I Colored One Page With 6 Brands of Acrylic Paint Markers

What each brand actually colored

Tooli Art: about twenty codes out of thirty one, across the Earth Tones, Wild Flowers, Essential, Neon and Skin Tone ranges, plus single pinks, purples, browns, greens and yellows.
GuangNa: seven codes, the blues of the sky and some of the greens.
Colpart: two codes, in the oranges.
Nicety: one code, from the Green Tones range.
Posca: the black outlines.
Arrtx: one code, a pale beige.

That imbalance was not planned. I simply picked whatever matched the shade the key was asking for, and Tooli Art ended up carrying two thirds of the drawing. That is a finding in itself: it is the most complete range I own.

None of them bled through

This was the number one criterion, because the book is printed double sided: a marker that bleeds through destroys the coloring on the back. All six brands are acrylic, and none of them marked the following page. That is exactly why you reach for acrylics on a double sided book, and why alcohol markers are out of the question here.

Two coats, whatever the brand

I expected some of them to cover in one pass. None really does, and it is not their fault: the paper in a coloring book is not primed. It absorbs part of the binder on the first pass, the pigment sits unevenly on the surface, and the result looks streaky until you go over it a second time.

Coverage depends far more on the shade than on the manufacturer. Dark colors take immediately, pale ones need patience. Plan on two coats everywhere, and never judge a marker on its first pass.

Drying time, and the mistake I made

Expect anything from a few seconds to a minute or two depending on how thickly you lay it down. Fast, but not instant, and that is precisely where it caught me out.

There were so many outlines to draw on this page that I forgot I had done one less than thirty seconds earlier. I rested my arm on it and the black smudged. That is not a flaw in the Posca, it is a flaw in my method: on a very dense drawing, work from top to bottom and keep a clean sheet of paper under your wrist.

Posca: two tips, two behaviours

I did every outline with the black Posca and I recommend it without reservation. But there is one detail I had never read anywhere, and it changes everything: at the same diameter, two tip shapes do not behave the same way.

The 0.7 mm pin type is smooth. It glides on its own and the movement is comfortable, but I found it still too thick for the finest lines on this page.
The 0.7 mm bullet shaped is noticeably more precise. In exchange it catches slightly on the paper, and if you press a little too hard it flicks tiny specks of paint.

I started with the first and finished with the second. On a drawing this dense, precision wins, as long as you accept working more slowly.

My favourite: Tooli Art

It is no accident that it covered two thirds of the page. The 0.7 mm extra fine tip is precise, the barrel stays comfortable over long sittings, and the themed ranges let you find the exact shade the key is asking for rather than something close enough. On a coloring that calls for four values of ochre and three different greens, that is what makes the difference.

The one I would avoid: Arrtx

A single area was enough. The brush tip is extremely soft, with no feedback under the hand at all, which makes the line impossible to control. The marker dries out fast and needs priming again constantly. And even after two or three coats the result stays streaky, uneven and thin.

To be fair: a brush tip is not designed for color by number inside closed areas. It is meant for lettering and free painting. But for this particular use it was unpleasant from start to finish, and it is the only one of the six I will not pick up again.

If you only buy two

A set of Tooli Art for the fills, and a black Posca for the outlines. With those two alone, page 83 would have been finished from end to end without the result suffering for it.

The other brands all did their job, GuangNa especially on the blues, but none of them made me want to change my habits. And steer clear of brush tips if you color inside closed areas: it is the wrong tool, whatever the brand.