I was reading this Copic marker coloring tutorial by Garrett Ley & I was surprised how much he picked up a brush and used painting techniques.
It began to make me feel disillusioned about my recent collecting of Copics, ShinHan Art Touch Twin, Prismacolor Premier---and just illustration markers in general. ;-; If such great techniques are done with a paintbrush and a cup of blender fluid, then why am I bothering to switch from watercolors, and water-soluable markers with wet brushes, to artist markers? If I'm going to end up with a paintbrush and some cup full of fluid, no matter what I do, then why am I spending all this money on markers?
I know I'm very collector-minded and that side of me is having lots of fun, just gathering up and browsing through colors. But honestly, I currently don't have the budget to be indulging in my collection obsessions. I really should be reigning in my collecting impulses right now. Ironically, back when I did have money to burn, that was when Copics seemed like an expensive waste of money, and I used more cost-effective mediums like watercolors and water-soluable markers.
I do seem to have a penchant for cheap materials. In my heart, I want to prove that I can make even child-targeted pigments or hardware-grade paints/mediums work just as well as the expensive stuff.
Part of it is rebellion against my past art teachers who demanded I buy expensive stuff then use it wastefully everyday. Blech.
Another part has always been my life-long familiarity with cheaper materials. I grew up without an allowance. Not only could I barely buy toys, but most of the time, whenever I wanted something, I had to make it myself. My parents threw all the family's budget into our education, from preschool, until all 3 of us graduated from college. (They've only just recently started splurging on themselves.) So we didn't even go out to buy art supplies. I became a pack-rat of scrap paper and packaging cardboards. I only had the cheapest of basics: Crayola watercolors, a 6 set of Crayola markers, and our cherished collection of Crayola crayons. To this day, expensive materials (and the idea of wasting them) make me so uncomfortable, that I often end up not drawing anything, rather than using them up. That's no way to experiment and create. In fact, the same could be said of any crafting I do. I just can't start unless I have a plethora of backup supplies. I'm just too afraid to make mistakes, unless my stock of materials can accommodate that. The best example of that is my petrifying fear of cutting fabric, given the difficulty to cost-effectively stock up or resupply on fabric, if I should make a lot of mistakes. I'm just too afraid to use expensive materials. And really, aren't there enough fears and insecurities in doing/learning art, enough, without that extra fear added on top? In fact, there's a whole book on artistic fears: "Art & Fear: an Artist's Survival Guide" by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Actually, most books I find on drawing or crafting usually start with a preface to address fears of playing with something new.
So, why did I stop using the cheap watercolors and water-soluable markers, anyway?
I seem to recall being frustrated with watercolors. Besides getting tired of setting-up a whole slew of supplies, whenever I wanted to color (glass of water, a rag, test paper, a level/stable area, etc.) that set-up that took a lot of time and space, wasn't good for travelling or drawing in bed. I couldn't have all that stuff in my purse and whip out my sketchbook after work. Even though I later discovered brushes that could hold water, and I considered carrying a water bottle for painting, watercolors were just so translucent, that I could never get the bold or opaque colors I wanted, when I wanted them. I was tired of endlessly layering. All that layering would actually be a good thing in a painting class or one illustration, but I was more interested in drawing comics. I couldn't spend all my time on one panel. I had other ideas to draw before they flew away. Plus, I like instant gratification. I was starting to get impatient with waiting for water or paint to dry.
So I started experimenting with my old Crayola markers. Which were so old and dry that the pigment that came out, looked more like chalk pastels or colored pencil. This was a nice median between translucency and bold/opaque color. Also, I had learned that Crayola markers could be revitalized by soaking the nibs in water, though I found that dripping water drops onto the nibs kept more pigment in the marker. This combination of dry and wet markers was something I thought I would pursue. ...Even though my range of colors was so limited that I resorted to mixing mediums, which I had more colors of. Like crayons or colored pencils.
Then my cousin introduced me to a technique, where water-soluble markers were blended with a brush of nothing but water. It was genius. The interesting blending look of watercolors, combined with the boldness and quick application of markers. I was so excited about it, that I went splurged on a 50-marker set of Crayola Super Tips, to make up for the range of color options I'd have to give up when I dropped watercoloring. It was great for a long time, but I found myself eventually dropping the wet brush step. Maybe I was tired of the warping paper. Especially since so many of my finalized drawings for coloring, were traces onto the only other paper I had: computer paper, which does not really absorb water well. (And again, I was too paralyzed by fear of waste, to tear out pages from my sketchbooks...which were also pretty growing pretty cheap.) Maybe I got tired of the unruly nature of water. Maybe I was just plain impatient. But eventually, I just stopped using wet brushes or any wet mediums.
Before I knew it, all my drawings were being colored with just water-soluble, Crayola markers. It was never anything negative, until my first Artist Alley. When I began preparing my first art prints to sell to people, suddenly the brush streaks from water-soluble markers, just started to seem inadequate.
At Comic Con 2011, I got that usual itch I always get when I attend a non-anime convention: It feels like an unnatural waste of opportunity, when I don't spend/buy a lot. But, it can't be helped; non-anime conventions don't have very many things I'm interested in, enough to buy. So, I spend my time in panels to take my mind off any meaningless shopping compulsion. That year I attended a Prismacolor panel. They gave out free samples of markers, pens, pencils, and gave us time to draw in the panel! I discovered why so many artists and illustrators used alcohol-ink markers: The streaks could blend together! *O* I was hooked. With nothing else to spend my money on at Comic Con, I headed over the Prismacolor booth in the exhibit hall to buy and spend. But I only found that their booth was purely for advertising and a few samples. They were not selling markers at their booth. ;_; So, I went around to some unofficial booths, booths for art supply stores, and found a discounted set of Prismacolor Premier markers.
Then, further into the Exhibit Hall, I found another booth selling something called "Twin Touch" markers, from a Korean manufacturer named Shin Han Art. It was a disappointment to be told by the sales clerk that their brush-nib markers would not be released until a few months after Comic Con, but they had a wide selection and let everyone test their markers. Standing there, testing and deciding on colors in my notebook, gave me something productive to do at the con, and I knew I would come away with great loot. I began my color choices based on the main characters I was most likely to draw often. I chose their hair and eye colors, the colors of their most frequent costumes, their skin tones, and a few of my favorite colors in general.
I didn't buy Copic markers until my next anime convention (AM2). Let's face it: Copics are the markers of manga artists and they are just more ubiquitous, especially at anime conventions. But I remembered my days of passing by the Copic booth at previous Anime Expos, thinking I was so smart and frugal to have figured out how to use cheap markers and watercolors, instead of $8-each markers. So, I limited myself to only 2 buying only 2 Copic markers, in colors which I really needed for my current frequently-drawn characters, but weren't in my Prismacolor Premier Manga colors set, nor among my selection of individually chosen Twin Touch markers. Then at the next Anime Expo, I bought 6 Copics, since there was a discount for buying that many. Before I knew it, I was using Michaels coupons for individual markers, and staking them out for their frequent "buy 1 Copic, get the 50%-off" sales. I even got desperate enough for one hue, for the main color of my current, frequently-drawn character, that I even shopped at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo---And they don't let you test the marker colors before buying! Each marker is individually wrapped and not to be opened for browsing. Admittedly, that did cause me to buy a color I didn't need. Thank goodness the Kinokuniya in San Francisco's Nihon Machi allowed me to test all the markers I wanted. ^_^ (Though, maybe that's why one of the markers' nibs proved to be damaged, as the ink ran less juicy.) So now, here I am, thoroughly collecting Copic markers. I even made a bag with elastic slots, to hold each marker and pen, then fold into a bag, zip closed, and sling over my shoulder like a purse.
But was it all, _completely_ unjustifiable waste. Should I have stuck with watercolor painting or at least Crayolas and wet brush?
I felt so discouraged. So I watched this video and felt better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIVWjz0lidA&feature=share&list=PLbGXNMLue5g30Kucetv8zzQf1ktgEFYxw
