Spring Soon!

And it’s now the first week of March! Still quite cold outside, though, with temperatures today around 5℃. Praying for warmer weather here! Perhaps some bright vivid flower drawings would cheer me up. Thus sharing here a simple marker sketch to get me in the mood and a great opportunity to experiment and play around with some new products!

The Beginning

I started with an initial pencil sketch on a sheet of Cansons The Wall sketchbook for markers. Actually I did start with another painting on this paper which I didn’t like, but seeing how costly this paper is, I used the reverse side than tear it all up! Once satisfied with the pencil drawing, I set about coloring with another type of alcohol markers than Copic, called Spectrum. Let’s put it to the test! Both brands are quite good, but I felt the Spectrum left more streaks than the Copics do. Like the Copic, it has a square nib on one side and a round pointy one on the other but is thinner. As a result, I had to use the square nib to color large areas which explains the streakiness. Never mind, there are ways around it like covering it up with another color or using a different medium altogether. And here are my flowers. all bright and vivid in a wide range of colors!

Making Them Even Prettier

A variety of mediums were used to enhance the painting. First came the fluorescent red Acryla Gouache by Holbein, dotted in the center of the red flower. The thickness also adds some texture to it. Finding the painting still rather bare and disconnected, I incorporated some green like stems and leaves still using the Spectrum markers but introduced another set of alcohol markers to color them in: Pro Markers by Winsor and Newton. Like the Spectrum, their rounded nibs are thin as well and hence more suitable for coloring small areas. Following that, I went over part of the teal flower with some baby blue Amsterdam acrylic markers to let it pop out more. Now we’re talking! The mustard-yellow flower was then filled in with scribbles using a pastel yellow gel pen to disguise the streaky appearance from the Spectrum markers. Circles were then doodled in the center with a white gel pen, Finally, I traced over the handwriting with black copic markers and added some colors with the Pro Markers. And now look how stunning this painting turned out to be!

A quick and fun doodle of flowers this time! Also a great chance to try out and play around with various alcohol markers at hand including Copic, Spectrum and Pro Markers. All have their wonderfully bright and vivid colors, although I would say for coloring in large areas, I would opt for Copic. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the session as these “wow” vibrant colors have so much energy in them and certainly brightens up our dreary days. Spring is emerging so expect more colorful flower art from now!