To celebrate Jackson’s stocking many Molotow products (pronounced mol-ah-toff), we ran an Artist Product Review of their range of markers! For this post we had 3 artists who work at Jackson’s test out various products.
Molotow is a German-based company that produces some of the market’s leading acrylic spray paints and graphic markers. To read more in-depth content about the technicalities of how their products work, please view our accompanying article.
Debbie Chessell
One4All Acrylic Markers on Molotow Professional and Watercolour Paper:
One4All is Molotow’s patented 50-colour-range of permanent, quick-drying and non-toxic acrylic paint that is colour-matched across their 3 formats: spray cans, graphic pump markers and refill bottles. For this post, I tested their markers; available in 5 nib sizes ranging from 1.5mm to 15mm, these pump markers feature a patented capillary system and a Flowmaster valve that offers a consistent paint flow to the tip of the marker. Each marker can be easily refilled with any of Molotow’s paints or inks and the nibs can be changed when they show signs of wear.
For my initial drawing I used all 5 sizes and tip types of the Molotow One4All Markers:
- 1.5mm Crossover nib in Petrol – ideal for high levels of detail on rough surfaces as they’re made entirely from plastic and have no fibres
- 2mm Round Tip nib in Signal White – made from fibres and has a rounded shape
- 2mm Round Tip nib in Currant
- 4mm Round Tip nib in Magenta
- 4-8mm Chisel Tip nib in Shock Blue Middle – a fibre-based chisel nib capable of drawing lines between 4 and 8mm in width
- 15mm Broad Tip nib in Burgundy – a wide rectangular nib that is ideal for covering large blocks of space
Drawing with these markers was great fun due to their exceptional vibrancy. The ink dries quickly, permanently and opaquely; once dry, it’s not disturbed by further layers of drawing and cannot be smudged with your fingers meaning the colours stay pure and bright. I was even able to layer white One4All ink on top of dark Burgundy! When new, their nibs are clean so it takes a couple of minutes to completely saturate them ready for drawing – I recommend having a scrap surface around to pump your marker on both before and during drawing to ensure it’s always full. I had a few issues with the ink not flowing evenly through the nib when I used the larger markers but on reflection I think I hadn’t spent enough time flooding the nibs with ink. The small markers can draw for quite a while before they need a boost, but the larger markers have to be pumped every few marks.
The uneven ink dispension was also magnified by the paper used – Molotow Professional Pads contain a glossy, ‘Special Coated’ paper that lets the ink glide across the page. While this might be ideal for professionals, as a newbie I found it’s un-absorbent nature was quite unforgiving. The paper buckled when I drew my background layer of zigzags so I wouldn’t recommend it for work more ink-heavy than line drawings.
I then tested the same markers out on Molotow Watercolour Paper (available in Jackson’s Dalston Shop) to see how they reacted to different surfaces. Their bright colour and opacity remained the same and any unevenness in nib saturation was much less noticeable, but they required much more frequent pumping to draw solid lines. This is understandable as the paper was much more absorbent so it required more ink to cover broad areas.
This paper also buckled under broad marks and it deteriorated very quickly when I used the larger nib sizes. I would suggest that a Hard Sized Hot Press Watercolour Paper, Cartridge Paper or Sketching Paper might be more appropriate.
As the second Molotow paper I tested was labelled as ‘Watercolour’, I thought it would be fair to test it with watercolours too. For the above painting I used Jackson’s Watercolours and highlighted the work with a Molotow 2mm Round Tip Nib Pump Marker in Signal White. Although the paper cannot take scrubbing (meaning you can’t lift paint off) it took the paint reasonably well and only buckled slightly despite me not previously stretching it. I would rate this paper as a medium to student range paper. Dropping in white highlights with the Molotow marker worked excellently.
Liquid Chrome Pump Marker on Molotow Professional Paper
The Liquid Chrome Marker is by far one of the most amazing pump markers I’ve ever used. It’s rounded nib draws smoothly and continuously and the alcohol-based ink literally looks like liquid silver. It comes in various sizes and, like all Molotow markers, is refillable and has replaceable nibs. I worked it over the top of a previous drawing and it covered everything completely in an opaque layer of reflective silver. It is an absolutely exceptional pen that I am desperate to find more excuses to use. The photograph of my work really doesn’t do it justice – please watch the video screen-shotted below to see just how reflective it is!
Masterpiece Marker:
The Masterpiece is a pump marker that comes in multiple sizes, the largest of which is the broadest nibbed pump marker available on the commercial art supplies market. It initially comes full of a permanent alcohol-based ink in either pitch black synthetic bitchuman (the Coversall Range) or copper-black with a metallic sheen (the SpeedFlow Range) but it can be refilled with any Molotow ink or paint. I tested out it’s largest size, the 60mm Super Broad nib, in the Coversall colour on an A0 sheet of cartridge paper.
The size of this nib definitely takes some getting used to as it’s difficult to see where you’re drawing, but it’s incredibly fun to work with. Once I got used to the scale it was very rewarding to make such broad and clean marks. The marker does require re-pumping every time you draw, so it is essential to keep a surface near you that you can use to refill the nib. Sadly the ink is not that opaque which makes it very hard to correct any errors as layered areas of ink are much darker, making it difficult to get professional looking results when you’re starting out. With practice I think this pen could be a great tool for sign-writing or large-scale drawing.
Kay Gasei
As an artist who uses mainly mixed media, trying out the Molotow’s One 4 All acrylic markers was a great time as they offer a really smooth feel, with bold colours really heavy in pigments. I liked the tactile nature of them, using different pens with nib sizes ranging from 1.4mm to 8mm, I had a lot of fun and created some organic free-flowing lines.
Julie Caves
The Molotow Grafx Blender pump softliner dispenses a clear alcohol-based blending fluid that will soften edges and lighten colours of alcohol-based markers. The pump marker comes with a 1mm brush tip and you can replace the tip with a 2mm round tip, which would give a stiffer tip for a more vigorous application. The brush pump markers cannot be pumped on the paper as usual but must be pumped in the top of their cap, because the brush tip is soft and flexible.
This little test on cartridge paper shows the fluid causing the Kurecolor markers to bleed, soften and lighten. Notice also that the brush tip is still white. The tip doesn’t pick up colour, but only dispenses the fluid, so your colours wont get muddy.
I got different results on gloss paper and found that in spite of the name ‘blender‘ I didn’t have much success at colour mixing when layering colours or trying to mix colours near each other.
The clear barrel shows you how much fluid you have (and it looks like a lot) and it shows a few bubbles when you pump, so you know that the fluid has moved into the tip. The pen is refillable from the refill bottle also available.
