I had heard talk of making graffitti with gel pens, so i went out yesterday and bought some. I tried it first on my paint-practice shell and it looked pretty good. I put a blow drier to it to dry it quickly and then I let it sit for another half an hour. When I picked up the car my graffitti came right off on my fingers. How do I dry this stuff?
I’ve had good luck sealing the gel pen graffiti with Testors Dullcote.
Even before it was dry? Mine never dried.
You may achieve better results using the MILKY gel roller.
Some folks(MR July 2000) have airbrushed a flat finish on first to seal the prior weathering and then gel it.
I found that spraying the Dullcote before the gel was entirely dry caused a very slight “fuzzing” of the edges, giving a look remarkably like spray paint. Leave the gel to dry fully just like you would with slow-drying solvent-based paints. A final overspray of a flat finish can then be applied.
Your results may depend on the particular pens you’re using, and I would definitely try the initial Dullcote spray on a test piece. Another method that works is to use some fairly sharp-pointed felt tip markers. These will bleed through a successive application of water-based paint, which can make for an interesting effect when representing an attempt to cover up graffiti unsuccessfully, common on heavily tagged surfaces.