Which paper is best for markers VS watercolors VS acrylic?
I swatched 14 different types of paper with watercolor, water and alcohol based markers, and acrylic (so you didn’t have to!)
2/21/202513 min read
My post content
The experiment: testing the 14 different paper types I had available with 4 different mediums.
The mediums:
Ohuhu alcohol markers (light lavender)
Koi watercolor brush pens (dark teal)
DecoTime acrylic paintmarkers
Van Gogh watercolors (non granulating pyrrole orange, granulating ultramarine blue)
Note: we added in a few additional markers for a couple of the swatches to double check the results.
Paper:
1) printer paper. The cheap stuff. This was the control that all the other paper will be compared to.
2) Canson Montval 140lb 300gsm cellulose cold press with hard sizing
3) Strathmore 400 series cellulose cold press with soft sizing
5) Kilimanjaro 100% cotton cold pressed watercolor paper 140lb 300gsm
7) generic sketch pad from Action, no information at all. It’s a black art pad we bought at Action. That’s all we know.
8) Fabriano Studio watercolor hot press 25% cotton 140lb
10) Artist Loft Marker Pad 190gsm
11) Canson illustration bristol 250gsm 92lb extra white extra smooth *
12) Canson bristol, 250gsm 110lb*
13) St Cuthbert’s Mill Bockingford 300g cellulose
14) Dollar General brand posterboard $1 for a giant 2x3 ft sheet**
*yes, one of the 250gsm Cansons said it was 92lbs and the other 110lbs. That’s… that’s what they say on the label. The 110lb feels heavier, FWIW
**there’s a reason I’ve included this in the list. It creates “unique” results.
The process:
We did two layers of swatches, dried overnight in between. For the second layer and round we were testing blendability, how it performs with multiple layers, and in the case of the water based markers, if it was possible to blend them with a brush and water. Note that not all water based markers are designed to be used with water, but these Koi are very high quality and can be blended very well on the right surface.
THE TEST
1. Printer paper
Ahh, the default control. Why is printer paper on this list of art supplies, you may ask? Two reasons. First, I needed a control of something that likely everyone had on hand. Second allow me to paint you a scene: an artist goes on to Temu and sees a pad of watercolor paper. It’s inexpensive. Suspiciously so. The artist decides “oh what the heck” and purchases. Two months later it arrives in all it’s printed texture on the cheapest, thinnest paper you can imagine glory. Here are the results (round 1 on top, round 2 done a day later on the bottom):
Quality alcohol marker (Ohuhu): terrible performance all around
Water marker: terrible and with extra paper buckling. Round 2: the water pulled out nicely.
Acrylic paint pen: buckled the paper but relatively decent coverage and application. Round 2: Became much streakier overnight as it dried. Not even an acrylic paint pen could save this paper.
Cheap alcohol marker (DecoTime): same as the good Ohuhus, just all around bad
Non-granulating watercolor: extreme buckling, didn’t really spread, hard edges Round 2: almost goes without saying but this had extreme buckling of the paper.
Granulating watercolor: same as above but with no granulation
2) Canson Montval 140lb 300gsm cellulose cold press with hard sizing
Quality alcohol marker: It should be noted that your really shouldn’t use cold press paper or any paper with texture with marker brush nibs. However, watercolor paper in general works decently for markers, but I would suggest sticking to hot press or, better yet, bristol or marker paper. The Ohuhu went on very smoothly but really soaked in fast. This paper felt very “thirsty” for all mediums. Round 2: no blending at all. Okay for layering if you want the flat effect.
Water marker: Good and with nice color settling. However, the Koi markers have an extra soft brush nib which made a terrible scraping sound against the paper. Yikes!
Acrylic paint pen: The tiniest bit of streaking and pooling but overall very good.
Cheap alcohol marker: Good. Better than the Ohuhu because this was a very juicy marker. Round 2: absolutely terrible for blendng, more just damaged the paper and the pigment lifted along with the paper fibers.
Non-granulating watercolor: Both watercolors felt like they sat on top of the surface and the overall experience was so-so. Round 2: good layering
Granulating watercolor: Good granulation.
3) Strathmore 400 series cellulose cold press with soft sizing
Quality alcohol marker: soaked in deep and pooled the ink. May be a good effect for shading. Felt very rough on the brush nib. Round 2: smooth color but no blending.
Water marker: Horrible. Dry. Streaky. VERY rough feeling. Round 2: when the water was added it transformed this medium and created a beautiful wash. Too bad the texture still felt super rough on the delicate Koi pen.
Acrylic paint pen: Kind of streaky but good. Spoilers:the acrylic pen kind of did well to excellent on nearly anything. It was the real secret MPV here. Round 2: okay okya acrylic pen, this is starting to get boring here. You rock. You look great on nearly anything.
Cheap alcohol marker: Less color variation and pooling. Depends on what effect you want. Round 2: it was almost impressive how bad this was.
Non-granulating watercolor: Watercolor does great on watercolor paper. Round 2: left behind hard edges but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Pretty good.
Granulating watercolor: Very little granulation but overall pleasant to use. Round 2: lots of cauliflowering and much less granulation than some other papers we tried.
4) Artist Bamboo paper 250gsm
Quality alcohol marker: Went on smoothly, very patchy, didn’t spread or blend Round 2: slightly better blending for the Ohuhu than #3 but still not good. Watercolor paper just sucks up all the marker ink and alcohol dries so quickly that it really doesn’t have any time to blend.
Water marker:less patchy than the alcohol. So-so results overall.
Acrylic paint pen: Somewhat streaky. Still overall good.
Cheap alcohol marker: Really soaked in. Somewhat streaky. Don’t recommend. Round 2: oh mercy...
Non-granulating watercolor: Surprisingly decent. Felt smooth to apply but it’s worth noting that it caused substantial buckling. Round 2: very smooth, layered nicely, hard to control.
Granulating watercolor: Good granulation. Overall if you’re looking for a very cheap option to just play around with watercolors, this bamboo paper is a good choice. Round 2: the granulation largely faded overnight. It was hard to control, there were some odd textures that developed, and the paper buckled a lot. Would not recommend.
5) Kilimanjaro 100% cotton cold pressed watercolor paper 140lb 300gsm
Quality alcohol marker: Well it attempted to blend and level. It failed. Streaky and not great.
Water marker: Rich and deep color. Ease to work the color out in a pleasant, smooth wash. Round 2: works great!
Acrylic paint pen: MVP. I’m just going to use this from now on unless I have something else to say. Acrylic paint pens do great on darn near anything.
Cheap alcohol marker: went on very pale. Round 2: it sort of tried to blend.
Non-granulating watercolor: Lifted some with so so results. Felt smooth and easy to work with but we weren’t overwhelmed by the results. Round 2: some hard edges but mostly worked great!
Granulating watercolor: minimal granulation. Round 2: granulation returned overnight. Works great!
6) Sketch pad 120g
Quality alcohol marker: It should be noted that this is likely for dry media so unsurprisingly it faired poorly across all tests. Terrible streakiness for the Ohuhu markers.
Water marker: Decent depth of color and range, but felt like it absorbed very quickly.
Acrylic paint pen: MPV
Cheap alcohol marker: Less streaky than the Ohuhu but no good and it really soaked through to the other side.
Non-granulating watercolor: Heavy buckling and pooling. Uneven. Not good.
Granulating watercolor: Some granulation.
Round 2 update for all: They all did worse on the second layer and this is just the wrong paper to use for any sort of wet medium.
7) generic sketch pad from Action
Quality alcohol marker: Possibly even worse than the printer paper. Now we don’t feel so bad that we couldn't describe this art pad in any more detail. You are not missing much.
Water marker: SO BAD. We used a second Koi water marker under it to make sure it wasn’t some sort of marker issue. No, it wasn’t. It’s the paper. Round 2: this is where it gets interesting. It actually did pretty well. It layered well and, adding water, it behaved more like a watercolor pencil than a marker.
Acrylic paint pen: Not bad.
Cheap alcohol marker: Similar to the Ohuhu but a little more self leveling.
Non-granulating watercolor: LOL
Granulating watercolor: LOL
Round 2 summary: the light green was an actual watercolor pencil, the magenta a liquid watercolor brush. Both did quite well. Tube watercolors didn’t but.
8) Fabriano Studio watercolor hot press 25% cotton 140lb
Quality alcohol marker: Hot press watercolor paper is a strange experience if you’re not familiar with it. This is a good quality paper and it produced some interesting results. Some might be user error. Oh, and sorry, the image got flipped. Apologies. The alcohol marker was smooth and with rich blends. Slight streakiness but that’s more to do with the shade we had available. Round 2: good blends.
Water marker: Rough and dry feeling but I had a hunch this was going to do well in round 2 when we added water blending… Round 2: went on solid, good blends, some hard lines. Would be a good paper for detail work.
Acrylic paint pen: MPV
Cheap alcohol marker: Great!
Non-granulating watercolor: Very smooth, great for skin and petals but hard to control. Round 2: picked up the old paint, hard cells and lines, very very smooth. Still hard to control.
Granulating watercolor: Reduced the granulation. Not impressed. Round 2: virtually no granulation.
9) Canson Bristol 180gms 60lb
Quality alcohol marker: Bristol is where things are going to get interesting. In theory it should do great for alcohol markers, ditto water markers though when we add the water test in round 2 that might be interesting, and will be very strange for watercolors. I’ve used bristol for watercolor before to great effect but it’s very tricky and takes a lot of practice.
Anyhow, for the Ohuhu: Great performance, smooth and pleasant, a bit streaky.
Water marker: Very rich and deep colors. Confirmed with a second color. Round 2: all in all excellent.
Acrylic paint pen: MVP
Cheap alcohol marker: Great! Round 2: somewhat hard to blend and lots of feathering.
Non-granulating watercolor: buckling, hard to control, uneven, don’t use this. Round 2: just terrible for both watercolors.
Granulating watercolor: Pooling, uneven, cauliflowers (hard edges) very quickly. Good granulation so perhaps this could work if you’re looking for specific textures? Hard to control.
10) Artist Loft Marker Pad 190gsm
Quality alcohol marker: Excellent and very smooth. Round 2: felt great, went on even, poor blends.
Water marker: Very smooth and beautifully vibrant colors with good depth. Round 2: nice rich colors but it pulled and pilled the paper badly. Not good if you add water.
Acrylic paint pen: MVP
Cheap alcohol marker: Same as Ohuhu. Round 2: the cheap markers really didn’t want to blend here.
Non-granulating watercolor: Sits on top and there was some sort of coating on the paper that created spots. Round 2: muddy colors, uneven results.
Granulating watercolor: Same problems with the coating. Some granulation.
11) Canson illustration bristol 250gsm 92lb extra white extra smooth
Quality alcohol marker: Smooth but the colors lost some of their vibrancy.
Water marker: Very smooth and the colors remained vibrant. Round 2: colors lost a lot of vibrancy but overall not bad.
Acrylic paint pen: MVP
Cheap alcohol marker: Same as Ohuhu. Round 2: more feathered out than properly blends.
Non-granulating watercolor: Streaky with severe hard edges, fast drying but at the same time sitting on top of the paper. Spotting. Round 2: lots of paper warping, bad all around.
Granulating watercolor: Heavy texturing and washed out.
12) Canson bristol, 250gsm 110lb
Quality alcohol marker: Overall really good. Performed slightly better than #11. Guess that secret 18lbs they don’t want you to know about makes a difference after all! Round 2: excellent.
Water marker: Great! Best so far. Round 2: interestingly adding water added texture and granulation. Might be good for certain effects.
Acrylic paint pen: MVP
Cheap alcohol marker: The brush nib was oddly noisy but otherwise performed great. Round 2: best blends so far.
Non-granulating watercolor: Coating on the paper and somehow it created granulation in a non-granulating paint. Fascinating. Round 2: the granulation from round 1 remained. A strange and interesting paper to use with watercolor for unusual effects. Very hard to work with, however.
Granulating watercolor: Very hard to control. Possibly could be used for interesting texture effects but it’s worth noting this had the worst buckling so far.
13) St Cuthbert’s Mill Bockingford 300g cellulose
Note: this paper is known to have a coating on it. You can wash the coating off before use but we had a hunch that some of the mediums might do better with it on so we tested both. With the coating is on top, without on the bottom.
Quality alcohol marker: The unwashed side performed surprisingly well considering its on watercolor paper. I suspect the coating helped here. Self leveling, good pigment. Felt rough on the brush nib. Benefits went away on the washed side. Round 2: so-so performance on the unwashed side, very poor on the washed.
Water marker: Very even results on the unwashed, scratchy but okay on the washed. Round 2: hard edges and uneveness on the washed side.
Acrylic paint pen: Surprisingly streaky on the unwashed side. Somewhat better on the other.
Cheap alcohol marker: Very even on the unwashed, pooling on the washed. Round 2: very poor blending on both sides, basically none at all on the washed.
Non-granulating watercolor: Good on both sides. Round 2: both watercolors did really well with this paper overall, and both did best when the paper’s coating had been washed off.
Granulating watercolor: Better on the washed side.
14) Dollar General brand posterboard $1 for a giant 2x3 ft sheet
This one is the wild card round. It’s cheapest option other than printer paper and, for almost everything, it’s going to be a very poor choice. BUT, there are a few circumstances where you might want to choose it. And ours came from Dollar General but really, any posterboard with a shiney side will work. You want to use the shiney side.
Quality alcohol marker: Extraordinarily fun to use. It felt like ice skating across the surface. Uncontrollable but perhaps that’s the point? Good to let go and just have fun with, but the results are poor. Round 2: This is where it all comes around. Take a close look at the swatches (I’m including some zooms). The alcohol markers begin to create a fascinating mozaic texture effect. Kind of like stained glass. It’s uncontrollable but this could be a really unique effect. And, at the $1 price tag, I heartily recommend getting a sheet and just playing around with it.
Water marker: Beyond streaky and the paper repells the water back, creating a ghostly edge around it. Possibly could be used for effects? Round 2: hard to describe. It does some weird things.
Acrylic paint pen: Goes on great with a little bit of pooling but this is one of the best mediums if you want to use this paper with any sort of predictable results. Perhaps combine acrylic edges with an alcohol maker texture???
Cheap alcohol marker: See above for the quality Ohuhu.
Non-granulating watercolor: OMG
Granulating watercolor: OMG. Round 2: Um… maybe good if you want to make your own Rorschach test? Yeah. Don’t use this with watercolor. Or water markers. FWIW worked great on permanent marker pens.
Conclusion
Use the right tool for the job. There was no paper that worked well for markers and watercolors at the same time. There were a couple that did okay for all, but none that all around performed well.
Best for alcohol markers: #9-12 were all pretty similar but our favorite was #12, Canson bristol, 250gsm 110lb.
Best for water markers: #8 Fabriano Studio watercolor hot press is a contender but it’s rough on the nib and pretty pricey. Close call between the #9 ( Canson Bristol 180gms 60lb) and #12 (Canson bristol, 250gsm 110lb) but I’d pick the 12 because it was also the best for alcohol marker.
Best for watercolors: Many to choose from but overall probably #13 St Cuthbert’s Mill Bockingford for a more affordable option. Best overall is the #5 Kilimanjaro 100% cotton cold pressed.
The Winner
If you HAVE to pick just one for everything, go with the #13) St Cuthbert’s Mill Bockingford and have a very light hand when it comes to pressing your marker brush nibs down. Use it unwashed for markers then washed for watercolor.
The Bonus Winner
Acrylic paint pens. Nothing can stop them.
Well that's it for now! I hope this article helped you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at avdal@avdalart.com
Contact:
© 2025. All rights reserved.