Saturday, April 21, 2018

Comparing the Micron with the Sharpie Stylo

One of my good friends and sketching buddies here in Leesburg uses a Sharpie Stylo pen and loves it.  Finally I picked up a package and I have been using the Sharpie with several sketches to see what my thoughts might be.

I'm really liking this pen for a felt tip pen when sketching.  I've worked it on drawing paper and on watercolor paper with sizing in it.  I love the feel of the tip moving across the paper surface.  It just seems to glide across the surface.

I also like the fact it has more of a dark gray tone versus a stark black which I tend to stay away from.

On some papers, the difference in color or tone is not always evident unless you look real close in good lighting or zoom in with a scan.

This first example is working in the Fabriano Venezia which is a 90lb drawing paper.  There's no sizing in this paper.



This next example is from the Strathmore Visual Watercolor (140 lb CP) sketchbook which has a fairly heavy sizing (at least how I compare it to other papers with sizing).

What really was interesting to me was the experiment taking a wet brush immediately to the paper after scribbling marks with both "permanent" pens.  Just goes to show that the paper surface along with drying time allowed makes a big difference.  I did not bother trying this on non-sized paper since it grabs ink/pigment immediately without sitting on the surface for any period of time.  Testing this will hopefully help me to remember to allow some drying time before adding watercolor to the sketch.

And when the ink bled, there shows a major difference in the ink's pigment hue/tone

Before adding the water, I was able to visually see a difference in the tone between the Sharpie and the Micron.....although subtle.  It was much more apparent after the scan and I zoomed in to compare.




Close-up


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