Is ARTISTRO Still Worth It?

 

Back in December, right after my high-pressure autumn stippling attempts collided with reality, I did a full breakdown of the Artistro 0.2 Fineliner. I even embedded a quick one-minute hyper-lapse of me putting that single nib to work in 18 minutes on a 5.5"x5.5" rough watercolor page for my "Three Random Things" sketchbook.

Nine months later, as I am in the midst of Inktober, it's time to check the status of the inventory. Is the ARTISTRO still a heavyweight contender for rough paper?

Heck yes.

If you are a perfectionist who stipples or crosshatches, you know that rough watercolor paper is an absolute meat-grinder for fine liner nibs. Cheap pens will fray, split, or start skipping within three days of heavy shading. The Artistro 0.2, however, has held its deep obsidian pitch and smooth glide flawlessly.

Why It’s Making the October Cut:

The Single-Size Gradient:  Because the flow is incredibly proper, I can manage both an extremely delicate stippled shadow and a thick silhouette border using just this one pen size.

The Pocket Companion: Since I am currently working on a portable studio setup, I don't want a massive roll of twenty different graded barrels cluttering my space. The two-pack of 0.2mm pens is a complete, self-contained arena. You can throw it into a pencil bag with a couple of Le Pen color sets, a small sketchbook or loose pages alongside, and you are fully equipped to art anywhere.

If you want to watch the original 1-minute test video or see how it glides over heavy tooth, use the link above, scroll back down to my original December log if you'd rather search on your own, or take a trip through YouTube or TikTok directly. The tools are vetted, the ink is rich, and I've already almost fully exhausted my 0.1 Le Pen Technical Drawing pen...

ARTISTRO? I need you, sweetie. (Don't make me replace you with the kingart PRO line.)

Happy arting, peeps -- and stay sane!

-- Mathie Tremas.