FINDING THE BEST FINELINER - Testing 20 Fineliner Pens - Pigment, Watercolor & Markers Test 

This video is so helpful! For both experienced artists as referrence, and beginners like me!😍 thank you for this!

This is such a great reference video! Thank you for all the work you put into the comparisons. I'd really like to try Prismacolor & Copic. For now I've mainly only used Micron & Faber-Castell.

Do this video with brush pens PLEAASEEEEE

For me it is the Copic Multiliner SP. Feels sooooo good! And it is even ecofriendly.

Can't wait for the brush pen video! I almost exclusively use them when inking my art.

This was really cool to see! Just a thought on the eraser test: maybe the cheap ones use a black dye but the more expensive ones use black pigments. I'm not an expert on the science behind all the art supplies, so this might be totally wrong, but it was just an idea that occurred to me. :) Thanks for putting in so much effort to test all these! I really enjoyed learning about them, and I have a few that I'd never heard of before but now I want to try. ^^

This video is exactly what I was looking, very detailed and informative over a large range of pens, but does anyone else love how she says light fast?

I recently got a uni pin brush pen and it’s amazing to use ! most videos like this are usually centred around bullet journaling so to see a video like this that shows the results with alcohol markers was really helpful 👍😀

Before I even watch this video I will say, I will name my first child Unipin, I am such a unipin advocate. I have the need to convert everyone to Unipin. I have been using it for about ten years now and have tried all the fancy liners and yet no pen does it for me like uni!

Thank you SO much. This is incredibly helpful, and I love how thorough you were! I've been having eraser and smudging issues with my fineliners lately, and I have literally no idea what to use anymore! Thanks again!❤

Y'all. Y'AAALLL. If you're looking for cheap pens to use with markers, and you meet these 2 criteria, I'm about to be your best friend. You need to live in the US. You need to live near a store called Five Below. OK. So Five Below has an arts and crafts section and sometimes they carry a no name brand of artist pens. They come in 9 different nibs, 2 a piece, so that's EIGHTEEN PENS FOR FIVE DOLLARS. I bought some, figuring they would be good pens to practice lineart with, and despite doubting the ink quality, I scribbled over my swatches with some alcohol markers after they dried. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT OF BLEEDING. NONE. The lines are still as crisp as they were before the marker was added. The only downsides, which are minor, is there aren't any super duper fine points, the smallest being 0.2, and they are only in black. BUT dude, FIVE DOLLARS FOR 18 MARKERPROOF PENS. THAT'S INSANE. Just tested them THEY ARE WATERPROOF TOO.

Love you!!!!!! Edit: thanks for the like Kattvalk! My friends are really annoyed with me at the moment cause I’m always talking about how great your channel is!

Are you doing inktober?

Thank you for testing all of these out! Huge help seeing the different types of test it really helps me as a mixed media artist

I checked this out to see if there’s was any better liners than what I was using (Prisma Premiere and Copic Multi) as I have very tried anything else and I was happy to see that they preformed very nicely in comparison to the others, so I know what to stick with. The trick with the prismas is to make dead sure that it’s dry before using markers over it. Great video!

I'm using the unipin fineliner for basically everything (bullet journaling, drawing etc) and it's actually my favorite fineliner so far. I also have the unipin brush pen and it works like magic! Definitely recommend it

Amazing video 👍🏻 😃 for fineliners, specifically I was looking for water test ... Thanks for sharing 😀🌟💫

This video is super helpful I'm a bit of a beginner and had no idea what pens to get :)

Yay! Spectrum Noir is my all time favorite ⭐⭐

12:02 Unipin is my favorite fineliner OwO

Prismacolor is by far my favorite, I love the set of four with various widths and nibs that they sell.

Thanks so much for doing such a varied comparison. I am just beginning to use fine liners and find your work during this test invaluable! So very good to have you back after taking September off!

Really cool video! Good idea to compare the different fineliners. Well, my favourite is the PITT artist pen from Farber-castell. I bought it and automaticly felt in love😍

I've been using the Staedtler pigment liner, the Prismacolor Premier and the Rotring one for years, having no problems with either watercolor or alcohol based markers... Unless I use marker paper, where most fineliners won't do very good 😂If you do one testing them on different types of paper it would be great! It's been an informative video, now I know some other fineliners that I could buy! I'll be waiting the brush pen one!

I would always enjoy videos like this, particularly of coloured pencils. I love my Prismacolor Premiers and my Faber-Castell Polychromos but they are super expensive so it would be fantastic to find some that are up there with regards to quality but is way more budget friendly.

I only have the Copic multiliners, but they work great for me and I'm glad I own them!

Thank you. They are useful for different purpose

In my opinion, I think that the best I've ever used were Premiere and Micron. They have nice line work and watercolor base and maker base still looks great with both fine liners. That's just my opinion tho, I really don't use color in my work often but when I do they pass amazingly. Hope someone relates lol

I am amazed at how well the sharpie performed

Looking for a liner...you saved me a tone of time! Thank you

Thank you so much for all the work you've put into this video. My current fineliners are almost out of ink, so I'm looking to buy new ones. Now I know what to look for.

I use the Staedtler pigment liner for my drawings (If you wait until the ink is completely dry is does super good with markers) and this was super helpful!

Thank youuu I really needed some fineliners, now I know which are the best

I love this type of videos! It's so chill to watch and i like that it's longer then your usual Videos. (Sorry i'm not that good at english)

Thank you for this really helpful video! Have you ever used a Tombow Fudenosuke as a brush liner? The hard tip one with the blue barrel can be used as a fineliner but you would probably love the fact that you can also get various thicknesses! And it works amazing with both watercolour and alcohol-based markers. I just don't know if it's lightfast. Now that I think about it, maybe I've already recommended it to you. 🤔

For the brush pen comparison video you should add in the Sharpie brand brush pens and the Crayola Artist series blending brush markers. They both come in one color pack and it comes with not very many colors either but they are really cool, I prefer the Sharpie brush pens for line work and calligraphy in my bujo because the ink isn’t alcohol based and the brush tips are small and crisp, I love them and wish they came in more colors because they came in a really well made carrying case and unlike normal sharpies they don’t bleed through, they don’t really even ghost on the thinnest of paper. But the Crayola blending brush markers are actually alcohol based and the brush nibs are really flexible, it’s impossible to use them for anything other than coloring and putting blobs of color down because the ink spreads a lot giving it a very blurred effect. I haven’t tried to blend any colors together yet but I’m sure it will be pretty easy despite not having enough colors to do it with.

Thank you!! I needed this more than you know!

ive been looking for a good liner to use with watercolor thanks for this video! :D

Very interesting! I did a similar video with all of my fineliners (except Staedler triplus. I forgot about it.) a couple weeks ago, but you've got a lot of brands I don't, and I've got a few you don't, so this was interesting to see. Staedler pigment liner is my #1 favourite liner in general, BUT Copic multiliner does better with markers when I'm too impatient to let the line art dry.

My mom got me some prisma color fineliners! I love them so much 💕

Thank you for doing this! I know it took a lot of work and resources

I love the steadtler triplus fineliner for taking notes lol. I love fine point peas

That is a big amount of fineliners, i use the rotink one You are really one of my biggest inspirations. Love this video😄😄 (Rotring is what I meant😅)

Tbh the stabilo one is perfect if you consider the price. It's just a thing everybody in germany has somewhere laying around and it does pretty well most of the times.

I have the Staedler pigment liner and have no problems with them

Thank you so much for this video!!! I have been wanting to buy some fineliners that work with alcohol and water and this helps a ton.

I started using the STA brand about the start of this year and I think they’re okay. I’ll definitely try them with watercolours after seeing this xD

Thanks! Very helpful as I want to watercolor and sometimes use markers.

Can’t wait for the brushpens!

even though I've personally been using prismacolor premier fineliners for the past 5 years, I was surprised at how well it did on all the tests. In my experience, the prismacolors smudge a little with alcohol markers, even when dry. I'm staring to wonder if I somehow ended up with a set of fake or defective pens... Not surprised at how well it did with the pigment test! Those things are definitely some juicy pens!!

This is v helpful, the chart is very well laid out.

Really comprehensive. Thank you!

Well researched; most informative - thank you.

I'm not sure if you knew that the Arteza liners are water soluble so that's why it dissolved in the watercolour :3

This is great! I have 3 main sets of liners (as well as a few single ones from Scrawlrboxes); the STA ones you have here, Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Pens and Pigma Microns. I was doing a similar test of them all recently so that I could make a little card to slot in my pencil case with all my fineliners in to remind me which pens work well with various mediums. I found something really weird though - I tested them, as you did, with water and with alcohol markers and then thought about water based pens/markers so I grabbed one of the Faber-Castell Albrecht-Duhrer watercolour brush pens from the Scrawlrbox a couple of months back and tested them on that. It was a nightmare. Every one smudged so badly and dissolved in the pen's ink. It even discoloured the brush nib on the watercolour pen too and I had to spend a long time drawing with it onto clean paper so that it would run clean again. Of the ones I have though I think I have a good mixture of ones that work with water and alcohol markers etc. I was pleasantly surprised by the STA ones as I had very low expectations for such an obvious knock-off, but they were great! The Microns are my newest so those tend to be the one I grab right now and I am enjoying them a lot. Same with the Pitt pens, no real complaints at all.

Thank you so much!!! It was very helpful!

Thank you soooo much for making this video. It's really helpful.

Thank you for such a helpful video! I came here as my sakura pigment pens bleed really badly in watercolour paint.... I will try STA next. x

You’re doing God’s work thank you for this review ;w;

Hello! Great test! Would you be so kind to tell me how long did you let the fineliner dry for the alcohol marker test? And what paper were you using? Thank you very much

I know this is a bit of an old video, so you probably won’t see this but just in case you do, how long did you wait for the dry lines? Love ya~

I used much of them, i really hope to see yu have fun forever 😺😺

Great test. I'll speak up for water-soluable: Some of us _want_ their fine-liners to bleed some tone with water - I use a water brush to draw shading out of my b&w drawings.

I use M&G Signme Pigment Liners and they're 100% waterproof after drying. Really good to use with watercolour pens.

Interesting! I wonder if most of the fine liner inks could also withstand the use of paraffin oil? Since that is the solvent used for oil based color pencil drawing blends. Any thoughts?!..

Very helpful, thankyou. It would have been much better if you included testsfor how they felt when using them. For instapnce how smoothly the nib move over the paper, was there much friction between the nib and the paper, how much pressure was needed to get the ink down on to the paper, how well did the ink flow from the nib to the paper, and so on

Thanks to the video for good reference. I decide to try Uni Pin Fineliner as it was the most affordable of the others. (Edding was hard to find)

It's a surprise that when they smudge they still hold up in the water/marker test. cool

I just purchased the STA Pigment Liners for my watercolor sketches and works, but they arent waterproof at all. How long did you let yours dry? Or maybe they have changed their formula in those last 5 years and are using cheap ink thats not waterproof now. Huge bummer, because the pens themselves write really good and are very affordable. Oh well. Back to the Pigmas, I guess.

This was so interesting! thank you for providing this information, very helpful!

I wish you had actually tested the lightfastness of each pen. I know some say lightfast but it still would have been nice to see all of the pens and the amount of fading that would happen with the same amount of exposure to sunlight. I'm quite impressed by the Arteza pens. I heard they were water based so I assumed copics would eat them up too yet they seemed to hold up well!

My fave is the edding one, I always used that brand and I love it! They're not too expensive either where i live. And I had mine for months now (to be fair I don't use it every day) The 0.7 tip one might better at the streaking test cause it has a thicker nib.

Is it bad to stalk up around xmas when family buys you gifts beacuse I’ve stalked up on pens and I’ve stalked up on markers and erasers and color pencils now this year I’m doing fine liners and a few markers I want

Great video! I know it was a lot of work and editing too. Really useful! :D

I have uni pin and i'm satisfied with it because is cheaper then rotring pens and its waterproof because i use watercolor

I think I’ll get the Copic one, art line, plum chester, or Fabre castell

Thanks for making their video! It's been very helpful to me on multiple watches Do you happen to know what waterproof or marker proof ones have a color range outside of black and sepia?

Good video, I would say that I use brush & ink for the solid black areas of my drawings so the pigment section is not that important to me, it's also a tip really;

Most people: uni pin dries in 3 seconds then it will not smudge Kattvalk: no

Very very helpful...thanks a lot ma'am

This is super helpful! Smudging isn’t a problem cause i put my hand off paper cause I animate 😅

I have that blue pilot drawing pen and I love it😌

How long did you wait for the predrawn line on the watercolor test? Thanks

This is great but I’d like to add that when I burnish with color pencils over the Sakura micron pens (It’s not significantly but definitely noticeable if you look closer at the drawing

I picked up a couple P4's from artsnacks as i find them to be fair, and it was a fairprocess but they will prompt you a could times to give them a review afterward.

Awesome video. Thank you

I have both the stadeler pigment and triplus. I use the triplus more with color pencil art

How long did you let the pre drawn lines dry?

I have actually tested a few fineliner pens that say they are waterproof and they still smudge with water. It really upsets me because I even waited 24 hours to see if it just needed to really dry and it still gave me the same results as the fresh line test. ik its not a lot of pigment but even that bit of shadowy pigment line muddys some of my colors and again these dried for 24 hours so the ones that I only have dry for a few minutes or even an hour where a bit more smudged which made watercoloring a pain for me. This was so helpful because I really want to buy a new pack of fineliners that actually smudge as little as possible with water. I kept feeling like somehow it was my fault like maybe I just use too much water because it says its waterproof so am I just using it wrong?

thanks, super helpful

Hi great video, just wondering how these pens go and last on different textures of paper (hot press, cold press, rough and primed paper)

I used to use sharpie to line my art... yikes! I used sketch paper too and it bled really bad... thank god I know what art supplies to use now!!

I use prismacolor liners and copic liners

What papper did you use? My micron fineliner never pass the watercolor or marker test on all the pappers i got. Not even on marker papper. I even let it dry for 1day somethimes.

I wonder if prismacolor changed their formula. I tried them when I first started art and found they didn’t work with alcohol or erasing well. I’m glad they work well now!

Thank you so much for this test! I tend to be heavy-handed both with my sketches and the erasing afterwards, so the ecco pigment fineliners I use fade a lot. Next time I will just buy the cheap stabilo one ;P

You should consider trying the Fudenosuke pen! ♡ Thank you for this comparison

You should give the sharpen fine tip PEN. Its got diffrent ink and its my personal favorite! :)

this helped ! thanks a lot~

i want to know which waterproof pens are best for durability and ink longevity though, it annoys me when i have to buy drawing pens almost every month😩