Alcohol Marker Creations

I made two cards with Spellbinders "Cute Boots" set, based a Kristina Werner video. Used lots of blues and grays for the rain (mostly Prismacolor, I only have two copics) 
www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/stick-with-it-trying-to-color-a-rainy-scene-with-alcohol-markers-twice/

http://instagr.am/p/CqgAgQKOmin

The other large stamp from the same set. Altenew R105, R107, R218, B003, B027, C015, G213, G315, Y423, & Y425.

The one card I completed last weekend during Altenew's Colorful Expressions alcohol marker coloring class with Kelly Taylor:



My thoughts about this class are complicated and my feelings mixed. I can elaborate if anyone's interested in reading; otherwise I'll just leave it at that.

Spectrum Noir are my favorite, but I'm no pro. I have the regulars and the tri-blends. I found this chart that I printed off if I am looking for a specific blend for my regulars. clicky This is from the Kit and Clowder website and she has lots of resources for using markers.

I Copic color all my die cut stuff. Here's a very random assortment of things from yesterday and today that hasn't been put away in the storage binder yet. Birch trees, icicle border, octopus, raccoon, two bears, a tiny rabbit, daisy, beehive and baby llama.

I've only watched a couple of videos that featured alcohol marker colouring and they were either really basic (mostly I was looking for a review of the actual marker brand, not a how-to) or not my style. I learned how to wield Copics by using them, and a general art background / experience in watercolours helped.

Alcohol markers are the most akin to watercolour painting, not traditional pencil colouring.

The big differences are the drying time (super fast!) and trading off flexibility for more consistent colour. There's no faffing about with how much water and pigment you have loaded in the brush of course. Barring sitting around for a decade plus with no use or running dry, a marker always puts out the same colour and can be layered up 1-2 times for more range.

When I go to colour something I start by finding a reference and picking my colours. Usually I can just pull what I want off the rack by memory - some colours are definitely more favourite than others - but I also have a swatchbook and blendbook of previous combos to consult. Some things I don't need a picture for - a daisy is a daisy and I've done enough of them to know by heart what colours I like to use - but for most things I'll use an image search to get some inspiration. The tiny bunny for example, I would have forgotten that most rabbits have a pale ridge of white fur around their cheeks. Once I've got my colours and an idea of where they're going to go, it's just a matter of putting down the ink.

I use a plastic laminated board so that ink doesn't end up everywhere on the table, plus it's got some weak double sided tape in one corner for holding down tiny fiddly bits for inking. This is also the point where I'm picking my light source/direction. That plus volumetric shape determines where the darkest colours go. e.g. on the raccoon, if the tail had been on the left I would have had to put the darker shading on the opposite side. Planning ahead is important. I usually divide up my pieces by main colour - do all the white bits together, then the grey bits, then the dark grey for the racooon, then assemble in stages, starting with anything that has a fixed position. Things like the head, tail or arms are usually last as I'll decide on an exact pose.

It's important to know the limitations of your medium. Alcohol markers are not capable of making extremely thin, distinct lines on previously coloured areas. For things like the eyebrows, mouth or paw lines on critters, I bring in the water based fineliners. My brand of choice is Staedler Triplus fineliners. I've had a set since high school that's still going strong and added a bunch of colours since. For eye shines, white acrylic paint applied with a tiny ball tipped stylus.

The speed of the marker determines how much ink gets left behind. The faster you move it, the less gets deposited. For solid pieces like animal parts I'll start at the top following the shape of the piece and then work downwards towards the bottom, overlapping layers and slowing down more to get a nice gradient. For more contrast this process can be repeated with darker markers if they're close in value. If there's a lot of difference I'll use the flicking technique instead, putting the tip down where I want the darkest part and sweeping it towards the lighter area and lifting up.

Use a decent white cardstock. I don't have anything special, just 200gsm white from the local business supply store. The thicker and more absorbent the paper the more layers you can apply, but also the more ink you'll spend. I find 200gsm is a good balance between "can hold the ink" and "doesn't suck my markers dry".

Get to know your colours. While sometimes I can get a whole piece out of one or two markers, more often I'm using three, four or five per colour. For a piece with multiple colours, it's not uncommon to have twenty markers out on the table by the time I'm done. If you don't have closely related (but not too closely!) colours, it's hard to get nice transitions or blends. One way around this is to literally paint with the darker colour. Tap or swipe the dark colour onto a non-absorbent surface like an acrylic block or the aforementioned laminated sheet, then pick up a bit of that colour with the lighter one. This gives you gradient swipes with the two colours when applied to paper. Just remember to clean off the light marker's tip on scrap paper or towel when you're done. This works best in small areas. I wouldn't attempt to do anything bigger than a couple cm² this way unless the desired texture was streaky / variegated.  

Some of the go-to colours I reach for all the time:
W1/W3 - These are warm grey, think grey mixed with brown. Anything that's going to be a fairly neutral white gets these for shading; they're used on the birch tree trunks and raccoon above.
BG70/B000 - an extremely light seafoam blue-green and baby blue. Great for shading white again but where you need cold, like the icicles and daisy (but the indoor lighting kaiboshed the daisy's contrast, sorry about that. Doesn't show up well.)
E41 - light cream. Again for shading white or a starting point for light brown, this time in the warm side. It's used on the bear bellies, alpaca and rabbit.
E51/E34/E55 - my favourite set of warm soft browns. 95% of the two bears are done in this set of three colours, and the first two feature in the alpaca as well. I find myself reaching for these fawn colours time and time again for so many things. E41+E31 makes great sand.
E44 - my favourite desaturated chocolately dark brown. The tiny rabbit is done mostly with this colour.
YG11/YG03/YG17 - my go-to yellow green blend. 11&17 make up the birch leaves and daisy stem/leaf.
BG11/BG13/BG49 - vibrant aquas. Not the most natural of colours so I tend to use them on objects not critters, but they're just so pleasing to the eye. I'm a sucker for a nice blue of any hue.
E04 - despite being classed an "earth tone", this is a pink. A desaturated dusky rose pink, but a pink all the same. Great for adding some shading to flesh or pinky things or stuff like noses-that-should-be-pink while avoiding the garish fluo-pink look. Small bits of E04 often make it into any faces I do. It also makes great realistic shading on strawberry ice-cream. The real stuff, not the artificially coloured pink with no fruit in it.

And if you made it through that wall o' text, have some more colourings, this time slightly less quality fail since it's not the middle of the night!