Markers
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ART MARKERS AND REGULAR ONES?
A marker is a paint tank that flows down to a tip made of felt or nylon. This artistic tool has appeared relatively recently. Nevertheless, it has already gained great popularity due to its versatility. Besides fine art, it is used in everyday life. For example, one can have a benefit from it in decorative purposes and even in industry. But we are only interested in art markers, and therefore we need to know how to distinguish them from others.
The main distinguishing feature of art markers is the variety of colors and shades. Frankly speaking, markers can be safely called "2 in 1", because they are both a brush and paint. Due to such a feature, an artist can draw without any additional tools, such as solvents or water.
The main differences by which you can recognize a high-quality art marker are:
- the shade does not change once dried;
- color remains pure after mixing;
- possesses high light fastness;
- can be refueled;
- a wide palette of shades;
- it has additional accessories such as replaceable tips and refillable ink, etc.
The lower the quality of the marker, the fewer properties from its list it will have.
How to Choose Artist Markers?
The use of art markers for various artworks is quite popular! Professional art markers are versatile. To apply images to a variety of surfaces, such as metal, glass, wood, plastic, stone, one uses different types of markers. Various tips, in turn, allow you to draw fine lines, apply the hatching.
The choice of an art marker is based on such property as transparency and opacity of the paint. According to these criteria, there are two types of markers:
These markers can create elegant and soft shadows, transitions, tones, and gradients. To be more exact, it looks a bit like watercolor. Moreover, the glazing technique is more commonly used with it. Colors remain pure and saturated after mixing in case these are high-quality alcohol markers. At the same time, the low-quality analogs give a gray tint.
Due to its opacity, such markers are designed primarily for work on walls, canvas, and objects. Acrylic paint mixes well, and when several layers are applied to each other, the lower layer is overlapped by the upper one.
One may also try marker sets to be sure all the tools have the same characteristics, which are crucial for the quality of a drawing.
Types of Art Markers
One may classify markers according to different criteria. However, there are three main types:
Acrylic markers are suitable for graffiti and work on any surface. They are opaque, covering. By the way, acrylic markers work in the same way as acrylic paints - you can make gradations by mixing colors until the paint has dried. Once dried, it forms a sufficiently strong film. Acrylic markers do not wash away by water.
Alcohol markers are good for sketching, illustration, design. Being translucent, it allows working by making transitions from one color to another. Thus, the paint dries almost immediately after application to the paper, but even the dried one reacts to the next applied layers, which allows you to make color transitions and “wash” the tone with a special blender. It is not washed away by water. Alcohol markers are used for work on paper, cardboard.
Watercolor markers are commonly used for illustration. Transitions are translucent and very similar to those, made with watercolor. However, they are even made on the same principle as in watercolor painting. By the way, to create the desired effect, you can use water. After drying, its texture is similar to dry watercolor paint. For that matter, the drawing will blur when contacts with water. Also, it is good for working on paper, cardboard.
What is Brush Pens?
The brush pen is a pen with an ink cartridge and a brush (tip) made of a polymer or natural material and designed for drawing. Today, there are many varieties of brush markers, both in black and color ink.
The sizeThe most basic parameter is the size. However, it deals not with the body, but the length and width of the brush. In many ways, what your line will be depends on only these two parameters. In short, when your brush is thin, the lines will not be thick.
MaterialThe second, but no less important parameter is the material from which brush pens are made.
- Brushes made of the natural pile. It looks like real art brushes made of natural animal hair, usually weasel or marten.
- Synthetic brush pens. They are generally made of nylon.
- Felt-tipped brush pens. To this type also belong rubber brush markers. They possess all the same properties as felt, but at the same time retain the sharpness of the tip much longer.
One more parameter is the hardness of the brush pen. It varies from very soft to very hard, depending on the material from which it is made as well as size - the larger the tip, the more predictable the results. Natural brush markers are soft or even very soft.