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Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Ecoline markers - light fast?


Ecoline brush markers are a a fairly recent purchase for me. The colors are bright and the markers are juicy. Definitely fun to play with. If you liked my previous post with the stained glass orbs, these are the markers I used for some of them. (I also used my Tombow markers.) In the picture you will see a circular color chart. I did that when I first got them and added water to see what they would look like when thinned with water.

But are they lightfast? If you frame a piece and/or hang it up on your wall, what will happen? So I decided to find out. I took a strip of my good drawing paper and made a color chart with all the colored markers in my set. If you look at each color you will see that I drew a thin line with the marker quickly. Then to the right I drew a thick line, letting the juiciness of the pen fully saturate the strip. I wrote the name and number of the color under the color.

Then I took a black piece of cardstock paper and covered one half of the paper. Approximately 1/3 of the thick line was covered up. Then I put the paper in a southern facing window where it would get direct sunlight. I put it there on June 18th and took it out one month later.

Results? As you can see below, some colors faded badly. The ultramarine violet and blue violet were the worst. That didn't surprise me because pinks and purples are known for fading. What did surprise me was there was also significant fading in the burnt sienna and green colors too. There was lessor fading in several other colors also.

Remember, this was only one month! So I'll put it back in the window and see what keeps happening.

Will I keep using these markers? Yes, because the colors make me happy. If you photograph your work and post it online you will be fine.  But I will not use these for anything that I sell or give to someone that may want to put them on display. 







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