Sharpies are a beautiful tool to use, but when it comes to coloring, they can be a bit difficult to master. Unlock popular tools like colored pencils or watercolors you need to worry about bleeding through, and blending is much more intimidating.
Understand Properties of Sharpies
When it comes to markers you usually choose between water-based and alcohol-based markers. Sharpies are the latter, which means that they dry quicker, so they do less damage to the page. That being said, Sharpies are still a wet medium, and the ink will soak through the paper easily. Even if you are using thicker paper you should still protect the surface below and plan for bleed-through and ink spread. You can use ink spread to your advantage by using less of the marker to fill an area, but make sure you keep back from any lines in the image you are coloring in. Remember that with we mediums you have ink pooling at the first point of contact; try to limit this or use it to your advantage when blending.
Use the Right Paper
Keeping in mind that Sharpies are a wet medium you should look for coloring pages that inhibit bleed-through. Use thicker pages to prevent too much pooling or spread. The paper should also be smooth. While grainier paper works well with colored pencils, the teeth on these pages can slowly tear up the felt tip of your Sharpies, leading to future issues.
It is easiest to use your paper instead of relying on a coloring book to meet these conditions. Look for paper that is compatible with your printer with a smooth surface and high brightness. For coloring with Sharpies, I usually recommend Hammermill Premium Copy Color Cardstock for this purpose. At 80lbs it is on the heavier side, but you should still be able to use it with most printers.
Protect Sharpies When Storing
The way you store your Sharpies depends mostly on personal preference, but you want to make sure you keep the ink distributed properly. The best way to store Sharpies is to lay them flat in a tray or a drawer. This keeps the ink even in the reservoir, and it is especially important with any markers that have dual tips. Otherwise, you can store markers with the tip down in a cup or marker organizer. This keeps the ink at the tip of the marker and ready to go. As long as you are not storing the Sharpies with the tip up and the caps off you should be fine.
Choose Your Colors Carefully
When you choose colors you need to pay extra attention to what you are selecting. Sharpies are not as easy to blend as other mediums, so you might need to try a few color combinations before you find one that fits what you want.
Sharpies work better when you have a wide variety of colors to choose from, and the brand has been releasing countless colors in recent years. Try to choose a few shades in a color you want so you can create more effortless blends, and practice the blends before trying them out on a finished product.
Shading with Texture
It is easier to use texturing techniques to shade when coloring with Sharpie because the markers are great at laying color down flat. The two most common ways to do this are with stippling and hatching.
Stippling involves using dots to create depth in the image. Once you lay down your base color you can go back in with the dots in a different color or shade to create more dimension. You can play with different sizes of dots but play around with density to see how it affects depth.
Hatching works in the same way, but you use lines instead to create this depth. You can even cross them to create small Xs for a different texture, and you can switch up the colors of the lines to create more dimension with the markers.
More Sharpie tips HERE.
Different Ways to Blend
Blending is more difficult with Sharpies, but there are a few different ways that you can blend them to reach that seamless transition. Blending Sharpies is another way to increase their dimension, and it is easy to do with these techniques.
Single Marker
You can use layers to create depth in a single marker by laying down a base and then going over the areas that need to be darker or deeper. Because you are soaking more into the page you need to be extra aware of bleed-through, but it is important to work while the marker is still wet on the page. Keep in mind that where you start your strokes you will have a bit of pooling. It is best to start in the areas that you need to be darker, leading out to the lighter areas.
Multiple Markers
You can use that same basic technique with multiple shades of the same color. Start with the lightest color to create a base, then use the next tone to add the variation in color or depth. You can use as many markers as you need to create this blend but start with two.
When you are done with the next color, take the lighter color and use it to blend the two. Depending on the look you are going for this could just be blending out the edges or going over the entire area with the lightest shade. When you think it looks good, let the entire thing dry. This gives you the best idea of what it looks like, and you can touch it up afterward.
Multiple Markers – Smooth Gradient
If you want to switch easily between two different colors or shades then try this method. Transfer ink from the darker marker to the lighter one by holding them tip to tip, darkest on top. The longer you hold them together the longer the gradient will last, but five seconds seems to be a good length of time. As you color the darker ink will leave the tip first, eventually blending out to the original color of the marker. When you do this you need to make sure you use alcohol-based markers – mixing solvents does not work well with this method.
Lightening
You use this same premise to do a light-to-dark blend with just one Sharpie by creating a colorless blender from a cotton swab. Start by pouring some rubbing alcohol into a small cup or dish, then dip the cotton swab in long enough to saturate the tip. Press it to the tip of the sharpie long enough that the alcohol transfers.
Once the tip has paled you can then use the Sharpie to create a beautiful light-to-dark blend. Lightening the marker might not give you an intricate color blend, but it comes in hand more often than you would expect.
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