If you’ve been using traditional watercolour paints but want something faster and less messy, Tombow ABT dual brush pens are worth a look. Each pen has two tips a flexible brush tip for broad, expressive strokes, and a fine tip for detail work so you get two tools in one pen.
The ink is water-based, which means you can add a wet brush after colouring to blend the ink and create soft, watercolour-style washes. This makes the pens popular with illustrators, journalers, and anyone who sketches on location, since there’s no palette or water pot needed until you actually want to blend.
With over 100 colours available, building a small starter set is easy, and individual colours can be added later to replace favourites as they run low. The ink is also non-toxic, odourless, and acid-free, so it’s safe for long sessions indoors.
Cowling & Wilcox stocks the full Tombow ABT range, including starter sets and the complete colour case for anyone who wants the full palette from day one.
If you’re comparing options, it’s worth also looking at winsor and newton promarkers, which use an alcohol-based ink instead of water-based. Alcohol markers dry faster and give flatter, more graphic colour, while Tombow’s water-based ink is better suited to soft, painterly blending. Which one suits you depends on whether you’re after illustration-style flat colour or a more fluid, watercolour look.