Be sure to post some pictures of the gloss version
About signage. We normally use pencil. The benefit is no fading but the downside is that the paper has an invisible UV foil to it which protects against outside influences including the lead from a pencil
. You can only apply so much pressure, so the signature on the front will be always be slightly light this way.
We regard the front signature as the least important though. It looks nice but there are so many ways to frame an artwork now that there is a likelihood the white surrounding border will be cut off. Dibond works are all signed on the back for instance via label. That is also why we provide the hand-signed, archival quality (no chemicals) label in case you want to be creative later you can stick that on the back of your frame or other or just stick in on the back of the print. The sticker is signed via pen most of the time.