Is permanent marker okay?

[Calie.Davis]

Currently we are adding some last touches to our musical Guys and Dolls. The last thing we need to do is create our backdrop.The thing is the TD decided to project a city scene onto our backdrop and trace it over with permanent marker. Is that okay? Because it seems that if we made a mistake we wouldn't be able to get rid of it.

[SMrose]

I'd use chalk or pencil.  Pemanent marker will show through if and when you repaint the scenery for another show after this one (learned that the hard way).

[cserendipity]

agreed.  chalk or pencil would be best.  permanent marker is hard to correct and difficult to cover as SMrose said.

is there a reason the TD wanted to use permanent marker?

[yomanda]

The other thing, is permanent marker bleeds on most fabrics, so take that into consideration.

[NomieRae]

Another think I learned after doing drops with permanent marker awhile back - the smell never goes away. it can be overwhelming while you're doing it and it will always linger in the fabric. Yuck.

[valence]

I've used sharpie to detail sets before.  It's not ideal, paint is generally best, but sometimes paint's not practical.  (Also, permanent markers are not all the same, if you do use one, use a fabric marker)

One thing I would ask is how you are drawing it.  If you have a backdrop suspended from a fly loft, drawing on it with sharpie is going to be hard, because the fabric has a bit of give to it.  Paint will be easier.

(Paint is also less expensive)

[Calie.Davis]

is there a reason the TD wanted to use permanent marker?

I haven't a clue, his decisions are...questionable. I believe the idea was to save money though I'm not sure how because paint costs less (especially Oops paint!)

I am afraid that it will show through the paint we use just for this show because we are using sharpee as an outline for the man who is painting our backdrop.
That means next year we'll spend more money assembling another backdrop..or he might not let us fix that problem because he wants us to "save money" and we'll just deal with this snowball of a problem thats rolling downhill.

If the marker does bleed through the paint to cover it up, what is the easiest way( most likely cheapest way as well) to fix such a problem?