I’ve been taking sketching classes and we’ve recently started on marker renderings.
However, I am struggling with blending the colours. My instructor says to shade quickly and saturate the paper with ink but it hasn’t worked well for me. I still see lines where I transfer from shade to shade.
I would like to post my shadings here but unfortunately I currently do not have access to my sketching portfolio.
Are there any kind souls willing to guide me?
Are you using marker paper? Just keep going over the streaks and blend the two colors together. Should be about 75% overlap on each stroke. Your markers might also be drying up.
My class is not using marker paper yet because the teacher wants us to safe money for now. I am currently using standard 90gsm printing paper.
I filled up my copics with fresh ink and the results were much better. It appears I bought markers that were already pretty dry…
Will try to post some sketches for critique when the school work is not so crazy. Thank you!
You need three shades of markers (for example 30%, 40% and 50%) saturate the page with circular motions using the 30%, then apply the 40%, and then the 50%. Then go back over everything with the 30% and it will blend together the transition points. If it makes the page too dark, use a 10% or 20% to go over everything.
Works like a charm.
I remember having in my formidable marker arsenal (a long time ago) a marker titled ‘BLENDER’ which was straight-up, 100% chemicals with no color. One used it on the transition areas to blend in between colors. Never was as good as advertised.
Thats a bad move.
Marker pads exist for a reason. Regular paper sucks ink out of your markers. If they were used it’s going to suck them dry even quicker. So you might not spend money on the paper but your markers will be wasted after a semester.
Buy a marker pad - the paper is a different consistency for a reason and it will make blending much simpler.
Keep in mind most marker pads also have two different sides to the paper, one coated one uncoated. You want to make sure you’re on the correct side or the results will be different (try it out and you’ll see what I mean).
Another note, with markers it often helps to try and NOT heavy fill areas. If you want solid colors and perfect gradients, use a digital program like photoshop or illustrator. Markers are great for gestural work and for helping define form very quickly. One of my presentation teachers once told me that you should be able to render with one maybe two or three tones and use application and white space to your advantage.
Also marker paper is a must, if you cant find marker paper quality colored printing paper works great as well.
The art is in how you don’t blend them!
Anymore I jus use a straight up solid fill, let it dry, go back with the same tone (it will darken it) then hit it with some white and black chalk… It’s faster, more expresive, and you don’t have to have 100 markers to make it work…
I have a Blender marker (letraset promarkers) that is, essentially, useless.
Just makes everything run and dilutes all the colour, really isnt worth getting one .
@yo the white and black chalk idea seems interesting, think ill have to have a go at that one after seeing some of your work
It’s pretty simple, just make sure it is a powdery chalk like Prismacolor Nupastels. You can shave it with an exacto onto the page and rub it with a tissue or cotton pad, but I just scribble a little out into a tight area and then rub it. Pretty portable, though your hand will get messy. It is also good for erasing back out details, or marking a shadow back in. Makes it feel more arty, and hand done, and people seem to respond to that after 5 years of looking at glossy on screen work.
Two big thumbs up.
first,sorry for my poor English…
as you mentioned,if you don’t want to get a “pen mark” in your drawing,
there are basicly two ways you can do~
2.overlap you strokes again and again,until the paper suck the ink to it’s limit.
thus,you can get a “absolutely no pen marks”~ this is the most simple way~
but you 'll get a more saturate color in the end.
you can check my blog articles~一人設計學院～One Man Show Design Institute: 3.1-4 使用麥克筆的各種名門正道與邪門歪道 Variety Ways For Using Makers
the article also mention about color blending,but unfortunately it is a Chinese blog.
maybe you can get someone translate for you or try the idiot auto translate in right side of blog!!! 
there are also some other sketch lesson in it!