I was very excited to receive these pens as a Christmas gift from my partner. I'd seen them demonstrated on a few YouTube channels, such as The Frugal Crafter and Kristina Werner and others, and I thought they looked great.
Now I already have some watercolour markers - Letraset Aquamarkers - that I use quite a lot and I really like as they're relatively inexpensive, if you shop around, they come in sets and open stock and... but that's for another day. So, the Akashiya Sai pens were shipped by SAL from Japan and arrived three weeks after ordering from Amazon in perfect condition in a padded envelope. Now my other half isn't very knowledgeable about art and craft brands so he asked me to order them to make sure it was what I wanted. I hung around on Amazon every evening after work to get these at the right price. I wanted to avoid import duties, which don't add hugely to the price, but then the post office stick a hefty administration fee on top. Anyway, I waited for the pens to come up at right price and hit purchase. I paid extra for the postage as free p&p would have taken them over the limit and I don't know whether the import duty takes that into account. After I got mine I noticed that the price went up on average by £10 so I think I was lucky. I ordered around black Friday so that might be how I got them more cheaply. After they arrived they were taken away and wrapped so I didn't get to play until Christmas.
But enough of this; what are the pens like; how do they perform?
These are pretty standard marker pens... until you take off the cap. The caps fit snugly. They push on then you need to push down again to make sure that the cap is clicked right down to air seal the pen.
The tips of these pens are what makes them different. They have individual bristles similar to a fude pen, not a brush shaped felt or plastic tip.
There are twenty colours in a full set, five for each of the four seasons and you can also buy the spring, summer, autumn and winter sets separately as well as open stock. Because of the various ways of using these pens you can get a lot more colours from them, though I supplemented my set with twelve colours from the Kuretake Zig Clean Colour Real Brush marker range. It's not necessary though. There is an pale apricot marker included in the pack that's useful for blending many types of skin tone. The colours included are:
Light pink
Dark pink/wine red
Apricot
Yellow Ochre
Aqua green/blue
Cerulean blue
Indigo/denim blue
Bright green
Navy blue
Light brown
Orange
Yellow
Ultramarine blue
Purple
Dark brown
Red
Violet
Dark green
Mid grey
Black
You could be all snobbish and try to match them more accurately to artists colours as when I took them out of the envelope on receipt my initial reaction was "Oh, they're just a set of kids pens" due to the bright colours and I wonder if that's what the intention was when they were released and before the crafting world got hold of them and made them popular. The pens appear to be the standard colours you might find in a pack of cheap markers from the pound shop or dollar store.
Don't stop reading though Take the pens out and try them. They are amazing. One colour I really don't like though is the light pink Notice I didn't call it pale pink. It isn't. It's an almost fluorescent pink and it only blends well using a wet on wet technique. It fades to a lighter but still quite bright shade of pink. Apart from that in my opinion the rest of the colours are pretty usable. To get that faded watercolour look you only need a tiny bit of neat colour with most of them. One thing I really like but I suppose it could be equally irritating is that some of the colours split when water is added.
This photo demonstrates something of what I mean. Look at the right hand side of the dress. I'm looking at the original and the darker blue has washed out to a lighter blue and pinkish purple. Very pretty and only one marker used. Likewise, the dark brown has broken down into the brown and a pinkish maroon. It saved a lot of blending but then again if you don't want this effect either choose another brand or don't add water.
I used the pens as they are. They blend beautifully and as long as you clean off the tips straight away on scrap paper the tips don't stain. Likewise the tips are fine with a tip to tip technique. You can colour onto a tile or palette or something resistant and paint on colour with a paint brush or water brush, which I like doing . You can try wet on wet, wetting the paper and dropping in colour direct from the marker or or from a paint brush. I also like applying colour directly to the shadow areas and then pulling it out with a water brush. Using blending solution works very well too. I keep one of my water brushes filled with the blending solution I blogged about in an earlier post. It seems to stabilise the colours a little so they're not quite as prone to splitting. It could be due to the greater viscosity of the liquid compared to plain water. According to Kristina Werner (I think it was) the colours will also blend with a Wink of Stella pen although I haven't tried it myself for blending, only as a finishing touch.
Like a fude pen you can create thick or extremely fine lines by changing the angle and pressure on the pen. They're great for getting colouring tiny details although using the pens takes a bit of getting used to. I guess it's easier if you're used to wielding a paint brush rather than markers.
Do you need these? I can't answer that. It depends what you do and whether you're a crafter, an artist or neither. All I can say is that the Akashiya Sai play nicely alongside my Zigs and Aquamarkers as they're all dye based. But they are fun to use. There is a company website http://www.akashiya-fude.co.jp which is in Japanese and English. The pens are manufactured in China though - it says so on the packet.
The opinions expressed here are my own I'm in no way affiliated with the company or any art or craft supplier or website.
