My Experience with Winsor and Newton Promarkers

I have now fully embraced markers. They are so fun and easy to use plus I get the same vibrant colours without having to organise an elaborate set up like I would with paints. I really am quite lazy when I think about setting up supplies. I find it can discourage me from starting to draw or paint. So the simpler, the better. 

My first foray into Promarkers was back at the start of the year, with the Letraset brand - in fact I have a blog post about it here on this blog. Within the last month or so I have slowly been buying more to expand my colour choice. As I have continued to buy them though there seems to have been a change over with the Promarkers going from Letraset to Winsor and Newton. The colours are the same but I do feel like the Winsor and Newton ones are slightly better in regards to blending.

The third row is Winsor and Newton Promarkers and the lines under the row are the Letraset Promarkers. As you can see the colours are pretty much the same (apart from the yellow but only because I tried to blend with it and it picked up the other colour). From this colour selection I've managed to make a variation of colours. My only annoyance is with the lack of variation in skintones but my using the browns and greys from the others sets I can just about manage a darker range of skintones. However it would have been a lot better if the skintones came in a pack of 12 to insure a better diversity of colour.

While shopping I also bought Marker paper which to my surprise is a lot thinner that I though it would be. When I ordered it on Cass Art I didn't look at the thickness of the paper assuming it would be quite sturdy since all the paper I had used with markers so far all had bleeding. So when I saw the paper was quite flimsy, resembling grease proof paper or tracing paper, I was taken aback (70gsm to be accurate). But there definitely isn't any bleed through which is amazing even though you can see the drawing on both sides of the paper. For now it is great for sketching however I think I might look for some alternatives for higher quality work just so it is easier to store without tearing or creasing.

How the drawings look from the back of the paper.

I found this Baylee Jae video about the subject and thought it might be helpful to those looking for marker appropriate paper like me.

I have looked into other brands of markers, Copic and so on, but I find the Promarkers do the job just fine without putting a hole in my purse. I am curious to test them though just see what the hype is all about. Until I win the lottery though I think I'll live without having used them. Pigment Markers are another type I'm interested in due to how easy it looks to blend them, especially with the white pen. Far superior to the waste of time blender that comes with the larger packs of Promarkers. They look like a mixture of pen and paint.

I see myself using markers for a while. The novelty hasn't wore off yet. The only thing that concerns me about them is how fast they might fade but until I see that for myself I'll continue using them.

Hazel, xoxo   

April Sketch A Day Faves

April has been both good and bad regarding my sketch a day progress. Unfortunately I've missed quite a few days this month for various reasons. There have been a couple of days where I have taken a strong dislike to the idea of drawing. This feeling isn't new and usually stems from the feeling of being forced to do something. So I've realised on these days it's not a wise decision to force myself to draw something because usually the end result won't be anything worthy of uploading. Luckily this hasn't happened too many times and the rest of the days I haven't uploaded I physically couldn't because there weren't enough hours in the day. But most of the days I have uploaded I've felt pretty good about my progress.

I started the month off with a colouring pencil binge thanks to my new faber-castell polychromos. It really can make a difference if your materials are good. Polychromos are just so easy to use. Here are a couple of my fave pencil drawings. I began to work on my ice queen over a couple of days and really want to go back to that schedule at some point just because I really like what I managed to do and by the end of the year I want to look back and see some bigger pieces. Spreading the work out over a couple of days allows me to do bigger work.

 

In the middle of the month I went back to my first love, graphite pencils but also experimented with my promarkers. My addiction to dance moms has continued  and expanding to me watching Sia's music video Big Girls Cry featuring Maddie Ziegler and instantly loved it. Also Kimmy Schmidt came back on netflix so I had to commemorate it! 

Last month I said I wanted to do more painting since I hadn't got round to it yet. So within the last week or so I have gotten my watercolour out. One of my favourite things about watercolour is the fact it is so convenient. Unlike acrylics where you can find yourself wasting paint, watercolours can't wasted because if they dry on the palette you can just add water and they can be used again. Here are my fave watercolours. 

 

Beyonce's Lemonade is definitely a fave of the month. She is a true artist in my eyes. 

Looking back it has been a pretty good month. It's not until I look through my work for the monthly review that I can see it clearly. Next month I aim to continue with the watercolour, hopefully do some canvas work, try to miss less days and to aim for bigger pieces spread overy a number of days. Seems attainable. 

To follow my #sketchaday2016, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr are the places to be. Hope to see you there!

Hazel, xoxo

Promarkers sketch attempts

I recently went into Cass Art and saw a set of 12 Letraset promarkers for under £10 and snatched them up. I have been following a lot of illustrators on Instagram who use markers and it made me curious about them so I opted for Promarkers as they are definitely the more affordable option compared to other brands, such as Copic.

Unfortunately what I had envisioned was being able to take to markers like a duck to water but as with anything a little practice is needed. The colour pay off is great but I thought I would be able to layer these to build up the colour. It wasn't quite what I had envisioned. It might be to do with the fact that they are of the Letraset brand but I'll soon find out since I've ordered some Winsor and Newton skin tone promarkers to try out.

In the meantime here are a couple of my trial and error sketches. Note to self : i'll probably need to purchase thicker paper to stop the ink bleeding.