Art Marker Showdown: Potentate Alcohol Markers vs. Copic Sketch Markers

In my ever continuing quest to find and test markers for my audience's enjoyment, I quickly ran out of options that were easily available in US brick and mortar stores.  This meant I had to increasingly widen my search online, breezing through my usual resources- DickBlick, Jerry's Artarama, JetPens, in my search for new marker options.  It was on eBay that I hit my motherlode- Chinese markers, grafitti markers, as long as I wasn't required to buy a large set in a single brand, I was willing to give it a shot.  It was during this eBay exploration that I found Potentate markers, a Chinese alcohol based marker. Potentate, meaning monarch or ruler, has a lot to live up to.

Like most brands not easily available in the US, it's difficult to find information about Potentate alcohol markers.

According to the trading site, Road of Silk, Potentate Markers are:

"1. Famous brand in China, practical item for designers

2. Suitable for Individuals or teams’ animation and cartoon drawing

3. Suitable for Drawings, sketching for Interior Design, Architectural Design, Fashion Design

4. Especially suitable for students professionals in fields of architecture, interior, advertisement and animation design"

Art Supply Review Disclaimer

 As always, these art supply reviews are based on my own experiences and tastes, and may not be directly relevant to your needs and techniques. When investing in a product as expensive and potentially long lasting as alcohol based markers, it's wise to take into consideration a variety of sources, and to do your research.

Potentate Alcohol Markers VS. Copic Sketch Alcohol Markers

Potentate Markers:

• Depending on where you buy, are available individually and in sets of 24, 48, or 60 markers
• Are available via shops on eBay (just search 'Potentate alcohol markers') and on sites like Road of Silk  , Wanpin, and Aliexpress
• Twin tipped marker- bullet nib and chisel nib
• Body is similar to Kurecolor Twin S markers
• Color code on cap

Source

• Band of color on barrel and spot on cap to denote ink color
• Also available in a waterbased formula
• Square barrel prevents rolling
• Can be blended with some reworking

Copic Markers

Price Per Marker: $7.29

• Refillable
• Replacable Nibs
• Comfortable in hand
• 358 available number of colors
• Blend
• Color Name and Family on Cap
• Color Coded cap
• Super Brush
• Can mix own colors, blank markers available
• Availability: limited availability at Michaels, many art supply stores, Dick Blick, Jerry's Artarama, Jetpens, Amazon
• Available in individual and color themed sets
• Alcohol based
•   React to rubbing alcohol and 'blender' fluid
•   Can be blended

The Comparison

 This test is my standard for all alcohol based marker comparison tests, and you've already seen it with my Spectrum Noir, Prismacolor Premiers, ShinHan Twin Touch, FlexMarkers, and Pantone Letraset Tria tests. I test the marker's compatibility with a variety of technical pens (Sakura Micron, Copic Multiliner, Pitt Pen, the waterbased ink found in Akashiya brush pens, the gel ink in Pentel Technica rollerball pens), as well as it's ability to blend and layer (shown on the sphere) and it's ability to mix with the other marker (show in the boxed area). I also test blender compatibility with the Copic Colorless Blender.

The Verdict

I wasn't particularly impressed by the Potentate markers. They're a little hard to come by (I ordered them off a trading site), and the plastic feels cheap. Neither nib is impressive, and while they do react to Copic Colorless Blender, they don't blend easily with either other Potentate markers or Copic markers. I ended up paying a fair amount for shipping, and since there are so many decent alternatives available (Shin Han TWin Touch, for example), I recommend skipping out on this marker.

Creating Shrink Film Charms

Ever since Printcess closed its doors, I've been at a loss as to where to source my acrylic charms.  Zap! and InkIt are both viable contenders, with InkIt's charms being closer to the general aesthetic I like for charms, and their clear charms looking super slick.  While I wait for InkIt to open up their rasterization service, inspiration struck.  My friend, Cassie Freire  (@ferretparty), recently did a set of Catnip Circle double charms available in either Mela or Pera flavors.  These adorable charms, featuring one large charm of one of the two girls, and one smaller charm, struck me as being an excellent product to run in a small batch.  This sort of prototyping lends itself well to a product I've only dabbled in once- shrink film charms.

Printing and Assembling the Editor's Day Edition of the Friendly Book of Monsters

SCAD Sequential's Editor's Day has come and gone, preceeded by a week of preparations and followed by the rush of finishing my thesis before the finals crunch. This year, the Mini Comics Expo was on the same day as the last day of Editor's Day (it's actually a two day event- Friday and Saturday), so Heidi and myself had double the reason to get ready. We decided to attempt something we'd talked about often- a special edition cover for the Friendly Book of Monsters, a linoleum print on specialty paper.

May Art Snacks Blind Box

About a month ago, I received my first Art Snacks subscription box in the mail, and disemboweled it for my audience's reading pleasure.  At the time, I was a bit disappointed by the selection (although quite impressed by the presentation) and outlined a few things I'd like to see from Art Snacks in the future.  For the purposes of review (and my own curiosity), I've decided to maintain at least three months' worth of Art Snacks subscriptions, before I really decide on my thoughts regarding the service.

About a week ago, my May Art Snacks box arrived, but I didn't have time to write up the review as I was preparing for Editor's Day.  Now that I have a little breathing room, I thought I'd go ahead and share it.

Art Snacks presentation has remained unchanged, which I say is a tic in their favor.  This month's treat was a Twizzler, and I put this month's sticker on my sketchbook.  It seems to be a vinyl sticker, perfect for attaching to your car, binders, or any surface that sees a lot of wear and tear.

I felt like this month's haul was quite a step up from  last month's.  I wasn't particularly impressed by the plastic palette knife nor the paint (I'm not an acrylic painter), but I was impressed by the conte pencil, the mechanical pencil (with the thoughtful inclusion of lead as well as spare erasers), and even the Micron.  To be honest, I'm quite biased, as I'd love to see a supply subscription service aimed specifically at illustrators and comic artists.

The Art Snacks blog could serve as an excellent place to address some of the suggestions I made in my last review:

Also useful would be an area on the site where users could submit what they've done with the materials, and perhaps a user gallery. Submitted tutorials listing which Art Snacks materials used would also be neat, and would help subscribers who aren't familiar with the materials become familiar with them quickly. Another neat feature would be interviews with professional artists to find out what they use, include one 'recommended item' per box, and maybe a small demo or tutorial of the artist working with that material.

I realize that one of the best ways to ensure that some of these suggestions see fruition would be to make contributions of my own, which is why I'm also not taking the lack of such features too seriously.  In the future, when I have more free time, I'd love to test some of these supplies at length and come up with alternative uses for them.

Art Marker Showdown: Poison Grafitti Markers vs. Copic Sketch Markers

In my quest to broaden my marker horizons, two frontiers remained- the foreign marker market and markers for grafitti artists.  With the exception of markers made for full size graffiti pieces, most graffiti markers are just alcohol based markers marketed at a different crowd.

I must admit, I don't know very much about graffiti art, nor graffiti artists, but from what I've read, it seems that there's quite a few graffiti artists who practice their craft in black, hard bound sketchbooks, called blackbooks.  For these artists, it's important to find a paper-safe material capable of emulating traditional graffiti techniques like blending and fading.  Alcohol based markers may serve this purpose well.

A blackbook graffiti artist may have different artistic needs than the average illustrator.  As an illustrator, I like Copic's Super Brush, and I rely on the ability to mimic watercolor affects, something a graffiti artist may not find desirable in an alcohol based marker.  Conversely, when I'm trying to cover a large area on paper (like when I'm putting down a color wash), I pull out my Copic wide markers, whereas a graffiti artist may use the chisel end and lay down a careful series of strokes.

Because I test for specific qualities when testing markers, I'll reiterate what I do test for.  Please keep in mind that my tests are skewed to determine whether markers have these qualities, so my tests are by no means conclusive.  I recommend searching markers before you purchase.

The qualities I test for are:

1. Flexible nib that can mimic the flex of a watercolor brush.
2. Refill-ability
3. Blend-ability with other markers

For many of the markers I test, there is no flexible nib, but a stiff bullet nib.  This may cause me to discount a marker, but I realize that many of you are not looking for a flexible nib.  Many less experienced artists may be willing to trade refill ability for a lower cost option, or easy availability for cost.

Background Information on Poison Alcohol Based Graffiti Markers:

"POISON Markers are hand-made, and use the highest quality alcohol/water based inks/paints that have been developed by street writers. The pump system of the markers, has the ability to cover almost any flat surface and can produce nice and controlled drips if required. Their enhanced ergonomic design allows better handling of the marker for total control. We use only the highest quality of ingredients to make sure our markers will last and provide you with a trustworthy tagging tool."

Source 

Back in the day, graffiti was underground and getting your hands on good quality ink for tagging was almost impossible. Many were using paper-quality ink that could not withstand the weather conditions. A true black ink that can resist fading or chemical buffing was almost impossible to make.

Then, along came a simple but effective idea: the addition of bitumen to an oil based black ink, thick enough to create a long-lasting effect, but easy to flow through squeezers and create the most impressive drips. What was born from this idea and actual street testing was the original ‘Black Poison’ – the first generation of the famous bitumenous ink. ‘Silver Poison’ followed right after the huge success, using the same principal of the addition of bitumen.

Source 

In general, Poison specializes in graffiti tools- spray paints, inks, markers, but I was mainly interested in their alcohol based markers.

Art Supply Review Disclaimer

As always, these art supply reviews are based on my own experiences and tastes, and may not be directly relevant to your needs and techniques. When investing in a product as expensive and potentially long lasting as alcohol based markers, it's wise to take into consideration a variety of sources, and to do your research.

Poison Alcohol Based Markers Vs. Copic Sketch Markers

Poison
Individual Marker: 1.47 euros ($1.92)

• 60 available colors (incl. colorless blender)
• Fine Liner (bullet) and broad chisel tips
• Sold individually and in sets of 20 (basic colors, intense colors, soft colors, 27.99 euros ($36.61))
• On the Poison website, a tryout set of 6 is 7.99 euros.
• Available through the Poison website, eBay (where I got mine)
• Same body as MEPXY markers, but feel cheaper.  One arrived with the color end broken off and missing
• Unsure if refillable or replaceable nibs- if they're a reskin of MEPXY markers, one can probably replace the nibs
• Color name and code on cap, not really sure how the families work

Copic Sketch Markers

Price per Copic Sketch $7.29 (Amazon)

Price per Copic Ciao $3.59 (Amazon)

Price per Refill $10.99 (Amazon Prime) (I've seen it for around $8 at the Dick Blick in Savannah, though)

•  Refillable
•  Replaceable Nibs
•  Comfortable in hand
•  358 available number of colors
•  Blend-able
•  Color Name and Family on Cap
•  Color Coded cap
•  Super Brush
•  Can mix own colors, blank markers available
•  Availability: limited availability at Michaels, many art supply stores, Dick Blick, Jerry's Artarama, Jetpens, Amazon
•  Available in individual and color themed sets
•  Alcohol based
•  React to rubbing alcohol and 'blender' fluid
•  Can be blended

Poison's manufacturer did a good job making sure the caps match the ink color

Noticing how similar Poison markers were to MEXPY markers, so I pulled out my MEXPY brush tips and a Spectrum Noir for comparison.  From the left:  MEXPY, Poison, Spectrum Noir.

Comparison of the Chisel nibs.  From the left: MEXPY, Spectrum Noir, Poison.

As you can see, the Poison marker is much larger than the Copic Sketch, both in diameter and in length.

A note I found interesting:  I recently found out that MEPXY alcohol based markers are produced by Montana, a company that also produces supplies for graffiti artists including spray paint.  MEXPY has recently begun offering a flexible brush tip option in addition to their bullet nib option, making MEXPY more attractive to illustrators.  The similarities between the two companies are a little strong to be coincidence.

The Comparison

The Test Results

This test is my standard for all alcohol based marker comparison tests, and you've already seen it with my Spectrum Noir, Prismacolor Premiers, and Pantone Letraset Tria tests. I test the marker's compatibility with a variety of technical pens (Sakura Micron, Copic Multiliner, Pitt Pen, the waterbased ink found in Akashiya brush pens, the gel ink in Hi Tec C rollerball pens), as well as it's ability to blend and layer (shown on the sphere) and it's ability to mix with the other marker (show in the boxed area). New to this test is the compatibility with Copic's Colorless Blender. ShinHan also has a colorless blender marker available, but I don't have one to test for this supply review.

I found that the Poison markers I purchased didn't play very nicely with the Copic Sketch markers I used for this test.  It's always difficult to blend markers with a bullet nib, they tend to leave scratchy lines.  I think my choice to compare Poison alcohol based markers with Copic Sketch markers may have been poor- a better test would have been Poison markers against MEXPY markers, as they seem to be direct competitors.

At this time, I would not recommend Poison markers if you're looking for a Copic substitute.  Although they are relatively inexpensive, they're fairly hard to find, and if you're outside the UK, they're expensive to ship.  Your color choice is limited, and they don't seem to play well with Copics, although I haven't tested compatibility with other brands.

SCAD Mini Comics Expo (2013)

The SCAD Mini Comics Expo is an opportunity for the students in the Mini Comics, Self Publishing, and Self Promotion classes to produce mini comics, gain convention experience, and exchange comics in a friendly, low stress setting.  The Mini Comics Expo is one day event, open to the public, and is similar to mini comic conventions like Fluke.  The majority of the wares sold at this Expo will be hand made, and you can expect to see lots of garage print comics.

In the past, tables mainly available to students in those three classes, but lately it's been open to interested students and alumni.  This Saturday's Mini Comics Expo will be my third, and possibly my last, as my time at SCAD draws to a close.

This mini con is this Saturday, May 11, in the Norris Hall Courtyard (548 East Broughton St), and lasts from 1p.m. til 4p.m.  It's open to the public, and this year it's all ages, so there will be plenty of family friendly comics.  It occurs right after the group portfolio reviews end on Editor's Day weekend, so that means there may be some comic editors wandering around.

Heidi and I usually use this opportunity to test out new products, and we have a few exciting things to add to our table this year.  They are:

 Hand made snow ball/cone buttons made using my button press.

Freshly pressed ice cream cone buttons. 

Limited edition 7" Kara charms,  freshly baked in Heidi's oven.  These charms are triple charms, featuring three shrink film charms- a 2" Kara, either a roll of paperbark with charcoal OR a blackberry and flower, and a pencil.   

A special edition of the Friendly Book of Monsters, slightly edited to make it kid-safe, and now featuring a beautiful hand printed linoleum print cover and stab binding.

And a small sampling of the baked goods we've been preparing.  Mini cupcakes for a mini comics expo, in a variety of flavors!  Strawberry, coconut, chocolate peanut butter, M&M, vanilla, spice cake, strawberry (with fresh strawberries inside!), and homemade funfetti.  Each of these cuties was mixed from Heidi's secret cupcake recipe and feature homemade icing in a variety of tasty flavors including chocolate, vanilla, and peanut butter.

We hope to see you Saturday!

SCAD Sidewalk Arts Festival

Saturday, April 27 was the Sidewalk Arts Festival at Forsythe Park in Savannah, GA.  The park was pretty packed, crowds gathered to see sidewalk arts, listen to the band in the Amphitheatre, eat from the various stalls and booths set up in the park, and generally enjoy a beautiful day.

Heidi and I arrived at the park around 10:30, eager to participate in our first Sidewalk Arts Festival.  Both of us were absolute novices when it came to sidewalk art, though like most kids, we'd drawn on the pavement for fun years ago.

We checked in, were given two sets of Prang chalk, and Heidi filled our waterbucket.  We set about forming a plan of attack.  The day before we'd come up with a thumbnail of Kara and Cass picking apples, but when faced with the canvas of a sidewalk, we realized it'd be more challenging than originally anticipated.  Heidi and I decided rough in the basic forms using white chalk mixed with water.

Excuse the fact that it looks like I'm a lazy bum who does no work- I was the only one able to take photos.

To make this water and chalk mixture, we had to grind up a lot of white chalk  Since white chalk seemed to be in general demand, and we couldn't supply our own chalk, we decided to use what was left as the start of our skintone.

It may seem counterintuitive to the concept of sidewalk art to use paint made of chalk, but a lot of the artists who do Sidewalk Arts festival have elaborate setups including palettes and hammers that allow them to easily create paint with their chalk.  The chalk, when ground against the pavement, doesn't produce as intense a line as the chalk paint does, and there's a high probability that the pigments blow away in the end.  The paint doesn't have this problem.  Another benefit of the paint is that colors are more easily mixed (like skintones), and blending may be easier.

There were quite a few times in the process of this piece that I had some serious doubts.  Sidewalk Arts Festival also has a competitive aspect to it, but I wanted to keep it casual, as this was our first time doing this.  At this point, I thought the piece wouldn't really come together, but we were determined to give it a shot.

The piece really began to come together when we applied a mixture of brown, violet, and black chalk paint as an 'ink' outline.

As the sun rose in the sky, the sun-mottling became worse, so the photos aren't going to do the piece any real justice.

There were a lot of very talented people participating in the Sidewalk Arts Festival, but due to the crowd, I couldn't get any photos.  To be honest, it was hard enough to get our piece done with the crowd, as our mobility was severely limited.

Our experience this year was a lot of fun, although if we were to ever participate again, I think we would do some things differently. Quite a few artists were better prepared and used the chalks to make paints; grinding, mixing, and applying all of their chalk in a liquid form.