Marker Coloring Tips?

[Rosediamond]

Does anyone know how to color with markers without leaving streaks?

A designer friend of mine is staying in College Station for the summer, and she brought her Pantone markers. Which is great! They're excellent, professional quality markers! I apparantly just don't know how to . . . use them right. Because I colored this in



and when I showed her the streaks, she just stared at it and said, "They're not supposed to do that." So, is there any way to color without the streaks showing up? Any specific techniques?[/img]

[Warofwinds]

Could it be the paper and not the markers?

[Mercury Hat]

I've found if you color too slow, or go back to add new wet marker over something that's dried, you get streaks to show up. You just have to try to get an even coating over the section with the marker as fast as you can, but not going too fast and leaving streaks.

If you have to divide parts into sections to make for easier coloring, try doing it at a light or shadow area so you won't see the transition in the final piece.

[Bgstratt]

You could also try using the old crayon trick of outlining and then coloring in small circles, well, moving the pen in small circles while coloring. It will wear out the marker sooner, but should give you an even color.

[Rosediamond]

I'm using manga paper for the comic, and smooth bristol board for the colored pages. So I don't think it's supposed to mess up like that. . . Man . . .

Merc: Good tips, I'm going to try the transition coloring later tonight and see if I mess that up. Hopefully not. ^^

BG: Ah! I tried that with the grey markers for the comic and it actually worked pretty well, thanks!

[Biev]

I was gonna give you the same advice as bgstratt, that's the way I draw. I tend to only see streaks when my marker is getting dry or is too small for the area I have to cover. It helps if you have large markers for backgrounds. This is pretty obvious, but put the cap back on every second that you're not using them, because they do dry quick. Usually my first drawing always comes out better than the second one because the markers are more wet. I usually stop when I notice they're starting to have a hard time, and let them rest ^.^

[VinnieD]

actually that looks pretty good in places (but the streaks on the black are obvious* it actually ends up looking good on the hair.

When a line of marker overlaps another it creates a double layer that's slightly darker than the rest. WHen it dries it shows up as streaks.

Think of it like model painting (different from canvas painting) One coat at a time.

Though getting a consistant black is still hard
even pros usually just use liquid ink and brush for that.

[Taiwanimation]

Streaks sometimes happen when there's too much ink on the paper, go a little lighter on the pressure. One wouldn't smash a watercolor brush onto the paper; markers work in a similar way.