When thinking about “fine art” the typical mediums of oils, pastels, and charcoal are quick to come to mind. However, recently I’ve discovered that even modern-day mediums not generally associated with fine art can be used to create something at that level. After being inspired by some very talented artists on Cara, I decided to try my hand at creating a fine art piece of my own using markers!

My experience with markers – both alcohol and water based – have been regulated to illustrations. Growing up as an anime/manga otaku, Copic markers were the crown jewel of comic art supplies. These were what many professionals used, and I wanted to draw just like them. During most of childhood I drew in the anime/manga style (I was a mega-big otaku), and so markers became strongly connected to illustration in my mind. I believe the stigma I created for the medium is what made the marker artwork I came across recently so inspiring and exciting. I’m always looking for new methods of creation, and this felt like a new door of possibilities was being opened.

Over the years I’ve piecemealed together a small set of Copics along with various other marker brands. These brands include Tombow, Stabilo, Prismacolor, kingart, Zebra, and a few no-name brands from bargain bins. Some I bought out of curiosity, and many were gifts. The quality of these is a mixed bag with some being better than others. For the canvas, I used a pad of Canson XL marker paper that I just happened to have on hand.  After gathering up my marker menagerie and cutting my paper, I stepped through that door.

Birds are my go-to subjects when trying out new materials. I find them to be very forgiving –the feathers and colours allow for errors to be concealed by details in the works. This allows for more effort to be placed into learning the new medium, rather than worrying over the likeness of the subject. I chose to draw a bird sitting on a trellis overgrown with leaves and flowers. While a scene like this is something I am generally happy to paint, it was mostly strategic in this case. Along with the bird for the same reasons as stated above, the various other elements in the image would also provide the same functions within the artwork.

I began the artwork with a solid pencil drawing of the image I wanted to create. A believe a solid foundation is helpful and would allow me to focus more on how to use the markers than what I was actually making with them. Taking those first steps is always the hardest, so in a way the drawing portion acted as a warmup. The drawing itself did not take very long. I started with rough shapes and added more definition as the drawing progressed.

Moving on to the colouring, I decided to not use any black markers. I always tend to go too dark, too quickly with my artwork and thought abstaining from blacks would be a nice added challenge to the piece. My plan of action was to work from the background to the front and from left to right. Working on the leaves and flowers first allowed me to get a feel for the markers and how they worked without worrying about messing up the pieces. Additionally, I started out with lighter colours and gradually built up to darker tones. I used gel pens to help bring back any highlights I coloured out and built up the darkest tones using a combination of grey and blue.

The background was a little tedious to work on, and I found it to be my least favourite portion to colour. I didn’t have a clear idea of how to convey the tangle of leaves once I started adding colour. Even though I fumbled around quite a bit with the leaves, I did use it as an opportunity to experiment with how the different markers blended and layered together. The alcohol markers were especially effective with blending and lightening the water-based markers.

The wood posts were surprisingly fun to create. I layered several different colours to create a warm and rich honey tone. Seeing the colour subtlety shift as I layered colour on top of colour made me excited to keep pushing forward with the medium. In many ways, it was very similar to working with actual paints. It was while working on these I really came to understand that most any medium can produce fine art. The key is in the technique and execution of the tools.

I saved Mr. Birdie for last – partially because he sits in the foreground, but mostly because I was so nervous to mark him up. Even though I had found some confidence by completing 75% of the artwork, I still had reservations that I could produce something that looks somewhat realistic on the bird. Being nervous with an artwork is nothing new for me, so I just acknowledged that feeling and moved forward. I dove right into colouring his most important feature: the face. Once the face was done the rest was a cake walk. My only struggles while working on the bird were due to the poor quality of a few of the markers I tried using. The soft warm grey, particularly, seemed to have less pigment and more alcohol inside it. The ink didn’t dry on the paper the same as the other markers and made layering other colours on top of it extremely difficult.

Most of my markers were dual tip with one end being a bush tip. I found these allowed me the same amount of control as a brush and paint. The water-based markers blended beautifully, and the alcohol markers layered like watercolours. I loved that there was virtually no dry time as I worked on the piece.  Being able to continually work on the piece allowed me to complete it in about two days, which is rather quick for me.

The medium was not without some drawbacks, however. I found myself needing to clean the tips of the lighter colours frequently. They easily picked up colours, especially darker colours, from the paper. At one point, one of my grey markers turned green. Cleaning them required marking on scrap paper until the picked up colour ran out, which felt wasteful. Furthermore, it was common for the colour on the cap to be something entirely different than the ink inside. I understand now why colour charts are so important when using markers. Even the more expensive brands don’t always match the cap colour 100%.

I would never replace my paints with markers, but this won’t be the last fine art marker artwork I create either. My overall experience with them was mega-enjoyable. The ease and versatility pleasantly surprised me throughout the whole process. The pad of marker paper I took from was nearly brand new, so I have plenty of supplies still left to try creating more fine artworks.

It is always fun to take mediums and use them in unexpected ways. Drawing outside the box is one of the reasons I enjoy being a multi-disciplinary artist. Discovering the vast possibilities of markers already has me considering other unexpected mediums to push the boundaries of. Crayons and tempura paint are just a few supplies that come to mind. With art, there truly is no limit to what can be done with a little creativity and effort.

For a recording of the process, check out the video on my YouTube channel. :D