Journal

More Marker Art…

7 Comments

So I ordered the “How to Draw Manga” book on coloring original drawings. The book had a lot of cheesy, silly stuff in it (like being narrated by Manga characters), but it also had some useful information. Probably not $30 worth of useful information, but I managed to crank out something pretty cool after reading the book cover-to-cover.



Here I colored a printout of a picture I drew back in late August. I colored right on ordinary printer paper, and the way that paper allowed the inks to blend was pretty cool.

Cooler still, here’s what the BACK of the paper looks like (flipped horizontally in the digital realm to match the above image):


Now THAT just looks too cool. It’s almost ART (as opposed to the front of the page, which is almost “craft.”)

–Howard

7 thoughts on “More Marker Art…”

  1. I’m starting to ask myself – how big are these images you’ve been showing us for the past few days? Do you scan them actual-size, or do you blow them up for effect?

    1. Image size

      The above image nearly fills an 8.5″x11″ page. The original was around half that size, filling a 5.5″x11″ half-sheet of Bristol Board. Most of my work fits on those half-sheets.

      Coloring really big things is problematic — the colors dry before you’re done blending them. Still, the above image worked out okay because I tried a couple of new techniques, and used different paper than usual.

      Anyway, my usual approach here for LJ is to scan at 200 dpi or better, and then reduce to 500 pixels wide (for portrait layout) or 725-ish wide (for landscape layout).

      –Howard

      1. Re: Image size

        Maybe this is a dumb question; but can’t you just use a blender pen to blend the colors once they dry? I do it all the time with the water based markers I use. I can’t use PrismaColor or Tria markers because my wife has a chemical sensitivity, so I don’t have a whole lot of experience with them. But I know they have blender pens available.

        Scott

        1. Colorless Blenders

          The colorless blenders help, but it’s better to blend the colors while the original ink is still wet, rather than trying to lift it and mix it once it has set in the page.

          –Howard

  2. Yeah, the second image does look like a water color. They both look really sharp. Tempted to print out the image and frame it.

    To complicate things, have you considered using Corel Painter? This program (as opposed to photoshop) is specifically for making art.

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