Tips for Coloring the Covers

Colored pencils work very well on the covers.

A lot of people have asked me about gel pens. Here's what I'm told.

The print cover has a slight waxy coating (not sure what the official name is), which makes for a longer drying time and kind of “repels” water based inks.

So, using a non-water based ink (or ideally one that includes alcohol, which will help it dry faster) as well as a marker with a fine tip and smaller barrel seems to work best from the methods I’ve tried. Moreover, markers have given the best flow of ink from the ink-tools I’ve tried – I’m assuming because the material that makes up their tip contains some of the ink as opposed to being a mechanism to release the ink like in a regular pen.

Gel pens aren’t great on the print cover because their pigment is suspended in a water-based gel and most don’t release the ink at a fast enough pace – so you end up either having an blobby picture that takes forever to dry and ends up smeared OR a lack of ink that results in mostly scratching the cover and a streaky drawing – if that makes sense.

Copic Ciao markers work well because they hold a medium amount of ink in the barrel (as opposed to Copic Sketch's fatter barrel) that helps to avoid blobbing and the ink is alcohol based.

Bottom line: if you love gel, use gel that is alcohol based.