Venting Too Much

Not me. Them.

I bought some Pentel Felt Pens about 4 years ago. I love those pens, I used them as a teen, and as a young adult, and they were good pens. Familiar in my hands, predictable, easy to get a good line.

The new ones were great. Nice and slick, they just let the ink flow.

I colored in one of those complicated coloring book pages. Just to get the feel of the pens again, it had been a long time.

Next I did a simple one, with lots of water, and very little white space left. I was beginning to work on refining my style. Felt pen has always been something I understood once I originally got the hang of interlining to blend.

Then I undertook a major work. An arrangement of poppy blossoms, very complex. Right toward the end, the Blue pen started to run dry. Barely enough to finish. Three works, and the pen was running dry! I was appalled.  How could an artist afford to work if pens had to be replaced after just three works? And the first one hadn’t even USED that much blue, and the second had used OTHER colors of blue!

I did another, and ran out both of my most used green pens.

About then I made a discovery.

The caps on the pens had AIR VENTS in them! Seriously! The caps were vented to make the pens dry out! Pentel, a formerly reputable company just slid into the realm of worthless crooked cheats! $30 for a set of professional art pens recognized the world over as the standard for serious artists. And they do THAT!

Well, I spent about an hour patiently sealing those vents with Shoe Goo. One uses what one has, after all.

Then I put the pens away. I was afraid to start a work with them, for fear something I needed would run out. And so it is.

I can’t buy Pentels again. And I can’t find another brand that is just a regular traditional felt pen, they’ve all gone to something trendy that doesn’t work as well, or which has a tip that gets beaten down faster.

Finally, I have to have felt pens. There is this subject that begs to be rendered by my own personal hand. I must do it. Pens I must have.

I troll the shops online. Nothing appeals. Nothing is what I need it to be.

I finally end up at Hobby Lobby across town, one day, in desperation. They have nothing like what I want either. I finally settle for a carton of pens of two types I do not want, both in the same box. But I think maybe I can make them work until I can find something better.

I get them home, and put them aside while I finish a new work in colored pencil. Then I get the pens out and get my work area set up for the new work.

It is then that I notice the caps on the brand new pens.

I can’t believe my eyes. They are also VENTED! The same type of venting in the caps. (The venting is concealed in the design of the top of the cap – it has slits in it, and they go all the way through).

One thing is sure, I will NEVER be taken in by that again!

I spend 45 minutes sealing both ends of the pen – dual caps. These are easier to do.

We take a trip off to Walmart and Michaels just to see if there are other options.

Not really.

But we do find that the majority of felt pens at Michaels also have vented caps.

I get a package of permanent markers at Walmart, in 50 colors. Tips are too large, but I can do some works in broad tipped pen, so they are worth the purchase. Caps are completely sealed. I made sure before I bought.

This is not the only product we have found that is fatally flawed by some kind of fraud. For fraud this is! But to find it in my favorite pen, and then in so many others is pretty distressing.

So beware. Look things over well before you buy, even some of the brands in the big leagues are derailing.

TIP: Hold the cap up to the light and look through the top of it. If you can see light, it is vented.