Variations on a theme in sepia, Op. 1 No. 1


A couple of months ago I was introduced to the awesomeness that is Copic Sketch markers. I'm playing around with 4 colors from the E (earth) range, which give me nice sepia-toned sketches.

I also played with several paper choices to see which kind is best for the markers. The first one I tried was my moleskine plain notebook. Not sure of the paper weight, but the page is pretty thin and the marker bleeds through. I could get some layers but the colors didn’t blend well at all. I’d use this paper for rough sketches only.

The other paper I tried was the fancy Copic bleedproof marker pad, 70gsm. I was surprised how thin this paper is! But it lives up to the promise—the markers didn’t bleed through, they blended very well and I got the best results with a blender than on any other paper. (Perhaps no so evident in the sketch on the right. ) This paper was also a dream to draw on—I use light to medium pencil pressure and the paper was very responsive. I was even able to erase any stray lines without leaving grooves in the surface.