Hi everyone!
As most of you might know, for the last couple of months I have been experimenting with different kinds of papers, trying to find the best one for alcohol markers. Unlike watercolours and other mediums, deciding a paper to use with alcohol markers is not an intuitive process, so I hope this will help you in some way!
ALCOHOL MARKER PAPER
Let’s start with the first option that comes to mind, paper marketed as marker paper. In this section we will find two very different kinds of papers, the REAL marker paper, and the (in my opinion) FAKE marker paper.
The real one is the one we can find sometimes marketed as paper for manga illustrations by some Japanese companies. This paper is on the thin side (altho not the thinest we will talk about) coming at 150g/m2 (167 micron) most times. It is usually very easy to blend in this paper, and it takes very well other inks. I had the chance to briefly try one by Copic that I really like called ‘Custom Paper’ and this is the one that I would recommend. It does bled through.
Now, the fake one. In this category we have paper that usually comes in sketchbook form and it is branded as marker paper, but IT’S NOT. Pretty much every affordable brand has these sketchbooks. The main selling point is that alcohol markers won’t bleed through to the next page. However, by adding the thickness and compactness needed for this not to happen, they compromise on many other things that in my opinion are the most important and what makes a paper suitable for alcohol markers. These papers will make your markers last less, perfect flats will be more difficult because the paper will suck and dry the ink too fast, and finally blending and gradients will be more difficult for the same reason. Not to say, most of these sketchbooks will make your strokes spread big time, so they are no good for detailed work.
WATERCOLOUR PAPER
It is difficult for me to talk about this category because so many different papers are considered watercolour paper. Let’s say we are talking about papers with a bigger grammage, and with a percentage of cotton.
Overall, I am not a fan of using these kind of papers for alcohol markers. They absorb a lot of ink, adding more spread and making your makers last less. However the texture it adds is very interesting, and specially cotton papers make the colours look very smooth and vibrant.
I feel like this paper could be very interesting for specific alcohol maker techniques, the colours mix very well but precision is very difficult.
These papers will most possibly bleed trough.
CALLIGRAPHY PAPER
This is the paper that I tested most recently. I thought it could be a good candidate as they are meant to take inks very well. This paper has a very particular texture that I feel that it’s not for everyone, I personally still don’t know how to feel about it.
It takes very well the ink, it spreads a tiny bit, not as much as the watercolour paper. Perfect flats and gradients are relatively easy to achieve but you need to work very quickly. They come in all different colours, like light greys and cream, which most of the other papers don’t offer.
Overall an interesting option, that I see myself using more often, as it gives a very particular look due to the texture.
These papers will bleed trough.
PLANE COPY PAPER
I had to include plane copy paper because honestly is one of the best options. I will recommend 80gsm and uncoated.
This paper is affordable, you can get it anywhere, and it gives very good results!
It is not the ultimate paper but if you are working on a budget, this is for you. It takes all kinds of ink, doesn’t dry too fast making blending easier, and colours look brilliant.
A couple of things to bear in mind if you want to go fo this paper. Firstly this paper won’t take abuse, so be careful if you are someone that tends to heavily saturate with ink or that presses very hard on the paper, because it can deform the paper. Also, this paper can sometimes not be acid free, so colours can start fading and loosing vibrancy over time.
LOW PERCENTAGE COTTON PAPER
Finally I want to talk about the paper that in my opinion is the winner. High quality, low gsm, 10-30% cotton paper.
I know this is very specific, but you will be able to find these papers under the ‘Fountain Pen Friendly’ category. There are several brands and this papers/sketchbooks are on the pricy side.
Some recommendations from my side are Midori MD paper, Tomoe Rive paper and Rhodia sketchbooks. Of course I could only test a small selection of them, but I am sure you will be able to find many alternatives in your area, in my experience small boutiques carry these kind of papers/sketchbooks.
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And that’s it for me, please let me know any questions you might have, from my side I will keep searching and updating you guys as I make more discoveries!
Have a nice day!
Lidia