New Silhouette Sketch Pens Review (2x the Ink, but 2x Better?)

The Silhouette Sketch Pens got an overhaul recently and were re-released with two times as much ink as the original pens.

I've been using the new Silhouette Sketch Pens for several months now and feel it's about time to give my honest opinions about the new pens. Ya know...in case you've been holding out or don't know what to do with Silhouette sketch pens.

The original pens were notorious for skipping while sketching and drying out fast.  I - like many Silhouette users - was not a fan.  But with the promise of twice as much ink, in the same size sketch pen I decided to try the new sketch pens.   (If you're still wondering how to use sketch pens with your Silhouette machine, here's a beginner tutorial.)

I have to say - I'm impressed-ish. The pens are exactly the same size as the original (why they were only half filled is something of a mystery) so they still fit in the housing of the Silhouette CAMEO 1, 2 and CAMEO 3, Portrait and Curio without any sort of attachment. 

I tested the new Silhouette Sketch Pens out on this design which is not only large but required several different types of sketch pen fills and several different pens - meaning lots of ink!

While the pens definitely seem to work better than the originals, I would not go so far as to say they are 100% skip-free. There is still some skipping, but it's nothing compared to the original pens. 

You can see in this sketched design there was an area of the L in 'Really' and the U in 'Adult' that had issues with the pen skipping.

I attempted to fix the issue with the U by re-sketching just that letter, but look what happened. The sketch pen did not sketch in the exact same area even though the design was not moved in Silhouette Studio and the paper was not moved on the mat and the mat was not removed from the CAMEO between the sketches. What gives?!  A double cut/2 passes set from the beginning likely would have fixed this.

One way to help prevent skipping is to increase the thickness/force setting in the Silhouette Studio Send Panel (V4)/ Cut Settings window (V3). You may also want to scribble with the pen first before sketching to make sure the ink is running smoothly and hasn't dried out at the tip.

Overall...I'd give the new Silhouette Sketch Pens a B to B-. They're not perfect, but they're much improved over the original Silhouette sketch pens...even on designs that are solid filled with a sketch!

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