually keep an eye out for such sets and not too long ago the Pentel Arts Aquash set caught my eye. After I kept talking about it Twitter and Facebook, Pentel of America was nice enough to send me a set to try out.

Recently Pentel of America sent me a couple of their new EnerGel pens, the EnerGel X. As you know, I’m a big fan of the regular EnerGel pens so I was pretty excited to try these guys out and see how they measured up to their more expensive cousins. The first thing I noticed was that the EnerGel X has a tinted barrel that matches the ink inside. While this isn’t a big issue for me because I tend to use black ink exclusively, if you are a person who likes to have different colored inks available, this would be helpful for a quick grab.