Make Your Tombow Dual Brush Pen Color Chart + Free PDF

In this post, you’ll find a step-by-step tutorial on how to draw a custom Tombow Dual Brush Pen Color Chart from scratch—plus a free printable PDF download if you need to skip straight to swatching!

I love creating art with my Tombow Dual Brush Pens and always refer to my Tombow dual brush pen color chart to pick the marker I need. The plastic pen caps don’t always match true ink pigments on paper, so having an accurate swatch sheet is a total game changer. Also, when you add water to the marker color, pigment reacts and creates a watercolor effect, so this chart is very handy to have!

Option 1: Download, Print and Color

If you want a ready made template, download the Free Tombow Dual Brush Pen Color Chart Pdf at the bottom of this post. It features a clean grid designed specifically to track your Tombow marker collection.

The process of filling in your color chart is so relaxing and stress free. There is no expectations- all you need to do is fill in those squares. Its repetitive, mindless and super satisfying!

Choosing the Right Paper to Print On

Your printing paper determines how accurate your swatches will be:

• Watercolor Paper: Highly recommended if you plan to use your Tombow Dual Brush Pens as watercolors with a wet brush or blender pen. I have a tutorial explaining how to print onto watercolor paper at home.
• Smooth Cardstock or Premium Copy Paper: Perfect if you primarily use your brush pens for dry hand lettering, sketching, or planner spreads without water blending.

Option 2: How to Make Your Own tombow dual brush pen color chart

This is my most used and referred color chart and I used all 108 Tombow Dual Brush Pens here. Making your own swatch chart from scratch allows you to tailor the grid size to fit specific sketchbook pages or planner inserts.

I used a sheet of paper from my Canson Mixed Media XL sketchbook and then used my my favorite masking tape to create a grid of 12 by 9 to match the marker arrangement in the Tombow Marker Storage case.

1. Measure and Draw Your Grid: Layout grid according to your marker collection size. Use a ruler and waterproof fine-liner to draw evenly spaced columns and rows. Make sure each box has enough space for a broad brush stroke and the 3-digit color code.
2. Organize Your Pens: Sort by color family or numerical code. Group your markers by color family (yellows, pinks, blues, warm grays) or numerically by color code before you begin swatching.
3. Fill In Each Swatch Box: Write the marker code using this MONO Twin Permanent Marker. This marker is oil based, and wont bleed with water. I explain this more here: What Pen To Use With Watercolor For Best Results.
4. Color and Paint: Color half the box using the flexible brush tip and paint over it with water.

What do Tombow numbers mean?

Each Tombow Dual Brush Pen marker has a 3-digit color number printed on the barrel.

• You’ll notice all the reds start with number 8 and all the blues start with number 4 or 5. The first number denotes the color family or
• Darker color pen number end with a 7,8, or 9
• Lighter color pen number end with a 1,2 or 3
• The Grey markers are numbered with a N followed by 2 digits.

Here is how my finished watercolor Tombow dual brush pen color chart looks after peeling all of my tape off! I cannot even begin to tell you how happy these colors make me. 🙂

Here is the previous version of my color chart with the original 96 colors. Here I did not create a grid, and hence it was a quicker process, but the chart was equally useful.

Why Should You Make A Tombow Dual Brush Pen Color Chart

1. You can see how all the colors look on paper at a glance quickly. Makes it very easy to pick and choose my markers to use on any sketch
2. I have found that the marker cap color doesn’t always match the watercolor perfectly. So the watercolor chart gives me a great idea how the actual color of the marker will end up with on my paper.
3. This color chart also gives me a great idea about what colors I can avoid. In general, marker numbers ending with 0 or 1 are too light in nature and don’t watercolor too much. The color doesn’t really change with the addition of water.
4. You won’t accidentally buy duplicates! Check your color swatch before buying new markers.

Free tombow dual brush pen color chart PDF

DOWNLOAD HERE: Free Printable Tombow dual brush pen color chart pdf

Conclusion

In conclusion, I highly recommend that you create your own Tombow Dual Brush Pen color chart. It doesn’t matter if you have 10 pens or all 108. The color chart will help you explore more hues and you will learn how to mix more colors with the markers you have.

Further, you can actually create so many new colors with the markers you already have! Explore how to make a watercolor mixing chart for beginners to learn more!