My Art Blog

I recommend watching this video from Jazza about coloring in. I personally do not use colored pencil in my art because I don't like the look. But the tips he has on layering, how to physically color with the marker, and how to blend, are really great! They're pretty fundamental in the marker world.

I also recommend checking out anything by Amy Shulke. Some of her videos can feel condescending at times, but she really knows her stuff in a deep, technical way. She is also very much a realism artist, which sometimes comes in handy! This video on blending dark to light markers breaks down another way to color that I use sometimes called underpainting. The way she colors in general is similar to my own.

I also cannot stress enough how much I love Shiratamaha's art. A lot of blends Shiratamaha uses are ones I use. Looking at some art, just seeing the strokes on the page... I personally learn a lot just by observing!

Tip 1 - Paper and Swatching

The type of paper you use will greatly affect the way your colors/illustrations come out. A lot of marker artists swear by and exclusively use X-Press It Blending Cards. I use that sometimes for pieces I will layer a lot on, things I want to do detailed work with, or some zine and commission pieces. It's expensive! But it is worth it. Amy also almost exclusively uses X-Press It.

Most of the art that I do is actually in a Canson brand mixed media sketchbook. I use 5.5 in x 8.5 in or 7 in x 10 in. They're cheap, erase okay, and provide good color in my opinion.

Because the blending cards are smooth and have less teeth on the paper, the colors layer differently than they would on a paper with more teeth, such as the mixed media. Amy has said time and time again mixed media sketchbooks are a bad choice for this reason. I disagree.

I always recommend swatching your colors on the type of paper you'll be using, including whatever blends you'll use. See how the paper works with your materials first! You might go to grab the perfect color, only to put it on the paper and watch it change completely. This happens with some marker brands because of the resin + mix they use to get that specific color.

Coloring Fount's hair on mixed media sketchbook is a gradient from Copic B24 + B16 to B02 to BG23. On X-Press It Blending Cards, I use B24 + B16 to B05 to BG15 to get the same consistency.

Tip 2 - Don't Color the Whole Thing

This partly deals with paper, too. Canson mixed media sketchbooks have a high bleed rate. The more you saturate the page, the more the ink will spread. Sometimes this is good! Sometimes this is not so good. Here's kind of an example:

The dark blue I've used for Fount's hair has seeped into other parts of the illustration, such as his skin, his collar, and his light colored hair. Happens all the time! The purple I've used as blush, though - that's all the work of the bleed that I use to blend. It's kind of a double edged sword.

Depending on your brand of markers, some might bleed more than others! That's okay and it doesn't make you a bad artist.

By not coloring the whole section, this kind of bleed can usually be avoided or fixed easily with a gel pen/pushed out of the way with other colors in a blend. You can see by the curl of his side burn, that's the white of the page, not just white gel pen. If you like to add highlights with gel pen, it makes a really cool effect that you can push/pull the white with!

Tip 3 - Don't be Afraid to get Dirty

Markers bleed. Markers smudge. Traditional media is messy and gets everywhere and an entire drawing can be ruined in a matter of seconds. That's okay, though. Some things can be edited out digitally. Some things just gotta become part of the illustration. Again, doesn't make you a bad artist! It especially doesn't make you a bad marker artist. It just makes you an artist! Even the most experienced traditional artist smears some wet marker ink across the page and muddys some colors.

No one is going to be looking at your art with the level of detail that you are. Try something out. Experiment, experiment, experiment. I've changed the way I color Albedo's hair at least 5 different times. No one cares in a way that matters, I promise you. What matters is that you're having fun and enjoying the process of learning and coloring and making art. If an illustration is ruined because you used the wrong color

or forgot to erase something that bled through the colors the second you put ink on the page

or made a shaky, permanent line that went somewhere it wasn't supposed to go

- no it isn't. That's part of the process. Ink was not lost or wasted. Art was not lost or wasted. Time was not lost or wasted You gained something entirely new to try next time.

And you just made art. Ain't that something :)