Choosing the Right Marker or Ink Pen for Your Illustrations

1. Hello! About this Class...: there. My name is Tamara, and I'm an artist illustrator living on the East coast of Canada. One of the things that helps me to get the look that I want in my artwork is to know what tools I have on hand what they can do for me. My introduction to markers and in kingpins was when I participated in my 1st October challenge created by Jake Parker. What you do is you make an ink drawing every day for the month of October. Well, I lasted for two days. I was frustrated by my lack of knowledge about markers and pens, and I was so inspired by the work I'd seen from other amazing artists that I decided to do some research of my own on markers and in kingpins and the next inked over, I created 31 ink drawings. It's classes for you if you already own or even just have an interest in using markers or inking pens in your own artwork. But you're not sure where to begin. The best part is that you don't need to own anything to begin this class. You can just start watching the videos because going to show you the markers and in kingpins that I own and show you some examples of how I use them on my own artwork. I will take you through some important terms, such as permanent water based on archival, And I've also made a downloadable term sheet for you to keep on hand as you go through this class. And when you go to buy your markers in your pens at this point in the class, I hope you will have an idea of the kinds of markers and in king pens you would like to use , because you are going to need those for the next part. The class project, which is creating your very own. It's what she it's part of the SWAT shoot. We're going to be testing out things such as marker line, wait, permanence and how they would react with other media, such as water or water based paints or other markers. You also really begin to see how your markers and pens compared to each other by the end of the class, you should have an understanding of some of the terms discussed to help you when purchasing and using your markers and pens you also have a handy swat sheet so you'll know exactly which markers ending kingpins you have on hand on what you would like to use to make the artwork that you would like to create. So if you're anything like me, you want to get started yesterday, so let's go. 2. My Water-based Ink Pens and Markers: In this first video, I'm going to introduce you to some of them markers and inking pens that I use in terms that can be pretty good to keep in mind when you're deciding on which to use for your work or when you're going out to buy a marking pen. So we've got what a proof and water based I don't have a lot of water based is, you might notice, because most of the artwork that I do I use paints that are water based, such as wash and water colors. If I were to use water based in comm pens and markers for my heart and then I added water based paint on top, such as watercolor, what would happen is that the marker lines would then they would bleed or they would create a wash. Sometimes this can be a good thing. For example, my painting here of Frida. What I have done is I've used water color in it and and I've used some water based in king pens and kind of tell down here that they get a little smudgy, a little runny. They blend in with the water bit and in the lines spread out there not is clear, which could have a really nice effect sometimes, and I really like the way it can work. And if you're dealing with different colors, Jane Devonport lines. I think they've got about three or four different colors that you can use, so this one's almost empty. There's a blue in a red. There's green, maybe a pink. She also has a great one that's just black, But he's a really nice because then you can use water brush or watercolors overtop and will create a bit of a wash. Some of the other markers and inking pens that I have other than the Jains are this Stetler , if you may have seen these air, used them in your bullet journals, which they're great for. Try plus flying find tribe plus try plus find liner. Always hurt for me to say Try plus fine liner Dry, safe drive. Safe generally means that if the cap has been off for a while, I say you forgot and went to do something. You left it off for an hour or two. Um, it should still right without drawing up the pilot G texi for this, isn't I love this pen. It's really great. It's It's very fine. It's a gel pin and the ball, too rules really smoothly. It says that it's water resistant. However, I've let it dry, and then I've tested it with a bit of water and it still smudges, So just keep that in mind. So when I am using this, I make sure that I'm not used any water based materials. I'm pretty much just using this, and maybe some permanent markers along with it that time are going to affect the lines of the G tec. I also use calligraphy knits. I love these a lot because you can make really fine lines with them as well. I'll give you so this piece here. What I first did is I added water color, and then I wanted to add some details with some snowdrop flowers, so I used the fine nib. It comes to a point see, and I used some wash and you can draw fine lines and I'll show this a little bit later. You can also use some water based mediums, such a Zico line, and these come in great colors, but they are water based, so if you are using the pen to outline something with water based. Make sure you do it as the last thing, so that it doesn't so much in the next video, we'll be covering Ah, lot of the permanent markers that I used. I know I've been mostly mentioning water based and permanent. What I've been talking about my markers. Those were the two main things that I think about when I'm choosing a marker or in kingpin before you go to the next video. I did want to just take a moment to talk about the term sheet. If you haven't done loaded already and taking a look at it, you will notice that in italics. I do have a short list of the markers and inking pens that I use to help you out when you're going to buy if you don't already have one. Other thing that I almost forgot to mention is there are some handy websites that I tend to go to a swell when I want some information onto markers and in kingpins. One of those is jet pens. I believe the website is jet pens dot com. They have a lot of very useful information on different types of pens and ink, so I would highly suggest going there. I've learned a lot from that website when I've been trying to choose a marker or in inking pen, and I'll see you in the next video. 3. My Permanent Ink Pens and Markers: and here are some of my permanent markers that I use. So first I've got the pens. Thes are permanent. They are waterproof and they come in different weights and with ease, the weights air noted by letters. So there's a brush new. There's a medium sized line small. You can get extra small and others f for fine, and you can also get them in different colors. Another waterproof one is the Statler Pigment liner, and this one is really, really fine Yet again, another one of my favorites can see the how find the niv is this one. I used for really fine details. So this used wash. And then I have used a small pit pen and a medium his pen to create all of my heavier lines . And then I have gone in, and I've used this 0.5 to create all of e smaller detail, really fine lines. Here's another example, so you can see that the lines in her horns are much thicker. And when you got into all the little freckles and the little bits of hair and all the lines on her knuckles, I have used the 0.5 okay, So we've also got Cho picks. You might be familiar with kopecks already. They do come in some different sizes and types of markers. First, what I'm going to talk about are their permanent markers, their multi liners and they come in black and you can also get it in a C p a color. The great thing about the black one, it has a metal body to it actually has a reservoir inside that you can replace when you run out of ink. So the nice thing about the multi liners is they're waterproof. So when they are dry, they won't smudge and they won't mix with anything. That is water based. Now these is, you may see are also co pick proof. It is very important if you're using co pick markers, you're going going to want to make sure that the liners that you're using our co pick proof so that they will not bleed the co pick markers. And then we've got the Sakura Pigna brush, which also comes in different line waits as well. You could get them in different colors now. These are also permanent and waterproof, and there is another new the difference between this one and a lot of the other found tens . Is that the Incan here? It's waterproof when dry. So this is the platinum carbon ink pen, and I love this pen when creating the black lines in this piece of art. I used this pen and it dries really quickly for the really, really fine lines, and here you can see them. There, I used my trusty again Pick the line your 0.5 one of the things I would like to quickly talk about his permanent. So permanence when it comes to markers or pens means that they will not mix with water when they're dry, and they won't erase their smudge proof and waterproof. But keep in mind yet again that there are some permanent markers, such as the co picks, alcohol markers. They're not like fast. So then we get into talking about light, fast or fade proof. So, for instance, thes se maximum light Fastness. See that and like fast is very important. If you're going to be doing art that you want to share with others or they're going to sell that they may be displaying where it's going to be exposed to light because markers and paints that are not like fast Such a sicko pick will fade and discolor over time. So keep that in mind as well. What I'm going to do in the later videos is I'm going to be showing you how they're permanent and how their water based. And you can take the markers that you own if you haven't used them for and you can sit down with me and draw some lines with them and give them a little testing out. And then in the end will be doing this spot Sheikh together. Okay, we'll see in the next video. 4. Testing Permanence: Hello and welcome back in this video, I'm going to be talking a little bit more about permanent markers and, uh, calligraphy or ink pens. And I'm just going to give you some couple examples of ways you contest their permanence, which I always do before I use them first thing I'm going to talk to you about our fountain pens and other in kingpins that have nips. So fountain pens come with ink already inside them that you can refill with a cartridge. Or you can use one of thes where you would dip it in your container of ink, and it's like a siphon, and you would fill, think up into it and then put it into your pen. Just be careful. Whatever kind of ink you're filling out with is safe for a fountain. Pens Inks are not safe for a fountain pen, so they will clog it. So this is the platinum carbon ink pen, and when it's dry, it's permanent. It creates a really fine, smooth line. I really love this Penn for outlines. Actually, while we're letting that dry, I'm just going to show you, so if you have a an ink that would clog in a fountain pen. You could use a nib instead. What you could dio two things you could dio or that I dio is you could put your ink pour it into a little reservoir that's clean, not like these, and you would dip your nib in so that the end is the chip is covered. And then you could make your lines. You can get different size. Nimes gets really sick ones. This one's comes to a point that makes really fine lines. Okay, now, once that this is This is Liquid Tex Inc. Krulik Inc. So it's like acrylic paint, but it's thinner, so it's in an ink form, and you can use it with the Nibs you can use brush, have you per. But when it's dry, it's permanent. So you don't want that in these because it will clog it up. So just be careful. Always clean your nips when you're done with, Um okay, so I just got a bit of water color paint here, and he should be dry now. And there should be no smudging Okay? Yes, we can see no smudges, and this stays very black, which is nice. Now you can see in this painting where I used my nip n and the gold. This comes in a lot of different colors. Really wonderful, Inc. Uh, and I made these little gold dots. Next I'm going to show you is thiopental brush pen. This is a permanent pen, and this one is a lot like a fountain pen. Except that hasn't nine. It has a nylon brush tip, and here you can see I've used it a lot. This one is pretty much empties, but it does have a little bit more left in the end here of the ink. And so, of course, he's a refillable. This pen is permanent. It has a pigment ink in it. So permanent it is water proof, and it's also fade resistant. Okay, so we're going to let that dry. I will mention Well, that's drawing. This is a great pen when you want really fine lines and you want to make some thicker and thinner. Could be great for hair can also be great for filling in larger areas. Now, if you want to test this, but you don't use watercolor and you just want to make sure some water on it to make sure that it's dry. You could just use a brush with water on it. You could also use one of these water brushes where you fill it with water and it's got a brush on the end. Cannot see. Okay, So these two spots, where I added more ink, you can see that the top part was dry Already. There's no running but the bottom. It did smudge a bit, so it hadn't been quite dry with this line here. It was completely dry, so you can see that there's no smudging. 5. A note on Archival and Copic Proof: okay, The I just purchased to this. It is the here it says the pen tell arts hybrid Technica, and it has a 03 or 0.3 end to it now. This one had information on the packaging, which doesn't always happen. Sometimes you have to go searching for it. It says that it is acid free. See that acid free, water resistant archival ink protects your sketches, drawings and animate from fading over time. Will not drive left uncapped during use, and it says it is archival. So that's a big thing to talk about as well. And I've got that on your term sheet here. Archival and acid free acid free means that the pen will be free of acid in the dies, meaning that it won't turn the paper a different color, usually yellow. But you also have to make sure that your paper is acid free so that it's not going to have any assets in it that could break it down. If you hear the word archival, it means marking pens that are resistant to fading or weathering, and it means essentially their fade proof and acid free. OK, so this one says that it is, um, water resistant. So let's see. And it has a really nice fine line. So let's see what they mean by water resistant. How water resistant is his pen. Mm. Okay. So I probably wouldn't want to use it with water based paints such as water color, but let's see. May be able to use it with up to 10. Okay, that is permanent. And it has a brush end. See? Okay, so it's much too tiny, but you can see the lines are a little uneven. Let's see if we can use coping marker. Yes. It was pretty good with the Copa marker. There was no smudging, so I wouldn't use the pen tell hybrid with anything. Any paints that are water based for fear that it would smudge unless it was the last thing I did. If I did my painting, if I painted my artwork first and then used this after the fact when it was all dry, then it should be fine. Okay, Last thing I'm going to talk about permanent means that your markers or pens will not mix with water when dry, and they will not a race that they're smudge proof and waterproof. Okay, so this says it's waterproof, but it says it's also co pick proof. Co pick proof means that should be able to use your marking pen. And when it's dry, it won't smudge. Thank So I've got my pit pen here, and I've used these with Cho picks to. It doesn't say that it's co pick proof. However, You can always test them like this first, which you know is a good thing. We're going to test them on the SWAT sheet in the project when we get to it as well. So I've got my pit. 10. Depends have India ink and them So India ink is composed of soot that's mixed with water, and when it's dry, it's waterproof. Same. No. Nice clean line. Okay, so we know it's permanent. See, that's co pick proof. Yes, scope it proof. No smudges. So if you wanted to do your outlines first in your artwork and then use watercolor or use kopek markers with the pit pen, even though it doesn't say it is co pick proof, you could do so 6. Dye vs Pigment: just going to take a moment to talk about die versus pigment. So I've got my die based and I have my pigment base most of the time with Dia based materials, you'll find that they're not as light fast. You can get a lot more color sometimes, and you can with pigmented, but they won't be his life fast. So whenever I used, I based, I don't sell the original because it's a higher chance that it will fade when it's exposed to light compared to pigmented or India ink. This will not fade when exposed to light kopeks or permanent, but they're not light fast. These I use a lot. I love them, but I make prints and I sell the work. Same for when I use my dies and make prints. And I saw the work. I like the effects that I get with, um, but I would not give anyone original unless I warned them that it's going to fade. Say, stick it in a dark corner where you really see it. Uh, take it out of runs. We'll look at it, but don't leave it out in the sunlight. So always do your research, but for the most part, die most often. Not like fast pigment India ink light, fast 7. Testing Water-based Inking Pens: So I'm just going to briefly touch on water based fountain pens and ink ink pens for these . I'm going to use the Jane Davenport. I'm going to use the ICO line with the nib as well. Okay, so there's two different ways you could use water based in king pens. You could either make your lines after your paint. It's dry. Or, if you want a certain effect, you can make your lines first. And while they're wet, you could going to treat them like water color paint, and you can see how they how it will run. Some people will, makes a line and then paint over tops. You can still see the line, but it's not. It's a little softer, and there's a blue. A year ago, beautiful blue color, too. Sometimes with I find with the Janes is you have to dip the new been a little bit of water just to get it started. Life it off with a Kleenex, and then it will flow nice and easily. Okay, so while it's still wet, can see how it runs. This can be really nice in your artwork when you don't want super smooth lines like I said , You want them to run, and it can create a bit of like a watercolor wash. We've got some blues there to You don't want that, but you love using the colors that air in your Jane's or some other fountain pens that are not, uh, they don't have waterproof ink in them. You could do your lines after the fact. And so ego line these are. They call them liquid watercolors, essentially what they are now for these becoming a lot of wonderful colors, and you could just use your hip instead and you get these wonderful lines you could. Also, just since we're here, I'll show you quickly. Just use the brush and treated like a watercolor yet again. If you're using the name for your fine lines, make sure that you other put your paint on first and use your detailed lines after the paint's dry. Or you may want to use it where it's going to create a bit of a smudging effect. So markers and fountain pens and inks that are not waterproof. Essentially, yes, they're going to blend with water, which can be a nice thing if you like the effect. If you don't like the effect, just make sure that you put your paint on first and then you draw your lines. And afterwards, you may also want to draw your lines over top while you're watercolor is still wet, which means you'll still get a richer color than if you put the lines down first and then the water over Tom and you'll just get a bit of a bleed. It's pretty straightforward when testing out your pens and your inks, and it shows that you can have some pretty fun effects with, um, the next video that we're going to go into is the Project Video. So grab your thinking pens and your markers. Perhaps if you don't use water colors, uh, grab brush pin. And I'm also going to use a co pick marker just to see if my lines or co pick proof. If you don't have any markers. Aaron kingpins. Yet hopefully you've got an idea of what you'd like to use at this point, at least to start out. So go to the store. You might want to grab your term sheet and take that with you, just as a just to help you out and grab a sheet of paper that is similar to what you would use with your artwork and we're going to make spot. She I'll see you soon. 8. Making Our Swatch Sheets!: So now we're going to create our SWAT sheath, grab whatever markers you want to use that you want to test out. And as I said in the previous video, if you want to test for how permanent it is, you can grab a water brush or a regular brush with some water or some water color paint. And I just want to do some tests here so we could become more familiar with what we've got on hand to use for our markers and inking pens. This what she can be a really good reference for when you're making your art. It could also give you some ideas if you're not sure what you want to do. And he might think, I think, is that brush pen in a while. I think I'm going to try that out, and I know that it's waterproof because I see that it doesn't smudge when I put watercolor over it. It's co pick proof is, well, there's no smudging, and I've even used a brush pen, and I can see that the lines don't smudge with that as well. And I've made a note at the top of what I'm using. So This is the favorite Castel hit pen. It's India ink, waterproof light fast. It's a pigment and it's acid free thes air. My pit pens right here. Okay, So I started out my SWAT sheet just by showing the different weights of the pens here. Now these I have letters on them. Excess s oops. I mixed some or no F fine M medium And then be is my brush. Easy to compare the different line weights. So I have a set here of Prisma color markers as well. Now these have the numbers on the most often times. What you'll find is there are numbers to note the weight of your markers, and they'll be at the top as well. Her is he here? But so there's 005010305 and 08 So 005 means that the line with a 0.5 millimeters and this is a 0.1 0.30 point five n 0.8 going to create for myself. Just a the top here, a little symbol for things like waterproof like fast of its pigment or it's acid free. I am going to use. Don't be you he for waterproof slash permanent l s to note light fast A c. It's not a c a f a. Uh, no, it's acid free a r c h for archival Teoh for a pigment. And if it's a die, I'm just going to write die. So this is going to save me space. I can just use miles short terms here instead writing them all out. Okay, so let's get back to markers and you may have some different terms that you want to add. I feel for you, too. Pop those onto your SWAT sheet, Whatever works for you. This is just how I'm going to do it. You could watch this full video and then do your SWAT sheet. However you like whatever works for you. And soon I'm going to switch this video to fast forward through this so you don't have to see me go through every single, um 10 because there's I'm not going to be talking through. A lot of it is I'm just working through it, so don't worry. You're not going to sit here for an hour watching me go through all of my testing hope. My markers out. Writing down. Okay, so my 005 makes lines and then I've got my 001 We're sorry. 01 01 So remember, 01 is 0.1 of a millimeter. Most often you'll find the numbers used for the weights of the markers. 9. Making Our Swatch Sheets Part 2: even with just drawing my lines here, we can tell these were slightly thicker, but it seems to be kind of in between 0.1 of my 0.3 here could be the paper I'm using. It could be just the way the inks coming out with a different felt names. But this serial 05 it's a lot in width to my 0.1. Also, the India ink I find is a bit black, er black, then my prisma color pigment ones. Let's test Oh, how these are for using a brush fan. Nice and claim please air dry enough what you could do if you don't think they're going to be dry, just keep going on and you can just make the lines for all of your different markers and then come back and test out. Um, how waterproof they are and smudge proof, etcetera. After I do this set, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to start drawn the moat and putting the different notes next to them, and then once they're dry, I'm going to add my watercolor and my brush pin and my co pick. - So the pento pocket brush pen permanent. So I'm going to just on the side here WP for permanent. And it's a pigment, so pm pigment. So with this one, it again because it's a brush pen. I'm just going to make a big, thick line like this first just so I can see how black you can get and how well I can fill in a big area with it. Okay, so just going to create some lines here, just do a thicker long and a center one just to show me what I can do. Then I'm gonna do a single run, and I know that's going to take a little bit of time to make sure it's completely dry. So from here, I'm going to go on to my Stotler pigment liner. So just going to do it next to that don't like wasted space. Yes, I'm anal that way, Stetler. Okay, So, um and it actually says on it pigment liner. Okay, so it is a is your 0.5 So 0.5 and it's telling me that it's water proof on paper, most markers or waterproof on paper on porous surfaces, but not on other things. If I were to write on another marker, I I would be able to, um, smudge it. So this one is light fast, and it's water proof on paper. So I am going to put WP for waterproof and l f because I know it's, like, fast draw my lines. I just want them to be long enough so that I can see what the line weight is like, really close to these ones here also. So if I want to do any testing with water or other products, I can do that as well. I've got this face. Okay, so I'm gonna keep going from here. Just gives you an idea of how you want to create your swat sheet. And, um, I'm going to start to speed things up and I'll meet you back here when you're done. 10. Looking at Our Swatch Sheets: Okay, So I finished my SWAT sheet here. All of the pens that I use the most, And I did out on the in Cola E. Coli in die because I would use it with my name here to do outlines. So I added that on as well, So funny thing that I found Okay, so I said that the this is this is a great This is a great reason to have a SWAT sheet because you can compare a swell. Not just about trying to find the marker that you want to use the time, but for also comparing them. So I know that my India ink in my pit pen is more is darker black than my prisma color. Uh, Posca pens. I don't recall. I don't know if I talked about those, but these pretty much right on anything. Um, that's porous. You can write on windows in such with them as well, and it'll you can scrape it off or rub it off. I'm not sure I've heard this, but I've never used it. But, um, these are great. You can actually use the's on top of acrylic paint, So if you choose acrylic paint such as the Liquid Checks Inc. Which comes an Amazing colors. This'll right on top of it. Some other markers aren't so good at writing on top of acrylic paint, so something to keep in line. Um, I have my my Statler one that I love my 0.5 that I've talked about and all of these ones here. None of them have run. They all you see now when I use the brush pen, it didn't write offs. I let it dried enough. I didn't let it dry quite enough when I was talking about it in the waterproof section my pencil arts hybrid. Now I let it dry completely and there's no running and it did say it was water resistant and this one I hadn't tried before. So this is why it's gonna test before. Use it. So that's my SWAT sheet. I hope that I've given you some ideas of different kinds of markers that air permanent at water based dealing with Cho picks some different line weights. How black they can be different colors that you can get with some of them. You can get with the pit pens and the Prisma colors and the secours. You can get different colors there, so many options when it comes to markers and marking pens. If you did, if you worked on the project along with me, perhaps you have some of the same upends that I have or you went out and grabbed those ones . You thought you might like to do something similar, so you should have a similar SWAT sheet to me. If you're just different, that's completely OK. Whatever works for you, it's got to be for the markers and inking pens that you're using. So you have your own reference now as you go along, you may want to add more up marking pens and inks as you acquire them, and I hope you've enjoyed the class. I've really enjoyed going through all of my markers and in kingpins and sharing them with you and what I know. And there is a project gallery where you can post your finish swat sheet. Feel free to do that. I would love to see what you've done. It be great to share them with others who have taken the class so that they can see what you've done. They may I realize, Oh, there's a pen tell arts hybrid. I've never seen that before or the brush pin. I mean, I know here, of course you've seen them because I've used them. But they might find they might discover a new marker inking pen that they would like to try and that they may really love that they may not have seen. If it weren't for your SWAT sheet doing this SWAT sheet, you may find that you make some really interesting and fun discoveries such as the Jane Davenport Incredible pen it is. It's not waterproof, but it works with the co picks. You may just have to let it completely dry, so that's a nice, um, a nice little surprise. So I hope you've enjoyed the class. Leave me a review if you like. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. 11. Thank you!: So I hope you enjoy this class and I look forward to seeing this watch is that you have created when you put them into the project gallery. You never know. You may introduce someone to the next figure marker in Kingpin. If you have any suggestions for future classes that you would like me to create, such as making in ink drawing together, just let me know in the comment section. Thanks for hanging out with me and I'll see you next time.