I'm curious if anyone can help me out with this one (I figured it'd fit here better than in the art forum). As a few of you know, I've been working on some trippy-ass shit (Sorry 'bout the glare D:) using watercolors and two ink pens that I borrowed from my art instructor. When I handed in my analysis of my progress (Blargh, paperwork), she asked what I thought about using the pen. My primary problem was this. The pens had a tendency to get big drops of ink on the paper, which royally pissed me off a few times. Otherwise, I liked the way that the ink pens handled, since it was much lighter to work with than a ball pen (One of the things that always gets me is when a pen leaves dents in a paper.). Another problem that I had was the whole thickness/thinness thing. I wanted to be able to get a little more variety.
The instructor recommended that I use an adjustable technical pen, but there's a bit of an issue with that. Most of the technical pens I find are either felt-tipped (I have a long-standing bad relationship with felt tip pens) or "artificial polymer" tipped - I have no idea what this means. In addition, I haven't found any that have adjustable tips - I have only found individual pens of varying sizes rather than the adjustable caliper pens that I had in mind.
Locally, there are only two types available that I've found, one of which is what appears to be an incredibly standard boxed set of Staedtler Mars pens. I read a review of them and it was stated that the tips are "Really similar to felt," which kind of turned me off to them. I can likely be persuaded to change my mind if anyone has any input about them, though. The other available type are single Koh-I-Noor pens (Only available in one size locally; costs about $20 for a single pen.), which didn't have enough detail on the packaging to make me feel secure about laying down twenty bucks for a single pen.
So basically, I would like recommendations for pens and possibly where to find them, preferably a technical pen. I do NOT like Ballpoint pens. Please don't recommend them. I might settle for felt tipped. Basically, if I'm going to spend $20 on a single pen or whatever, I want to make it worthwhile.