These Tombow pens are just too much fun. The colors are so vibrant and I keep reaching for them in the evenings when we’re drawing. Today I’m going to share with you my process for applying layers with the markers to achieve depth with only a few colors. I only have ten dual brush pens and twelve twin tone markers so my color palette is pretty limited. Applying layers helps me blend and create more colors.
Supplies: For this project I used marker paper, Tombow dual brush pens, Tombow TwinTones and the Tombow Mono pencil. You can find all of these in my Amazon shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/backtocalley (referral link)
I found this picture on Pinterest as my inspiration (sorry the source is unknown, the pin leads me to nowhere). I loved the colors and the texture of the sea urchins.
I started with a pencil sketch on marker paper with the Tombow Mono pencil and then outlined the shapes with the dual brush pens or twin tones. They both have one tip that is very similar in size that makes them great to work together.
Once I had all of the elements outlined I erased the pencil lines and filled in the background with a pale yellow color.
The blending palette was helpful to help achieve a washed out light layer on the sea urchins. I sprayed the palette with water so that I could apply the colors with a brush. By leaving some areas without color you can create even more layers when you add markers back on top.
I went back over the outlines a second time with marker and began to layer the markers back on top of the watercolor brush pens to create more depth. I also used the extra fine point twin tones to create some really fine details.
The dots and fine lines were added to the top and shadows added to create even more layers. I also used a white pen to add a few highlights to the top. You can keep adding even more layers until you achieve the look you are after.
I don’t even want to think about how long I spent on this drawing because the fine dots and lines were like meditation…and I wonder why I never have time to “clean the house!”
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Very beautiful picture, and nice drawing. Yes, it should take a lot of time. Kind regards!
So pretty! nice work.