After I finished penciling my Bloodshot figure, I took out my set of Faber Castell pens. I'd only inked one drawing with them, and thought it a good opportunity to learn how each pen worked. To my surprise, I found my lines wandered far more with the smaller tips than the larger ones. Also, when I needed to ink large areas, the larger tip showed my individual strokes.
My set of Sharpie Markers had three different grays. I used these for shading. The Sharpies gave me better coverage on the white board than the Faber Castell pens, so after I finished with the gray markers, I went over all the Faber Castell black with a black Sharpie. This gave the inking a more uniform appearance.
The blue Sharpie markers didn't come in the range I wanted, so I purchased a pack of Artist's Loft Dual Tip Markers. These are alcohol-based markers with two tips: a brush tip at one end, and a chisel tip at the other. They are similar to the popular Copic markers, which my late friend, professional colorist Justin Ponsor, used for commissions. I've also seen lots of artists using them at Wondercon.
I watched online tutorials to learn how the Copic markers work. In addition to the Copic website, I found a fun and helpful video from the Youtube channel Jazza. Then I started coloring.
As is my practice when using Prismacolor pencils, I used the lightest blue first. I had a hard time using the chisel tip, so I concentrated on learning the brush tip. The Artist's Loft brush tip didn't deepen the color while wet, as in the Copic tutorials. Nor did it leave a uniform appearance.
The Artist's Loft brush tip also picked up the black ink. This gave me darker areas and streaks/lines. I'm guessing the excess ink came from the Faber Castell pens, as they had bled more during use than the Sharpies. (Strangely, the smaller tips had bled more than the larger ones). Still, by avoiding the black as much as possible, and waiting for the color to dry between coats, I slowly deepened the light blue.
Still, the look of the coat looked rather streaky and blotchy. This put me off using the markers again for a day or so.
Then a thought struck me. "Why don't I look for a tutorial specifically about the Artist's Loft markers?" I searched, and found one on the Youtube channel Juicy Ink. In her video, the artist explained that the Artist's Loft markers were not as versatile as the Copics, and didn't work quite the same. Although she liked the additional color choices offered, she worried that beginners would grow dispirited with the results, thinking it was their fault, rather than the limitations of the markers.
This made me feel better about my efforts, and I decided to have another go at the coloring.
Another thing I noticed in the Juicy Ink tutorial was that the artist disliked the brush tip, and used the chisel tip for just about everything. So as I applied additional coats, deepening the color with more light blue, and then two darker shades of blue, I used the chisel tool too. I still couldn't control it as well as I would like. I could not lay down a uniform appearance, or in any way blend individual strokes together. Still, with time and patience, the pants and shoes darkened, and took on the appearance I was hoping for.
Dragon Dave
Related Links
Jazza tutorial
Juicy Ink
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