Alcohol Markers
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Water Based Materials
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Pencils
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fineliners
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paper
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Other
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Most popular pens & markers
Alcohol Markers
Alcohol Markers have been used by architects and fashion designers for decades and get more and more popular for hobby artists. They are easy to use, don’t make a mess and blend like butter. Since they are alcohol based they don’t tear up paper, you can blend as long as the paper can take ink. I love it. Their biggest downside is, that they bleed through paper, wich makes them useless for notebooks, calendars or anything that you write on from both sides. Copic markers (the popular original alcohol markers) are expensive. Prices are between 6-10$ a marker. However, Ohuhu Markers are a very nice cheap alternative, their chisel tip is even better than Copic’s.
Water-based materials
Watercolor is a very versatile art material. You can achieve highly realistic paintings as well as abstract paintings, that have the typical watercolor look to them. Aquarelle colors often look a little more soft, since they are diluted by water, but can be build up to vibrant colors. Important here: have patience, let colors dry before adding more, otherwise your colors will bleed into each other. Also don’t overwork the paper: too heavy brush strokes tear up the paper, too much color in one spot will make the colors turn muddy. Use heavy paper or dip it in water and tape the paper down before drawing, to prevent the paper from buckling.
I love using the Schmincke Aquarelle colors with my favorite brushes by daVinci. I own brushes from them that cost up to 36€ per brush, as well as synthetic brushes that cost about 1€ (the green ones for hobby/school and the Junior ones, you can see in the slide show), I love all of them. I totally recommend trying out their cheaper brush packs.
Water-based pencils: I have used Faber Castell’s water-based pencils in the past. I was able to work with them, however, they were not as easy to use as regular watercolors. I recommend using either normal colored pencils or watercolor.
Water-based markers. Uff. They are good for simple illustrations, that require no blending. I recommend these for school, university, for taking notes in general or to add illustrations to your calendar. However, they are just not good for making art since they don’t really blend. They tear up the paper once you do more than two strokes and water smears them around but won’t blend them out. Also I don’t recommend the Tombow brush markers, since the brush tip wears out very fast, labeling comes off and they are way to expensive for what they are. I’ve used cheaper alternatives in the past and they were exactly the same quality. I don’t like the brush for calligraphy either, since the tip wears out the lines aren’t as sharp as they should be. If you like these hyped markers good for you, my experience has been quite bad, especially in comparison to my other high quality art materials.
My favorite pencils are the Faber Castell pencils, I’ve used them since I was a child. They have a good grip, look beautiful, the lead hasn’t broken a single time in my life and there are a lot of grades available (I believe 16). A more modern alternative, wich I like to use too, are mechanical pencils: you don’t have to sharpen them and the leads (depending on the type) always keep the same diameter. I like using softer pencils: 2B-4B for sketching, up to 8B for shading, but that’s just personal preference.
Pigma Microns are the best fineliners I own. They have a very deep black ink, come in a bunch of sizes and are affordable. A few months ago I decided to try out the far more expensive Copic Multiliners SP, wich can be refilled. Even though I liked the idea of not wasting more plastic by refilling them, everything about them sucks (no offense). First of all; the refills are packaged in a lot of plastic, genius design on their part. Second of all; the ink is so much less black than the Pigma Micron ink and they feel a little less juicy. And third of all; the Pigma Microns are about 1,50€, Copic Multiliners are 7€, the refills 2,80€. Even if you reuse them, you end up spending a ton of money. I am very happy the Pigma Microns exist, they are not only cheaper but way better.
Make sure to use the right paper for the right art materials. I often use Cansons Multimedia paper for my markers, as well as my watercolor paintings and it works great. I also like the Hahnemühle watercolor paper, but only with watercolor. Make sure to not use very thick paper with your alcohol markers, because it will soak up more ink. I use thin, less textured paper for sketches. At the moment I am testing the Copic marker pad, that has an anti-bleeding layer on the back and is specially designed for alcohol markers. I’ll keep you updated.
Now on some other art materials: my favorite erasers are the Faber Castell kneadable eraser and the Tombow Mono erasers.
I own the Copic wallet, wich let’s you take 24 markers on the go and is very handy. You can fit Ohuhu markers in there too, but it’s a little more tight. It has a pocket in the back, that holds my postcard size paper perfectly.
I love drawing on the iPad 2018, on Procreate with my Apple Pencil, it was about 450€ total and has been in daily use for nearly 3 years. I haven’t tried out other drawing programs, but Procreate has been great anyways. (I am looking for programs for animation at the moment, stay tuned) For taking notes I have used Notability for years and always thought it was great, but recently I switched to Goodnotes and this is hard to say, but it’s so much better. Notability get’s rarely small updates, while Goodnotes has regular, huge updates and better functions.
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Alcohol Markers have been used by architects and fashion designers for decades and get more and more popular for hobby artists. They are easy to use, don’t make a mess and blend like butter. Some of the downsides are, that you have to get a new marker for new colors and can’t just mix your color out of the four primary colors. They bleed through paper, wich makes them useless for notebooks, calendars or anything that you write on from both sides.
Alcohol Markers have been used by architects and fashion designers for decades and get more and more popular for hobby artists. They are easy to use, don’t make a mess and blend like butter. Some of the downsides are, that you have to get a new marker for new colors and can’t just mix your color out of the four primary colors. They bleed through paper, wich makes them useless for notebooks, calendars or anything that you write on from both sides.