I’ve tried most of the marker papers. The best I’ve found are xpress it and Neenah solar white. You’ll find most of the artists on YouTube use one of those. Check out sandy Allnock, she uses Neenah for copics almost exclusively and did a video comparing the two. Neenah is also much cheaper. I buy a ream of 250 sheets of letter sized paper for about $35 US. That’s 14 CENTS a sheet. Don’t get the cheap Neenah, you want the one where the comments are all about copics. You can also find this for sale at card making/rubber stamp stores. And you can find it in smaller packs too. Here’s a link to the paper on amazon us. https://smile.amazon.com/Classic-Crest-Solar-White-Cover/dp/B000I20NWK

You can use pencils on both. But the xpressit is smooth and has an almost plastic feel. The Neenah will do better with pencils.

Check out vanilla arts too, she does a lot with copics and colored pencil on top. https://www.vanillaarts.com/ she uses cryogen and xpressit. I’ve not tried cryogen with copics, only distress oxide inks but she recommends it. She has a great blog and classes. But her classes are a smidge pricey. Though she does more fine art than many others online.

The strathmore was meh in my opinion. If you want to blend smoothly most of the marker papers you can get at places like Michaels didn’t work well for me. There’s a reason most of the artists online use either xpressit or Neenah.

Hope it helps!

Mary