Monster Colors,graffiti Blog,spray paint,cans street art,tags,taggging,pen,graff blog: Ultrawide, the Original Artists Marker is back

Thursday 13 February 2014

Ultrawide, the Original Artists Marker is back

We are here for one reason and that is to LET YOUR CREATIVITY FLOW. Ultrawide the original artist's marker, also known as the "4 finger" is a high quality refillable marker popularized in the 70’s through the early 90’s by street artists until dramatically disappearing from store shelves.

The resurrection has now occurred. No other marker can compare to the Ultrawide "4 finger" or his smaller yet equally amazing version known as the MiniWide "2 finger".

Both, the Mini-Wide and the Ultra-Wide are extraordinary permanent markers from the 1970/80s. The Ultra-Wide was always a bit to dry, no matter how many ink I put inside. But well, I didn´t used Flomaster and at the stage I got the first Ultra-Wide, I had no idea of using paint thinner or solvent to make the marker flow… With the Mini-Wide I had better experiences. Used them with alcohol based Copic ink only and the Mini-Wides are definitely one of the best markers I have.

Mini-Wide Refillable Marker

The Mini-Wide is certainly one of the classic tag-markers. Especially those who are familiar with graffiti and the film Wild Style might recall the scene in which “Zoro” (played by New York graffiti artist Lee) tagged some door (or whatever it was)…

The flat shape of this marker is rather unusual, and as far as I know the pen was actually a kind of layout marker (the Copic Wide has a flat shape too and it seems to be the new version of the Mini-Wide). Both markers, the Mini-Wide and Ultra-Wide, were produced in Japan and distributed in the U.S. by the WESCOSA INC. (“Ultra-Wide” and “Mini-Wide Refillable Marker”) and by HK Holbein Artist Materials (“Illust marker”). The width of the Mini-Wide is about 21 mm wide; the nib is made of felt (different to the extremely stiff synthetic nib of the modern Copic Wide).

To fill/refill the marker – it was always sold empty in the local hip hop stores – one must first pull the nib out of the marker. In the inside is a thin plastic tube through which the ink will get into the wadding filling of the marker … that was usually quite a mess, because the ink quickly spilled over and then expired.