Hello Hive Peoples,
I recently sketched out everyone's favorite Rugrat Dino and tested some Chameleon color-changing markers on it. There not bad. I made some mistakes but I'm learning from them. First off the Faber-Castell markers did not go well with these markers. You can see the black bleeding into the marker blending. I waited an hour before I put the color down and tried hard not to touch the edges, but I guess I have ocd because every spot had to be filled with color lol. I think my Micron markers will do much better, they dry much quicker as well.
The way these work are simple, you take an end cap from the second box (not the white box) and place it over top the marker tip for 10-30 seconds depending on how long you want the marker to last blending into the second color. You can blend two colors or blend one color into a normal gradient. These markers full price are not cheap, the white box retails for $120 @ Michael's but I snagged a half off coupon, got them for $60. The extensions, the blending colors in the clear boxes for all of them was roughly $75 when I purchased them. I'm not heavily into markers, but always up for new mediums which is why I gave these a shot.
I am going to give them a few more tries, honestly there more novelty then professional in my opinion. There great, but you have to get the timing down on the blending just right to get your desired results. If you want more control get alcohol based markers, like the famous Copic's. (Side note, there are a lot of markers that match copic's ability and are a lot less money, if you can afford it, get copic's - especially for there tips \ nibs, the control you have with them are unmatched, but like I said if your starting out you do not need to spend $30 to $3k on markers, yep thats a general range on these lol.)
In conclusion to my blending marker rant, if I were to get more and get into markers more so then I ever have, I'd get myself some Copics. These markers are a lot of fun don't get me wrong, they do as advertised, I was actually shocked how well they blend, but I'm going to try a different approach in my next art supply run. I will make more drawings with these though stay tuned for that.
I'm a very black and white type artist, I sketch a lot and then ink in marker. I was never heavily into color until recent years. I am very big into graphic design, so most of my artwork gets sketched, then put into illustrator for the color and fine tuning. Or I will draw directly in illustrator via my tablet. In recent years I learned some different mediums soft pastels, colored pencils and even had fun with crayons. Art is art, no matter what your using.
That's all for now hope you enjoyed the pictures.
- Michael