Review of the Mepxy Brush Markers

Recycled Soda Tab Earrings colored with Mepxy Brush Markers

I really enjoyed crafting with the Mepxy Brush markers (from the U.K.) because of their versatilty, ease of use, quality, and excellent color selection.  Above is a pair of recycled soda tab earrings that I made using the markers to color the metal.

The Mepxy markers are now being sold in the United States in art stores.  The markers bring Anime artists, calligraphy artists, and crafters a new choice in alcohol ink markers.  Mepxy even has a blog dedicated to anime artists with a fun gallery and ideas for using the markers.
The set that I got is the Mepxy 12 colors basic set which includes:

• B06 Peacock Blue
• L07 Natural Green
• 006 Cadmium Orange
• V06 Iris Purple
• C05 Cyan
• M09 Magenta
• P04 Lavender
• W07 Light Mahogany
• G07 Vivid Green
• N18 Sepia
• R08 Vermilion
• Y06 Bright Yellow

and separately, I purchased:

• 00 Colorless Blending Pen
• Marker Blending Palette

I had a opportunity to test them out and here are my findings in using this product.  The colors are high pigment that makes for a very rich color.  I made a color chart so you could see how they look on ivory card stock.

The inks are also translucent which makes blending the inks very easy to accomplish.  I did a sample blending using two of the colored ink markers and the colorless blending brush.

They all worked very well together and I was quite pleased. The dots pattern on the dress was done with the colorless blender pen.

 The colorless blender pen is used to remove excess ink from the image or to blend colors.

Like the other quality alcohol ink markers in the market place, these markers come with two tips.  The marker has a fine brush tip on one side

and a wide chisel tip on the other.

Shading with these markers is pretty easy.  You can add color by going over the same area with the marker or use a darker color.  The colorless blender pens are great for lightening up areas to create more dimension in a picture.

I read on the Mepxy website that the ink is toner friendly and won't react to it nor would it remove images from it.  So I did my own test on this.  I used five colors and none of them lifted the image from the paper.

I decided to test the markers on different surfaces to see how they looked.  I started by testing them on metal soda tabs.  I used the markers to color the metal soda tabs.  These have recently become popular in recycling craft projects but are often hard to find in nice colors.  So I colored a few with the markers and as you can see some of the colors are more opaque than others.
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I also tried the Mepxy markers on wire hooks.  I used the markers to color the wire in various colors and it worked perfectly.  This also worked well on plain metal staples.

Then I tried it out on a cut up piece of aluminum soda can that I had run through my Big Shot machine.  This also worked really well.

Note:  When working with metal, allow the ink to dry in between coats of different colors.  Also use a toothpick to hold the metal during the painting process to avoid smearing the ink while it dries.   I decided to heat set the ink to ensure that the ink would remain colorfast and permanent on the metal.

For my First Project, I decided to make some simple Soda Tab Earrings with materials I had on hand.

Next, I decided to try test them on some plain cloth flowers.  I took apart the flowers and used the yellow color to paint the center of the petals.  I let them dry for about a half hour. Then I proceeded to wet the outer surface of the petals (one at a time) with the colorless blender pen which was immediately followed by inking the surface with the orange marker.

The finished flowers looked great.  I liked the vibrancy of the colors and I think the colored flowers are much cuter than the original plain flower.

Then I decided to see how these would work on canvas that has been prepped with gesso.
      For my second project, I used the markers to make a page in my altered art journal.  First, I colored the background with the markers.  Then I stamped several designs onto the page. I  filled in the color on the skull with the Mepxy markers.  I could layer the ink without blocking out my stamped images by doing only one coat.  I quickly finished off the page by adding some simple embellishments.

Mepxy Alcohol Ink Markers used in Altered Art Journal Pages

My third project was to use the markers over various card stock to see how it would hold up.  As you can see in the photo below, it worked great on the canvas, card stock, and the various trims that I combined to make a fun wall hanging for my daughter.

      The Mepxy Alcohol Ink Brush markers worked well together with all the different elements that I tested them.  I certainly got the results that I wanted from them.  This product seems to work on so many surfaces that the possibilities for crafting use are vast.

      The Mepxy Alcohol Ink Brush markers also work great on shrink plastic, air dry clay, epoxy clay pieces, lace, assorted papers, various metals, and more.  I enjoyed the versatility of these markers and the intensity of the pigmented alcohol inks.  They are very easy to work with, however, I can not stress enough that once the ink is applied to a surface, it will dry quickly.   Make sure to plan your project with this in mind.  Personally, I love that it dries quickly because it lets me move on to the next project phase.

    The markers are also sold individually at around $10 (but I found them online for less) which makes it easy to collect the colors you like.  The sets retail for $72 to $74 but again, a google search listed them at several retailers for various prices.  These markers would be great for the art students, journaling, or crafter's.  My kids love them for doing Anime drawings because of the smooth flow of the ink and the double ended tip.

Tips:

• Immediately place tips back onto markers so they do not dry out.
• I was told by the rep to store my markers horizontal.
• Do not use with Staz On ink, because it can react to it.
• These are rich colors and will seep through cheaper quality paper, so take that into consideration when planning your projects.
• If you decide to color soda tabs with alcohol ink pens, you have to clean them and sand them to get alcohol ink to stick.  Then you need to heat set it (I use my embossing tool).  The intensity of color you get depends on the amount of ink you use and the brand of ink you use.  
• I found the ink adhered differently to different types of metal.  So I recommend you do a test first to make sure the alcohol inks will work on the metal you are planning on using.

New Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Mepxy Brush Markers, however they did provide these markers to me to do a honest review on my own blog and on the Craft Critique blog.  If you want to read the pros and cons, then go to the Craft Critique blog post and scroll down to the bottom.  The I do Craft Critique Reviews, they like us to post both the pros and cons of a product. I just do not have room to do that on my own blog posts here.

Additionally, I am an Amazon associate and will earn a few cents (literally) from your clicking on my Amazon links and make a purchase. This year was my biggest earner, I earned a total of $9 from my Amazon associate link. Every penny helps when trying to get supplies to do reviews and tutorials.   However you should know that you do not have to use my links. You can do your own Google search and find the best price for your budget.

My experience with the Letraset ProMarker Blending Sets

The Letraset Promarker Blending Set comes in a choice of Pastel, Muted, and Vivid color sets.  Each set comes with 12 Markers, a Blender Pen, and a Blending Chart.  You can also find a color chart available for free download on the Letraset website, which is helpful in planning your projects and keeping track of what marker colors you currently own.  ProMarkers are alcohol based inks which are popular with Manga artists.  They are permanent on paper, so plan accordingly.   The ProMarkers are fairly fast drying, which means you do have to plan ahead and work quickly to achieve maximum results.  These are non-toxic permanent markers that are double ended.  The side of each marker is labeled with the ink color and corresponding color number which makes it extra easy to refer to the color charts.

The ProMarkers are equipped with  dual nibs.  One is fine and the other is a chisel nib.

Thus, you can get achieve variety of color lines, depending on how you hold the nibs.  The fine nib was designed for detail work.  It is great for drawing Manga art, drawing fine lines, and filling in small areas. Also, if you hold the fine tip on its side, you can achieve a broader looking line that is good for filing in a larger area.

The chisel nib also offers some versatility.  You can achieve a wider line by holding the marker on its side.  The width will vary in accordance with how you hold the pen to the paper.  Also the chisel nib is great for color blending and filling in larger areas with color.  Then to achieve a thinner line with the chisel tip, you just need to hold it on its tip.  I was able to get a few different widths just by adjusting how I held the marker.

Each set comes with a dual nib blender pen that can be used to pick up unwanted color on certain surfaces, as well as be used to blend colors on various surfaces.

The ProMarker blender pens was very useful in creating a softer texture on the colored images.  Color in the image first, then go over it with the blender with dots, lines, circles, etc. to create texture or to soften the color.  The blender pens are easy to use.  For a quick demonstration, just view the video below to see how to use the blender pens to remove color from a paper flower.

For my first project, I decided to take a wood block, paint it, then accent it with assorted papers and die cuts to create a temporary book end. I then used the paper flower from the demo video as a center accent on the paper flower die cuts.  

Since it will remove excess ink from the image, the ProMarker blender pens are great to fix mistakes on your colored image. Depending on the surface, it can help smooth out lines on your colored image and lighten the color a bit.

Also, when planning your project, you may want to consider using bleed proof paper.  Below is an example of how the ink reacts with inexpensive regular printer paper. This is the back of the colored 

Ink Bleeds through Regular Copy Paper 

image and it did have some major bleeding.  You can see that it does not have the same crisp lines that you would get using bleed-proof paper.   You can avoid this problem by using your favorite brand of bleed-proof papers. I did notice that Letraset does offer their own line of papers on their website for Manga and other specific applications.

Personally, I had really good results with the Canson Watercolor 140lb cold press papers and some heavy cardstock (which I bought at a local stamp show).  I would recommend pre-testing a small piece of the paper you are planning to use and see how the ink reacts with your own papers.  On my second project, I used a black water-based ink pad to stamp a couple of butterfly images onto the heavy cardstock.

Once the images dried, I colored them in with ProMarkers from the muted collection and cut one of them out.

I found that if you coat the heavy card stock with the blender medium as a base, it will give you more time to achieve better color blending results.  I was trying for a slightly faded denim look at the top of the butterfly.  I found by laying the blender medium then the color, it was easier to blend the color and then remove color from some areas of the card.  This allowed me to achieve that slightly faded look in specific areas.

The Letraset ProMarkers also works really well with the Memento inks. This is because the Memento ink is dye-based and does not smear as easily as other inks might.  

For my third project, I decided to test the ProMarkers on a variety of surfaces to see how they would perform.  So I decided to use them on the embellishments that I was going to put in the mini album that I am working on for my daughter.  I started with the chipboard cover pieces and covered them with a variety of papers and embellishments.

Then I used one of the coordinating muted markers to line the outer edge of my page.

I used "Pale Pink" and "Pastel Blue" to outline the cloth flowers with a little touch of color. The mini frame was white, so I used the same two ink colors to make it coordinate with the paper and flowers. After the ink dried, I added some glitter, a charm, and rhinestones to the frame.

On the page below, I used the ProMarker to outline the lace so it would coordinate with the other elements on the page.

Then I used the ProMarkers to outline the vellum envelope and the green corners.

Tips:

• Start with the lightest color and color image in.  Then apply the other colors in a similar order (light to dark)
• Use the blender pen according to manufactures directions to get the best results.
• Use the blender pen as a base coat then quickly apply the ProMarker colors you are trying to blend, before it dries to maximize use of the blending medium.
• Try shade apply the color onto paper surfaces by layering the color on until you get the desired result.
• The blender pen allows for versatility with the color applications and is a must have if you want to be able to do more shading in your color application

Disclosure