Sketchbar Mirror Paper Review

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I was delighted to have received another product from Sketchbar recently. They sent me their Mirror Paper pad, in exchange for my honest review. I was also delighted to receive, along with the paper pad, a set of their Artist Fine Pens – fineliners in lovely colors.

This Mirror Paper has a wonderful quality – it’s double sided and bleed-proof, so you can create art on both sides of the paper.

My first impression of the Mirror paper, as I thumbed through the pad, was the nice weight and the crisp, white color. I tend to prefer white, rather than ivory paper, (unless I’m using sepia inks), so I love that the paper is white, not ivory.

The paper seems nice and smooth, too. I’m a little overprotective of my brush pens, so I often hesitate to use them on unfamiliar papers. (Brush tips can be prone to fraying, if not used on smooth papers.) Although time will tell, the Mirror Paper appears to be safe for my brush pens. I haven’t tried some of my delicate ones on this paper, yet.

According to the company representative, the paper is suitable for all dry art materials.

characteristics of Sketchbar Mirror Paper — Characteristics of the Mirror paper

The real claim to fame of this paper, though, is the opaque nature of it, with a coating that doesn’t allow ink to bleed through the paper.

So, the Mirror Paper allows for artwork on both sides of the paper, even when the medium is alcohol based markers. And, as you’ll see below, it absolutely lived up to that claim, when I tested it with Sharpie permanent markers (alcohol based), both brush tip and regular tip.

Sharpie marker lettering on Sketchbar Mirror Paper — Paper front

Blending

I definitely had much better luck blending on this paper with alcohol based markers than I did with watercolor markers. (This paper was designed to be used more with alcohol markers, which makes sense. Alcohol markers tend to bleed through paper more, and this paper prevents that.)

Blending with Watercolor Markers

My experience with blending markers has been with watercolor markers, so I tried those first. It did not go well, so I wouldn’t recommend this paper for blending watercolor markers. Honestly, though, watercolor blending is not the purpose of this paper!

Blending with Alcohol Based Markers

Alcohol based markers were the real test for this paper. I used Sharpie permanent markers and did some layering and blending. I’m brand new to blending with alcohol based markers, so this was a great opportunity to give it a try.

As I mentioned above, the Mirror paper is so opaque, it’s very well suited to use with alcohol based markers, which tend to bleed through most papers. I found that even when I laid down several heavy layers of ink from the alcohol markers, there was absolutely no bleed-through to the back of the paper. I was laying down a lot of ink, so the paper broke down just a bit, but the blending was really nice. (I was laying down a lot of ink, and I’m new to blending alcohol markers.) But, even as a newbie to blending alcohol markers, it worked well on this paper.

This is truly double-sided and will allow you to use both sides of the paper, with no bleed through!

blending alcohol based markers on Sketchbar Mirror paper

I really enjoyed using the Sketchbar Mirror Paper and found it to be a lovely, quality paper that is truly double sided that allows for artwork on both sides of one sheet of paper. It definitely lives up to the claim. Now I am planning to invest in some alcohol markers!