I do usually start with the background first, going from top to bottom. I work best that way. Whether this is best for you, you'll have to find out yourself. ;)
Okay! I get asked a lot how I make my pictures with markers. So I thought I'd show you how I draw and color a pic from beginning to end. My process works for me, and maybe I'm doing something different that might help you, too. But of course, the best way to learn something is to do what I did, "trial and error" and draw a lot, and don't give up. So, this picture is of an orca whale sitting on a Pacific beach near a tide pool...
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Step 1: The sketch. I drew this guy rather quickly and just tried to capture his pose and mood. I made some mistakes that I realized later after putting the drawing away for a day. (This is a great way to check for mistakes, btw. You will be more objective of your drawing the next time you look at it.) |
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Step 2: Inking. A day later, I pulled the drawing out, fixed a few things (the right hand, esp) and began the inking process. I'm not a good inker. I don't have a steady hand (too much coffee), but I do my best, making short strokes and trying not to stress too much when I do screw up. I've found a good method to use is to ink first with the thickest pen you have. I use Faber Castell India ink pens which come in a variety of thicknesses. They are also cheap and can be found even at most Wal Marts. |
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Step 3: More inking. I've used a smaller width pen to finish up the details of the drawing. You may have noticed by now that I ink directly onto my sketch. I cannot trace on a light table! Many artists use a light table, but I can't. There's no reason not to ink your sketch as long as you can get rid of your pencils easily. |
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Step
4: Starting with the Background. So, I added the sky.
My scan is terrible, because the ocean is actually level. I used
Deco Blue on the sky first using a Prismacolor marker and then went
over it with a Cool Gray #2 Chartpack marker. I did this to have
a less saturated sky--I want a more overcast looking kind of day.
Since this is the Pacific ocean I'm coloring, it's a less bright
kind of sky and ocean. Going with the dark ocean, I added Prismacolor
Cool Gray 70% in the water. I work the gray color in a mostly random
pattern to create the effect of rippling water. Then I added some
French Gray 50% for shadows on the sand... I do usually start with the background first, going from top to bottom. I work best that way. Whether this is best for you, you'll have to find out yourself. ;) |
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Step 5: More color. I've added more color to the ocean. Mixed into it are more of that Chartpack Cool Gray #2 and Chartpack Frost Blue. Also, Deco Blue, Cool Gray 30% and Blue slate. I layer all of these colors on top of each other, blending while they are still wet on the paper as much as possible. To make the frothy foam I've used some blues and grays. I didn't ink this part of the drawing in order to make it seem a little further away. |
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Step 6: I used Sand on the... uh... sand and French gray 60% on the rocks. I almost always lay the darkest (shadow) color on first because that way your shadows and shading blend together better and don't look like they were added at the end. I think it makes it more naturalistic. The only drawback to this process is that the shadows will be less hard and if you want hard shadows have to be added later. Not much else to say, except that at this point, I was interrupted in the drawing process and had to put it away. :P |
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Step
7: Worked color into the rocks using Sienna and Cherry.
I wanted them to be a "warm" color to contrast the "cool"
colors of the ocean and sky, so gave them a reddish tint. I believe
such rocks exist somewhere on the Pacific.... :) I didn't add the
tide pool, because I wanted to seek a reference photo for tide pools.
So, I go to Google.com and use the image search function for a tidal
pool. |
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Step 8: After looking at the reference photos on Google, I felt more confident about the tidal pool, so I colored it in using Blue Slate, Deco Blue, Cool Gray 70% and Brick Beige. I also used some Terracotta for the part on the rock. The crab and the starfish are finally colored in, too. |
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Step 9: The figure! Finally, I've pretty much finished up the background. While I was searching for reference pics on Google, I checked out pictures of orcas, too, in order to get the markings right. I sat down in front of the computer and drew in (with pencil) where the black parts should be if an orca whale was made "anthro." Not sure if they scanned that well. Then I went in with the Black and picked out where I think the darkest shadows would be in the black areas. I also used 40% Cool Gray on the white parts. I'm not too worried about the white parts yet, though. I usually leave that till last. |
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Step 10: Now I add some 90% Cool Gray, building up the rest of the volume of the figure in the dark areas. |
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Step 11: Added 70% Cool Gray nearly finishing up the lighter areas. I've deliberately left some uncolored so that he will look a little shiny. I've added some more shadow with 40% Cool Gray to his white torso. Used French gray on his penis. I've also darkened the shadows underneath him and around the rocks. |
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Step 12: I used 50% Cool gray on those open spots in the black areas. I also finished up the torso using 60% Cool Gray under his neck, 50% Cool gray in the darker areas under his pecs, 40% and 30% on his abs and finally to blend everything in and shade from gray to white used 10% Cool Gray. I used Peach, Salmon Pink and Deco Peach on his pink parts. :) |
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Step 13: The picture is nearly done. I added some color that his skin is picking up from the rocks and the sand in areas I thought appropriate (right arm, back, tail, right and left leg) I've re-inked some of the areas, as the layers of marker tend to gray the ink out, even if it is waterproof. I also used some white colored pencil on the sky, ocean and small areas of his body as hightlights. In the sky, even though it didn't scan well, I tried to make the sky lighter at the bottom. If you observe the sky, you'll notice it gets "darker" or more "saturated" in color as you raise your eyes from the horizon |
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Step 14: Fixing the scan. Since my scanner sucks, I have to adjust what it spits out at me in Photoshop. I used the Selective color tool while looking at the original and tried to match the colors up the best I can. I know that an image on the screen will never look exactly like my hand-colored image, but I do try to match the best I can. |
So that's my method. I learned to do this not by taking a class, but through trial and error. There's hardly any information about coloring with markers online. Prismacolor markers are fun to use. They can give you a real painterly look to your picture and give it a sense of "freshness."
For
me, I've found that starting with the background works best because
I'm intimidated by backgrounds. I feel it's my weak point. Starting
with the hardest part of the drawing helps me feel more confident when
I come to the end of it.
Hope this was interesting and helpful! Good luck in your drawings! :D