Watercolor with Markers: Learn to Paint Beautiful Creations with Brush Pens

By Jessica Mack

Go beyond lettering and learn to use your brush pen markers to create vibrant, colorful watercolor paintings! In this easy-to-follow guide, noted artist Jessica Mack teaches all the techniques you need to get started and practice through a series of fun projects.

Markers are vibrant, inexpensive, and extremely versatile. They’re also less messy than paints, and require less equipment to get started, making them the ideal tool for creating at home or on the go. And when you blend them with water you really unleash their magic!

With over 35 projects you’re bound to find something that suits your mood. From fashion illustration to florals, galaxies to food, each project will help you hone your painting skills, and you’ll have a beautiful, finished piece of art at the end. Whether you’re new to painting, or looking for another way to use your markers, these fun projects will provide you with a relaxing and enjoyable way to grow your skills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rocky Nook
• Release date: Nov 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781681988399

Jessica Mack

Jessica Mack grew up in Ladson, South Carolina, where she spent her childhood bouncing between libraries and bookstores. Jessica started telling stories because she was jealous of magical beings called storytellers who could breathe life into their universes with just their words, so of course, she decided to get some magic and make her own worlds too. In renaissance-like fashion, she is also an artist, poet, blogger, and is working on telling stories in other media as well.

Book preview

Introduction

Maybe you picked up this book because you’re looking for a new hobby to help you unwind, or you bought 327 markers thinking you’d become a pro at lettering, but they’ve just been sitting in a drawer. Or maybe well-meaning Aunt Lisa gave it to you for your birthday, and you were all Um … thanks? Whatever the reason, you’re here now, and we’re going to have some fun together!

My painting love affair began with watercolor, but the day I learned that I could paint with markers changed everything. I remember exactly where I was when I first saw someone blending their markers with water to create a gradient on the lettering they were working on. My mind was blown, and the possibilities immediately started swirling around inside my head. What if you could do more than blending two colors using water, what if you could use markers to actually paint?! No more expensive paints or drippy watercolor travel tins in the bottom of my purse. Markers are vibrant, extremely portable, and so very versatile. I was completely hooked.

I quickly discovered a fundamental difference between painting with watercolor and painting with marker ink: Unlike watercolors that need to be mixed on a palette, you can apply marker ink directly to the paper, then use a wet paintbrush to blend and move the ink around—with super-vibrant results.

Most watercolor paints are made from ground-up pigment held together with gum arabic, while water-based ink is more of a dye. This means that watercolor paint can feel quite gritty on the paper once it is dry, and it is possible for the pigment to clump in an area of your painting. Ink, on the other hand, creates more of a color stain on the paper, which dries smooth and can help you get more even coverage. This also means it’s easier to draw over the top of an ink painting than it is a watercolor one. Generally, I’ve found ink to be more vibrant than watercolor too, which I think gives you a more modern feel to your work.

This newfound obsession with marker painting inspired me to experiment and explore new styles of artwork. I fell so in love with Tombow Dual Brush Pens in particular that I become a Tombow Ambassador and eventually made my way onto the Tombow Design Team, where I got to teach other people how to paint with markers. This also led me to teach online and in-person classes to thousands of students worldwide, helping inspire others to explore what they could do with their markers, beyond lettering and coloring.

The other thing that really drew me to painting with markers is how relaxing and meditative it can be. When you’re so focused on what you’re doing with your hands, it’s hard to think about anything else, so it’s an excellent break from the stresses of the everyday. These days I actually feel an itch to paint when I’ve been away from my studio for too long. It has become a part of me, and I’m better for it.

Something else that I learned from painting with markers is to let go a little more. Any wet medium, whether it is watercolor or ink, really does have a mind of its own. You can try to guide it around the paper, but inevitably you just have to embrace the unexpected nature of it and find beauty in the process—whether the final result is what you had planned or not. I think there’s a valuable life lesson in that.

Throughout this book I’m going to teach you all the techniques you need to get started and have fun painting—no matter what subject you like to paint, from florals to fashion illustration or, food to galaxies full of stars. The projects in this book have been carefully curated to put the techniques into practice so you can get comfortable with them. After a while, it will become second nature to know what tools to reach for and what techniques to use to create the effects that you want.

I hope you find joy and relaxation through your painting journey. If you’re comfortable, I’d love for you to share what you’ve painted, either publicly online or via a private message on social media (@BrownPaperBunny). Seeing people’s artwork created from one of my classes or tutorials makes me happier than I can say.

And now, I can’t wait to show you how much fun you can have painting with markers, so let’s get started!

CHAPTER 1

Materials

You don’t need too many fancy supplies to get started painting with markers, but there are a few things to look for when gathering your materials. For example, paper can make all the difference to your painting, but when using marker ink I’ve found that more expensive doesn’t always mean better for the task at hand. While I’ll make suggestions for brands I’ve tested, please feel free to try whatever materials you might already have at home and experiment until you find what works for you.

Types of Ink and Markers

There are many different types of ink, but for the projects in this book we’re going to focus only on ink that can be blended with water versus ink that can’t, such as alcohol, oil, acrylic ink, and so on.

Lots of markers have water-based ink and can technically be blended with water to create a watercolor effect, but some definitely work better for this purpose than others. Throughout this book I use Tombow Dual Brush Pens for the projects. I love these markers because they are vibrant, blend beautifully with water, and have both a brush and a bullet-tip end, which adds to their versatility. They come in a large range of beautiful colors, as well.

Of course, you can use any brand of water-soluble brush pens you like. I also encourage you to test other markers you might have at home. Borrow those Crayola markers from your kiddos or see what other markers you have lying around. Scribble some ink onto a sheet of watercolor paper to check which ones blend well with a wet paintbrush and which ones don’t.

Caring for Your Markers

If you take good care of your markers they’ll last you a very long time. I have a set that I’ve been using for more than seven years! To keep the brush tips nice, try to limit how much you draw directly on rough surfaces with your markers. If you want to paint with ink on cold-press (rough) watercolor paper, I recommend using the blending palette method, which you’ll learn in Chapter 3, Techniques, and transferring the ink using a wet paintbrush. Although the ink in these types of markers can be blended with water, the tips do not like to get wet. Make sure you always use them on dry surfaces, and then add water to the ink afterward.

You’ll also want to pay attention to the manufacturer’s instructions for storing your markers. Some markers need to be stored upright, and some have to be kept horizontal. Of course, always make sure the lids are on tight when you aren’t using your markers. The quickest way to ruin them is to let them dry out.

Paper

The sort of paper you choose can make all the difference to your painting. It can affect how well the color blends, how vibrant the colors will be once they’ve dried, and even how long the ink stays wet. Watercolor paper ranges in price from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars and comes in a variety of blends. Generally, student-grade papers are made up of wood-based paper pulp, while professional watercolor papers tend to be 100% cotton. These days you can find some with a mix of paper and cotton, but I’ve not had great experiences with those. Luckily for your wallet, I have found that the best papers for painting with ink tend to be the less expensive 100% wood-based paper variety rather than cotton.

The other consideration to make when selecting paper for your project is the surface of the paper. Cold-press watercolor paper has a much rougher texture, which can be more forgiving and allow the ink to stay wet for longer so you can use different blending techniques. A negative aspect of cold-press paper is that it can fray your marker tips over time if you draw directly on the paper. Plus, all the little ridges in the paper tend to make it harder to use fineliner pens if you want to add details to your finished painting.

Hot-press paper is very smooth and is a lot gentler on your marker tips. It is also the best option to use if you plan on scanning your work to use or post digitally. It is not so forgiving to beginners, though, and you have to work a lot faster because the ink dries much faster on it.

Canson XL Watercolor Paper and Strathmore 300-Series Watercolor Paper are a good middle ground. Both are in-between hot and cold press in terms of their roughness. They also seem to work the best for blending ink on paper and keeping the colors looking vibrant.