HELP! I have a marker question.

[Captain Howdy]

I don't know anything about markers, and I was looking at a really nice online gallery of an artist named Craig Mullins. I saw a piece he did that was colored with markers, you can see it here: http://www.goodbrush.com/cm/albums/sketches/marker_head.jpg

I need to know what kind of markers were used on this piece. Does anyone recognize what they might be just by looking at it? Or if nobody knows, then can someone recommend a good brand of markers? The last time I used markers, I was 6 yrs old, and the brand was crayola... So I'm a bit behind. This is important though, and I really gotta know!

 

[pogre]

They almost certainly are prismacolor markers or another high end art marker. If you have a Michael's store in your area they mark these down to half price every once in a while.

 

[Captain Howdy]

Thanks for the fast reply! The reason I asked was because a friend and I were browsing that website, and she said that she would love to have a set of those markers, but I couldn't remember the name! I was trying to remember what they were called, cause a set of them would make a great christmas gift. I can't remember if she said Prismacolor or not, but I don't want to ask her and ruin the suprise, hehe.
There is a Michael's really close to my house, so I will run over there tomorrow and check them out. They don't sell them on their website anymore.

Thanks for the help, if anyone else has any other thoughts about a different brand besides Prismacolor, please post!

 

[cattoy]

I think he is using a program called Painter with a toolset called markers.

If you look at the background, some of the squiggles are overlapping eachother and lightening the color. This works with a computer paint program. It does not work that way with liquid pigments. (color in the physical world add subtractively, in the world of photons, they combine additively)

 

[DMAC]

I agree that that piece was done digitally, not with actual markers. That said, the Prismacolor markers are a good bet for someone looking to get into the medium. There are also the Tria system Pantone markers, although they're pretty expensive for someone who's just starting out.

Other than the cost (even the Prismacolors aren't "cheap"), the other problem with getting into markers, is that you really need a wide range of colors to use them effectively. I actually started out just using a set of the cool gray markers:

That way you can learn to work with the markers and how to blend them/layer them effectively, without having to worry if you have the exact skin color or shade of purple you need for a particular piece.

I haven't used markers much lately, except for really rough concept work, but here's a Star Wars piece I did with the Prismacolors back in 2002:

 

[Fargoth]

I agree with those who have said that that image appears to be digitally rendered.

I can also personnally attest to the quality of the Prismacolor marker set. I own the 48-color set and like them a lot. There is a blending marker that also lends to some nice effects.

Regards,
Paul

 

[Captain Howdy]

That Prismacolor cool grey set looks really nice. I'll try and find those. And yes, she is pretty much new to markers, I believe. She does great paintings and sketches, but I'm pretty sure she has never done much with markers, so that grey set would be a nice place to start. Thanks!

 

[cattoy]

I played around with art markers back when they were stinky, toxic and bled like crazy. I have given up on them now that I have a decent art tablet and the software is more than capable of replicating marker effects.

Software doesn't run out of pigment just when you need it.

Also, markers don't come with an undo key.

 

[Captain Howdy]

Yeah, but I can't shell out a thousand bucks or so for a computer + art program and tablet.