Magic Marker Bleedproof

Prelude

I have compared 45 different papers for markers. I have not included any papers that are not specified for markers by the company that produce them. It is not uncommon that an art store will market a paper as a marker-paper but if you look at the brands homepage they are not label as a marker paper. But with that said, a lot of other kinds of paper can work very well with markers, for example watercolor paper (even though they will “eat” the ink in the marker a lot faster than any other paper). I also tried some Japanese sumi-e paper with good and interesting result.  I might write more about that in the future. For now, this is a marker paper review.

The theory and method for thinner marker paper (70-80 g/m²)

I started with some small samples to se color saturation and value, bleeding and feathering.

I am a firm believer in working the paper as you normally would, to be able to fully understand the potential the paper has, so I decided to do a drawing on every paper.

I especially wanted to test the blending and layering abilities. With blending I mean that I work wheat in wheat, and with layering I let the ink dry before I put another layer on top.

Before I started my drawing I wrote down the name of the brand on the paper. I then covered the name so I wouldn't se which paper I was working on. I wanted it to be a blind test.

I have earlier tried to do the exact same drawing but found that this only works if you compare two or three of them. When you compare many items (as I have done earlier; I compared 29 markers, and now I compare a lot of papers) the chances are huge that the first couples of drawings are a less good than the following (because you are learning) and the last ones are pretty bad because it get so monotonous that it is very difficult to do a good job. At least that is true for me. I therefore chose to draw every drawing different but in the same manner and use the same subject (in this case, one girl stood model for all drawings). I also chose to use the same colors for the face and hair on every drawing. 

Magic marker bleedproof  70 g/m²                                              

Magic marker pad

An English paper available in A4 and A3 pads.

The paper has a slightly grayish tone. The backside feels and react the same to ink as the front side.

The paper feels very different from other papers. All colors look a little darker than the average paper. The markers don´t flow well over the paper, its like the paper want to resist a bit.

It bleeds through to the next paper quite much. However, the paper has a blending capacity that is better than I expected.     

Conclusion: I think this is an ok paper. I would not recommend buying it, but if you own it, it can be interesting to use from time to time. The downside of bleeding is easy to overcome by putting a paper you don't value underneath. 

Magic marker drawing 

Magic marker color sample