Walk-through: Markers & Colored Pencils

By Andrea Melione
This article originally appeared in ArtTrader Magazine, Winter 2011 Issue 13

In this walk-through I am going to show you how to create an ATC with markers and colored pencils. I employ this method because it helps me solve several problems that often occur with colored pencils alone. 1) I get really bold, rich color if I apply a marker base and shade with colored pencils. 2) Markers and colored pencils gives me greater control over my value scale. And 3) it’s a lot quicker to shade a marker base, than to create saturated color with colored pencils alone. Many beginner artists often do not apply enough layers of colored pencil; resulting in washed out ATCs that do not have a solid value scale. Below I will show you my typical process.

In this walk-through I am going to show you how to create an ATC with markers and colored pencils. I employ this method because it helps me solve several problems that often occur with colored pencils alone. 1) I get really bold, rich color if I apply a marker base and shade with colored pencils. 2) Markers and colored pencils gives me greater control over my value scale. And 3) it’s a lot quicker to shade a marker base, than to create saturated color with colored pencils alone. Many beginner artists often do not apply enough layers of colored pencil; resulting in washed out ATCs that do not have a solid value scale. Below I will show you my typical process.

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
First I begin by taping my card with artist’s tape (masking tape is too sticky and will harm your art) this give a nice white border around the finished card as well! I ink my pencil drawing and carefully erase away the pencil with a soft mars eraser.	I now begin to apply my marker base (I use Prismacolor markers). I use the smaller nib to color inside my inked outline, and then use the larger nib to fill in large areas.	Base colors all done!
Step 4	Step 5	Step 6
I then shade the base marker with other marker – usually darker colors. You can view the progression above. I’ve used violet to shade the magenta sky, a sand color to shade the beige skintone, green to shade the blue water, and a dark blue to shade the medium blue dress. At this stage, many would say “hey that looks finished!” but we need to remember that highlights and additional shading can really make art work standout. I have now applied some dark blue colored pencil to the skirt, white pencil to the hair, and purples and magenta to the eyes for touch of make-up and to help the eyes standout even more. (Step 6)
Step 7	Final Version	Color Scheme
At this stage I have added a shadow on the water in front of the castle in the background and some light orange freckling to her skin. In addition I added a bit of green to the area around her pupils, to push the color.	To the right you can see the finished ATC! I inked the line art a second time, added some gold dots around the collar and strap and created little white feathers on the skirt with white gel pen. As a last detail I added more green to the water with my colored pencil.	My color choices!