A Review of Products for Use in Bible Journaling

After reading questions about what art mediums will or won’t work on thin Bible pages for Bible Journaling, I decided I would work on a product comparison.  I made a list of the supplies I want to try.  As the list grew, I realized that it would either take a very long post or I would need to several posts.  I will be posting a review each week.

First, I wanted to try the different brands of clear gesso I had available.  Prima’s Art Ingredients Clear Gesso, Ranger’s Clear Gesso and Liquitex Clear Gesso.

I marked each with a pencil before using the gesso, so I would know which brand I used.  Then I painted a thin coat on each.  I did 2 columns of each.  Left to right: Prima, Ranger and Liquitex.  I also felt each brand to compare the texture right out of the jar.

Prima: was very smooth to the touch, brushed on evenly, was a little more opaque – the pages seemed to have a slight white cast, the pages dried with very little curling and the pages felt smooth.

Ranger: was smooth to the touch, brushed on evenly, was transparent, the pages curled a little and felt smooth when dry.

Liquitex: was gritty to the touch, I could feel the grit when brushing it on, the pages dried with little curling, and the pages felt like sandpaper.

Next, I began experimenting with different inks and pens.  I used 4 pages, one with each of the gessos and one naked page.

I tried Ranger’s ArchivaI Ink (top butterfly)and Tsukineko Memento Ink (bottom butterfly).  I colored with Copic Markers (blue wings), Faber-Castell water color pencils (purple wings), and Marvy LePume Markers (yellow wings).  I wrote with the Copic Multiliner, Zig Millennium and Micron pens.

Prima (1):  no ghosting or bleed through with the inks;  Copic Markers colored okay with no ghosting or bleed through, but didn’t blend well;  Faber-Castell watercolor pencils very easy to color and blend with no ghosting or bleed through;  the Marvy LePlume Markers colored fine with no ghosting or bleed through;  all three pens wrote well with no ghosting or bleed through

Ranger (2):  no ghosting or bleed through with the inks:  Copic Markers colored okay with a little ghosting but no bleed through, and seemed to blend well;  Faber-Castell watercolor pencils very easy to color and blend with no ghosting or bleed through;  the Marvy LePlume Markers colored fine with a little ghosting but no bleed through;  all three pens wrote well with no ghosting or bleed through

Liquitex  (3):  was hard to work on due to the rough texture;  no ghosting or bleed through with the inks;  Copic Markers were hard to color with and had a little ghosting but no bleed through;  Faber-Castell watercolor pencils very easy to color with (I did prefer it for the watercolor pencils, it grabbed the color and had more color when blending) with no ghosting or bleed through;  the Marvy LePlume Markers were rough to color with and had a little ghosting but no bleed through; the rough texture made it hard to write, but the there was no ghosting or bleed through

Naked (4):  there was some ghosting with the Archival Ink and bleed through with the Memento Ink;  Copic Markers colored okay but bled through; Faber-Castell watercolor pencils very easy to color and blend with a little ghosting but no bleed through;  the Marvy LePlume Markers colored fine with a little bleed through;   all three pens wrote well, but the Copic Multiliner and Micron pen had some ghosting but no bleed through; the Millennium no ghosting or bleed through

The Prima and Ranger clear gessos had consistent results.  I would use the Liquitex if I were using my watercolor pencils.

Check back next week for more reviews.  I will be looking at Faber-Castell Gelaltos and Pitt Pens.

FINE PRINT: The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own opinion. I did not receive any compensation (product or money) for my reviews. I was not asked by any company to create this post.