I’m moving out of my apartment soon, and I have the challenge of painting over Sharpie marks on my bedroom wall. (I got into the habit of writing down funny quotes on my wall. Looks pretty neat actually.) Anyway I’m wondering if the Sharpie is gonna shine right through the white paint, or if there’s something besides three coats of white to get the quotes vanished permanently. (Should I give the marks themselves a couple coats of white, then do the whole wall with one final coat? Would that result in an uneven appearance? Should I sand or anything drastic?)
He might want to scrub the writing down with alcohol (methanol or isopropanol should work) to remove most of the sharpie dye before applying Kilz. Marker pigments bleed like nobody’s business.
I speak from experience after painting a bedroom that had a variety of marker colors on the walls, Kilz will cover them without bleeding. It will take 2 coats. The only thing Kilz would not cover was lipstick.
Acetone (nail polish) will do a job on Sharpie-type marks. On a painted wall, I don’t know. Probably best just to paint over it like others have said. (I don’t think Kilz is really necessary, IIRC it’s just primer with antifungal chemicals in it).
Gumout carburetor cleaner takes Sharpie right off. It’ll take off the rest of the paint too, if you like. Take off the Sharpie first, then prime and paint.
YMMV, and yes, I realize that there may be more environmentally sound solutions.