I got a pack of tombow duel brush markers, brights palette!

I’ve been wanting to try tombow dual brush pens for about a year now.. but at $26.99 per 10 markers, one of which is a colorless blending pen, it’s a bit expensive.

However this black Friday at Michael’s, they had them for $12! That’s better than a 50% off coupon!

I decided to do an apple because I think it’s a good way to get to know the product, and apples come in so many varieties that you can work with any palette.

I have had a water based set of markers called le plume by marvy for a few years, but I’m not fond of them because they don’t blend that well.

Here are the swatches for the brights pallet..

Okay, so here are the pros..

They have 93 colors, they blend like a dream, they sell them open stock, there are a few ways to use them/blend them, they’re water based so they can be used as or with watercolor, the nib is stiff so it keeps it’s point, and it has a brush nip and a bullet nib.

The cons..

It’s not lightfast (but most markers aren’t so..), they are on the expensive side, and every set or palette comes with a colorless blending pen so your going to have a lot of them.

The number one con is that because the nib is so stiff, it tears a lot of paper up! I had the best luck with canson xl watercolor paper so far, but it still pilled badly after a few layers of color.

I’m going to have to try a cotton rag paper, mixed media paper, or something that I don’t have marker paper…

As for the lightfast issue, I’m going to be doing a light fast test. I’ve heard that mod podge makes it fade less in sunlight, so I will test that along with it.

In case you don’t know how to do a lightfastness test, you basically make long strip of color and then cover half of it with tape. Then leave taped to the sunniest window in your house for at least a month, I tend to check it after a month and then let it go for 3 months total.

I live in a rather sunny state, so I consider my findings to be fairly accurate.

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