Need help with poster signing

[H1805]

Hi all! It's my first LFCC and I am bringing a dark background poster to be signed!

I apologise if this has been brought up before but I really need advice on what type of silver pens are best suited for dark/black backgrounds. Does sharpie silver ones work well and what do you think of silver paint pens? I have heard that paint pens are risky but they do turn out the nicest from what I have seen around.

Hope you can advise me further. Thank you!

[Raylenth]

2 minutes ago, H1805 said:

Hi all! It's my first LFCC and I am bringing a dark background poster to be signed!

I apologise if this has been brought up before but I really need advice on what type of silver pens are best suited for dark/black backgrounds. Does sharpie silver ones work well and what do you think of silver paint pens? I have heard that paint pens are risky but they do turn out the nicest from what I have seen around.

Hope you can advise me further. Thank you!

Hi H, the silver sharpies are very good, they used to have a long drying time but not so much now.  The paint ones are good, I think they stand out better than the sharpies but being paint there are more risks to using them.  The key factors are what type of finish your item is, the more glossy it is the longer the paint takes to dry.

I have a heavy card stock poster that's mostly black so I have been getting it signed in silver - I mostly use sharpie as it's easier, but in locations where it's a bit lighter I have switched to a paint pen as it shows up better than the sharpie.  If you use paint, I recommend the Posca ones.  I've tested a few sharpie paints and the posca are better.  To use them you have to shake a lot to ensure it's properly mixed and it's best to have a pad on you that you can use in the queue to depress the nib of the pen - this will cause a splodge but it primes the nib to ensure it's got a good coat of fresh paint on it for when you hand it over to the guest and it should write properly - the risk is if the guest presses down it will release a flow of paint causing another splodge on your poster, but I've not had it happen yet thankfully.  If your poster is more of a papery type I've found the paint dries very quickly, however if it's more glossy you have to be really careful not to roll it up for a while after.

 

[Raylenth]

This is my poster, it's mostly silver sharpies and unhelpfully I can't remember off the top of my head which is paint/sharpie.  The newness of the pens can have an effect as well, top right David Tennant's is a lot more faint (though that's partially the lighting as well) than the others as the sharpie on the desk must have been a bit rubbish so it might help to use your own even though they have them on the table.

 

[Queen_Sindel]

Paint Pens look great like Raylenth said, but there is an insane Risk of smudging. We tried them at a Football Autograph signings on glossy stock Cards. Took over 2 Hours to dry. Since then I've been sticking to silver sharpies. 

[H1805]

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Edited July 1, 2019 by H1805

[H1805]

21 minutes ago, Raylenth said:

This is my poster, it's mostly silver sharpies and unhelpfully I can't remember off the top of my head which is paint/sharpie.  The newness of the pens can have an effect as well, top right David Tennant's is a lot more faint (though that's partially the lighting as well) than the others as the sharpie on the desk must have been a bit rubbish so it might help to use your own even though they have them on the table.

 

Thanks for your most informative reply! And that's a great poster. Do you remember which type of pen Finn Jones used in that poster, by any small chance? It turned out great and it's a large signature which does not "feather" away.

Edited July 1, 2019 by H1805

[Raylenth]

Finn, Jessica, Sacha and Madam Gao were the first ones on there and I'm 99.5% sure they were all sharpie.

[natedammit]

37 minutes ago, Raylenth said:

This is my poster, it's mostly silver sharpies and unhelpfully I can't remember off the top of my head which is paint/sharpie.  The newness of the pens can have an effect as well, top right David Tennant's is a lot more faint (though that's partially the lighting as well) than the others as the sharpie on the desk must have been a bit rubbish so it might help to use your own even though they have them on the table.

Thank you for posting an old picture of that poster.

[Raylenth]

2 minutes ago, natedammit said:

Thank you for posting an old picture of that poster.

It is an old picture indeed, I had a very minor panic a moment or 2 ago stressing over why Charlie Cox wasn't on there before I realized.  I obviously need to update my pictures.

[CrazyHorses]

6 hours ago, Raylenth said:

This is my poster, it's mostly silver sharpies and unhelpfully I can't remember off the top of my head which is paint/sharpie.  The newness of the pens can have an effect as well, top right David Tennant's is a lot more faint (though that's partially the lighting as well) than the others as the sharpie on the desk must have been a bit rubbish so it might help to use your own even though they have them on the table.

 

Krysten Ritter not taking up too much room? I had item signed and she took up most of space

[Raylenth]

7 minutes ago, CrazyHorses said:

Krysten Ritter not taking up too much room? I had item signed and she took up most of space

Guess not?    It'd take something to beat the size of Finn's though.

 

* no crude comments Mr Bear

[Mayhem]

Silver Sharpies imo have the worst reliability of any Sharpie product, even brand new out of the packet. My advice if you go that route, buy some pens yourself, find a couple that work well on initial test, and hang onto them for dear life while using them around the con. Don't rely on the pens on the guest tables being any use at all, I always take my own now without fail. Fingers crossed they last across multiple uses, hence the backups.

[only_jay]

15 hours ago, Mayhem said:

Silver Sharpies imo have the worst reliability of any Sharpie product, even brand new out of the packet. My advice if you go that route, buy some pens yourself, find a couple that work well on initial test, and hang onto them for dear life while using them around the con. Don't rely on the pens on the guest tables being any use at all, I always take my own now without fail. Fingers crossed they last across multiple uses, hence the backups.

Personally I have never had issues with silver... Gold and bronze on the other hand 

[Mayhem]

55 minutes ago, only_jay said:

Personally I have never had issues with silver... Gold and bronze on the other hand 

You've been fortunate. I've had silver Sharpies not work at all brand new out the packet. I've heard plenty of horror stories from other people regarding this colour. Gold and bronze are not bulletproof, but I've found them far more reliable. But I run two of each metallic Sharpie colour to cons, plus blue and black Sharpie, and blue/black Eddings thin tip, and gold/silver Sakura paint pens on top for those older guests that probably write a bit fatter with a Sharpie tip. Yeah, I'm prepared in case something fails!