B.I.BLOG

Things aligned and I was able to spend the morning drawing and hanging out with folk at the Montana warehouse in South San Francisco last Friday.

Project outlined - let’s see how the rest of the year fills in.

Multi-paged madness from the multi-tasking, multiverse-travelling mindset of Mishka Art Director, Mr.Mike Jones…

Printed to accompany his installation of work at the Mishka NY Chapter Store that opened January, Friday the 13th,

NO TIME FOR LOVE is a banger of a zine and exhibition.

You can pick up the zine + an assortment of printed oddities and original work from the show over HERE.

Crossed through a huge protest rally to cross the street into this store, Patrick and Company. 

CRAYOLA DRY ERASE MARKER

This seems kind of a new direction for Crayola. I don’t normally equate the brand with office supplies, but I expect them to make a good product. Nice solid construction. Ribbed plastic grip on barrel. Nice hard angled chisel tip. Wow. Makes really smooth dark black ink lines. Surprising for a Crayola whiteboard dry erase markers. Most ink from dry erase markers are grey or brown toned. And most Crayola inks I have tested are a bit on the blue/grey side. Not a fan of the overall design, but performance-wise, this thing is a winner.

PILOT BEGREEN VBOARDMASTER

I have a regular, non green version of this thing in the collection. This says it is made from 91% recycled material. Bullet tup. Wide plastic barrel. Makes medium wieght, thick dark black ink lines. Don’t have a lot to say about this marker. Pilot makes great markers, this one is another solid product.

PENTEL MARKATHON

This one was just sitting in a mug by the cash register. Glad I spotted it, since it wasn’t for sale on the floor. Gave the lady 50cents for a nice used marker for the collection. Nice silhouette I haven’t really seen before, although I guess it is similar to the Pilot from above. Medium line Chisel tip. Pump action end cap. When the ink applies light, you are supposed to depress the end to fill the nib with more ink supply. Really nice heavyweight plastic construction. Black and gold colorway, with sections of translucent windowing on the barrel, towards end-cap. Nice design details. Some arrows on a gold band towards the base. Thick-to-thin lines on the barrel. Really nice MARKATHON wordmark. The nib is all busted up, but still makes nice heavy black ink marks. This is a great marker. I thought I would have seen one of these sooner. Seems like a common brand. Happy to add this to the collection.

A bunch more marker pickups from the weekend Chinatown stroll. 

BAZIC PERMANENT MARKER

This is a long marker, similar to the long version Marks-A-Lot. Bazic seems to be the brand found in most of the Chinatown Dollar stores I visited. Heavyweight black plastic construction, with screened on white label details. Bleed on the label screen creates some nice shadow effects. Chisel tip. Heavy black ink. Bazic may be prevalent in many dollar stores, but they do make good quality product at a budget price, and are quick to appropriate different marker silhouettes and styles based on other popular marker brands. 

B10 TEXTA

Got this from one large. messy, Chinatown dollar store. The place had all sorts of plastic pails collecting roof leak drips. Stock was overflowing everywhere. So I was a bit disappointed that I only got 2 markers from the place. Bullet point. Plastic wrap label. Not going to pop it open. Have a strong feeling that even though it is wrapped in plastic, and was sealed in a plastic clamshell with cardboard backing, that this thing will not have any ink in it. 

LEARNING DAYS

This is the other marker I got from the messy Chinatown dollar store. Came in a box set of assorted colors. The label has a smiling dancing cartoon marker on a green background with a bunch of stars on it. It makes good, thin, heavy black ink marks. Good times.

BAZIC PERMANENT MARKER

Could this be a bootleg of a Bazic dollar store marker ? Most Bazic markers I have in my collection are actually well constructed. This marker is made from a lighter plastic, that bends in a bit when I squeeze the barrel. The label is plastic wrap around, on that silver toned background, that I often see on cheap dollar store markers. Bullet point marker. Makes thin lines. Nice medium black ink quality. Bazic makes SO many different versions of marker, that maybe they bootlegged a bootleg marker, down to these cheap design details and construction.

OSB WHITEBOARD MARKER

A familiar dollar-store marker silhouette. Some nice design details on this. Features screened-on gloss plastic label, color blocking, and geometric pattern on the barrel. Chisel tip. REALLY faint ink quality to this marker. Appears light grey. Lines run smooth.  Whenever markers have different tints or shades of ink, I try to stock up on them to create good tone variance in my black marker illustration work. I will try to remember where I got this one from and pick up a bunch.

Chinatown San Francisco marker stroll pickups. Chinatowns + black marker hunting = two of my favorite things.

YONGLI Y850

This is a bootleg of a Pentel model. A really good quality bootleg. Heavyweight black plastic construction, with screened on silver/black design detailing. Bullet point, makes somewhat thin, dark black lines. Smooth marking, rough alcohol smell. Good value pick. Shoulda got a couple more.

BEROL 

A no frills stubby marker. Heavyweight black plastic construction, with screened on label. This marker says it was assembled in Mexico. Chisel tip. Disappointed in the light ink quality of the marker. Minimal smell. A streamlined marker in design, also makes smooth lines.

UNIVERSAL PERMANENT INK MARKER

A no frills marker with a lot of bang for the buck…since it only cost 50 cents. Gloss black plastic construction, with screened white wordmark and label details. Chisel tip. Makes nice heavy black lines, runs smooth, low odor. This is a really good marker. Didn’t think it would be from the looks of it. Maybe I can go back and grab a box.

PROFFICE

Nice stubby no frills marker. Ergonomic plastic groove on the barrel. Simple black wordmark on white plastic body. Makes heavy black lines. Applies smooth. Another unassuming marker that performs better than it’s pricepoint. Will go back and clear the shop out of their stock.

Picked these up along Grand Street dollar store stroll in Brooklyn last week. 

SNOWMAN BOOTLEG

Pretty sure this is a bootleg of the Snowman series of marker from Seiko Seisakusho…because it came from a dollar store on Grand Street. The label is printed on plastic wrap around, and doesn’t have the trademark snowflake icon on the label. English, French and German text translations appear on the body. NIce bold wordmark in a red cylinder shape. Chisel tip. Makes nice deep black markings, no bleed, good fades. Heavy alcohol smell on this one. 

COLORIFIC WASHABLE MARKER

This came in a marker set. Screened on label, minimal detailing. Wordmark is made up of a multicolored letters, none of which really look good when placed together. Color sequence goes magenta, magenta again, brown, brown again, yellow, lime, lime again, blue, blue again. Heavyweight plastic construction. Conical nib, similar to Crayola brand. Ink is a light tone, closer to a dark grey. Makes nice smooth marks. No odor. 

DRY ERASE MARKER

Pretty no frills marker right here. Plastic construction, white body, black caps. Just says “DRY ERASE MARKER” screened in a slanted non-serif font, twice on the body. Bullet tip. Really faint ink color. Closer to a medium grey tone. Makes smooth lines. Slight alcohol odor. 

HENG BAO WHITE BOARD MARKER

This is a pretty common silhouette for dollar store markers. Plastic body, sticker wrap around label, ribbed black top cap and rounded black end cap. Bullet tip. Nice medium weight black ink, makes smooth lines. Medium alcohol odor. Pretty basic all around marker.

XINYIDA WHITEBOARD MARKER

Have a couple other of these whiteboard markers that have built in felt erasers in the caps. This one has a bonus magnetic strip on the cap so it sticks to a whiteboard, I guess. Solid plastic construction, white/silver/greem colorway. Minimal label details. Bullet tip This thing came DOA, dried out, even though it was in a plastic package.

STAPRO WHITEBOARD 

Stubby whiteboard marker with a felt eraser built in the cap. Bullet tip, makes smooth lines. Really dark ink, which is surprising for a dry erase marker. Minimal label details, black screened on text, white plastic body. Heavy alcohol smell. This thing is pretty under the radar, but is a better than average dollar store marker. Shoulda picked up a couple more of these ones.

Cleared out the stockpile of “to be documented” markers from the holding tin, loaded up on some DVDs, and sat down to draw for an evening. Up to date on all the illustration documentation of the marker collection and did a current count.

622.