Last month we showed you how to get a smooth gradient effect by blending coloring pencils, this month we provide you with a cheat sheet to learn a simple technique for blending alcohol based marker pens. Practicing the skills in this tutorial will allow you to create some simply stunning coloring pages.
Blending Marker Pens
Follow the graphic below for a lesson on blending colored gradients using alcohol based marker pens. In this step by step guide we show you how to shade a realistic looking sphere using only two colors and a colorless blender.
I used Copic Ciao markers in this shading tutorial, but any alcohol based marker pens will give a similar effect.
Tips, Tricks and Cheats
I used Copic Ciao markers for this tutorial, they are not the cheapest pens to buy but they do give excellent results. You can buy these pens singularly, so over time you can build up a small set of your favorite colors without having to splash out on a complete set in one go. Common alternatives to Copics are Windsor & Newton Promarkers, Prismacolor Premier and Shinhan Touch Twin marker pens.
Most felt tipped or marker pens will cause some bleed through on your paper but alcohol based markers are particularly prone to bleeding, definitely use a high quality paper or even card stock when coloring with pen and always have one or two spare sheets of paper underneath your page to catch the bleed through. If you want to avoid any bleed you can buy specially treated, bleed proof, marker pads from Amazon.
Take Your Blending Further
If you are looking for some more detailed tips on using coloring pens to get stunning shading and blending results then check out our guide: How to Color with Pens and Achieve a Professional Finish
Over to you
Do you have some tips to share for blending marker or felt tipped pens? Or maybe you can recommend a pen set for those on a budget? Let us know below…
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