Recommended Art Tools

SCOTCH REMOVABLE MAGIC TAPE

WHAT IS IT?

On the surface it may appear to be like any old roll of sticky tape, but no, this is the Scotch Removable Magic Tape, magic by name, magic by nature. This stuff can be stuck down, removed and reapplied multiple times. Making it idea tape to stick your art / reference image down whilst drawing.

WHY USE IT?

I always used to use Masking tape to tape my paper down whilst drawing. However, over the months I started to notice that the masking tape would leave behind these horrible dirty lines wherever they had been taped to the paper. I noticed it, but I didn’t do anything about it as I thought it was just something I had to accept. I discovered that Scotch made something called Magic Removable Tape, while looking for a high heel tape dispenser, so I thought I’d buy a roll to see if it would be good for drawing. It turns out this tape is actually magic :)

The image above shows what the edges of my drawings used to look like once I had finished, this is a close up of my Adriana Lima drawing and within the pink ring you can see these dirty stripy marks left behind by the masking tape. Why was this an issue? Firstly, it meant the outside edge of my drawings were always really nasty looking and not fixable, but more importantly, there was always the risk of accidentally placing the masking tape on to the drawing area of my paper and ruining the drawing.

The image above shows what the edges of my squirrel drawing look like after using Scotch Removable Magic tape. You can see the clean white edge from where the tape was, but no marks at all. If I wanted to, I could blend right to the edge of the paper now and you’d never know that tape had once been placed on the paper. It’s perfect!

CONCLUSION

The Scotch Removable Magic tape is totally clear tape, meaning you could even stick it onto your paper and draw on the top of it if you wanted :) The tape is low tack, so it’s easy peel and can be repositioned many times while still maintaining it’s stickiness. It’s strong stuff but yet there is zero risk of the tape tearing your paper. It really is perfect tape for using with your artwork. Considering how awesome this tape is, it’s incredibly inexpensive, at only £3.99 for a 19mm by 33 meter roll.

As you can see from my drawing board below, I love this stuff :) I could never go back to masking tape, and in fact, this is up there with my Mono Eraser Pen as one of my most recommended art tools.

“Make sure you buy the Scotch Removable Magic tape that’s in a blue box. Scotch also make a regular Magic tape in a green box, but if you buy that it will rip you paper. I found out by mistake, doh“

– Sophie’s Top Tip

 

“Hands are the Tool of the Painter, The Artist.”

Agnes Varda