Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

I bought a new pad of Strathmore 500 plate recently when the stock I was sitting on began to run low. I finally got around to using the new pad and it is worthless. I'm disappointed and more than a little angry at paying premium prices for something that falls so far short of "premium." The 500 series used to be durable and take ink with crisp subtlety. Now it bleeds and fuzzes straight out of the store. I did a comparison with some old sheets that have been sitting around for years and fully exposed to humid weather and they still vastly out perform the new sheets. Exact same pen and bottle of ink. I'd think this were a fluke if it were not for seeing similar complaints from other artists online. I used to love this stuff for comics work. Now I'm looking for a substitute. Downgrading the quality while charging the same high price? Shame on Strathmore. Until their company releases a statement addressing what is clearly an issue and restores the quality I will no longer buy their boards.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

I use Strathmore Bristol smooth 200 Series paper for penciling, inking, and coloring a graphic novel that I am writing and illustrating. Strathmore 100 lb bristol has always been a favorite for its smooth surface that takes pencil, ink, marker, watercolor, and even erasures beautifully. Series 200 has guide marks that allow easy panel creation for sequential art. Each page can easily be created and viewed as a unified piece of art

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

I am a comic book artist that is very dissapointed with this bristol board, the various inks i tested with a brush produced poor results, I couldnt achieve crisp lines, rather, the lines had a dry brush appearance and also bleeds slightly, it also soaks up ink very fast so you have to apply a lot of ink to fill a small area black.
Why cant Strathmore just sell the actual boards they supply to Marvel and DC rather than these poor imitations. Many independent comic artists wish to use that wonderful paper as it widely known as the finest paper in the world for inking on with brush/nib.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

These are awesome comic boards. I use the 200 series with blue guidelines for easier marking of panels. I do not see wrong dimensions as one reviewer noted. Even it was wrong by few milimers let's say, when reduced the final art would not show it but, it is correct dimension anyway. These boards are pre-printed with two lines, one is for definitive art and second is for bleed art, that is maybe why this reviewr was confused. I prefer the more simpler (no-bleed art boards) of 10 x 15 inches (in cm?) as I do not care for bleed art but for now Strathmore is not makng them unless you buy plain boards eg 300 or the best 500 boards the you can just rule them yourself.

It would be nice if Strathmore would also make these boards for manga size (Japanese B4 and international A4 size) with blue lines.

These 11 x 17 (A3 international) boards can also be used for manga but are larger in dimensions.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

i do watercolour illustrations and i layout and measure most of my own pages, so this review is for the 500 series plate surface. my paper has no rulings on it.

first off, i'll say that even though i do watercolour illustration, i don't like the texture of watercolour paper so i've been working with bristol board for quite some time now. in the past with other papers, i've had a lot of papers that buckled, that tore apart and got gritty when i was lifting colour (or the paper became too wet), and that absorbed colour too quickly for it to be blotted away. I've never had these problems with the 500 series-- and when i ink on it, it dries really quickly and i don't smudge. it erases well (which is amazing considering how heavy handed i am). if you're a micron user, your inks will fade a bit when you rub out your pencils-- if you're a brush or quill user, you won't have that problem.

i've been using this paper for at least a year and a half and i'm not really at all interested in switching brands any time soon. :] the plate surface is SUPREMELY SMOOTH. the reason i started using this paper was because my ex boyfriend bought a stack and said it was like drawing on plastic-- but for whatever reason, drawing on plastic works out great for me.

if you do a lot of detail in your ink work or just hate texture on your paper in general, the plate surface is definitely the way to go. i love it. :]

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

This review is applicable only for the Strathmore Bristol smooth pad 300 series.
This baby bleeds - bad! Fine, I say... let me use a brush! Hahaha! No dice! This paper soaks up ink like a BOUNTY paper towel and leaves you with a nice grayish black sludge for your troubles.
This is paper sweet? It sure is - if you like your work looking sloppy and unprofessional!
Please. For the love of all things great and small... stay away from this nightmare.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

This paper has a nice surface quality and thickness to capture your pencils and other media. It would be nice to use for a graphic novel. I wouldn't suggest using it for some random doodling but it does seem like the type of paper you could use to illustrate a childrens novel. Personally I'm thinking about reserving it for illustrating a graphic novel or comic strip idea of mine. I do wish however, that it had the borders on it like some of the other sequential papers out there but that's my only complaint really.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

Compared to other sources for this bristol, the price is excellent. On the pad and pack that I received, there is no blue lining, which is no big deal, I measure out my own panels anyway. The two ply is very, very, very thin, but holds up to erasure extremely well. Just be careful with the thinness of the paper when erasing. All in all, a very good deal.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

The paper itself is without peer (it's Strathmore Bristol, after all), but Strathmore should be embarrassed at the blatant errors made in ruling the pages! The user can always grid the page him- or herself, of course, but the whole REASON professionals use ruled boards is so they needn't waste valuable work-time laying out page grids! Buyer beware: you may as well continue buying unruled 11x17 pads and gridding them yourself, because this product will NOT save you any time.

Comments about Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces:

I illustrate a web comic with a friend of mine, and with a new page going up every week, I go through this paper quick fast in a hurry. I was impressed by the price point and the paper quality is excellent.

My only real complaint is that the "non-repo blue" isn't quite non-repo. It won't show up on a scan, but if you have to do any adjusting to the brightness/contrast, your guidelines will show right back up.

Other than that? Great deal for the price.