Many of you know that Letraset's incredibly successful promarkers are my favourite artist material and I can't live without them! I carry them to school every day even if I don't need them and meanwhile they make my bag heavy and weigh me down.
So this post is going to basically be a big review on them and some tips and tricks for you promarker users to use.
Some info about me and promarkers:
- I have been using promarkers for about a year and a half now
- I first heard about them through a fashion illustration channel on Youtube called Fsketcher
- The first ever set I bought was the Promarker blending pack with 12 colours in it
- It took me a very long time to figure out how to colour with them.
- However when I did, they absolutely changed my life because my fashion illustrations became so much more beautiful and I've fallen in love with the pens ever since.
Promarkers are not exactly the easiest thing in the world to sort out so here are two rules that apply for them.
1. They do not work on regular printer paper, I tried this when I first got them and you get what is known as 'bleeding'. They bleed through the paper and don't create a very nice effect. To solve this you should use Letraset's Bleedproof marker paper or any paper that's quite thick. They also bleed when you have rubbish fineliners, some fineliners run when exposed to promarkers so I use the unipin fineliners, I love them they're waterproof and handle promarkers very well.
My camera quality isn't that good - sorry! However on the left i've used cardish type of paper. That's what gets you the best type of effect. Although you can't see it well, it's promarker - Mulberry. On the printer paper it's made the colour darker than it already is because it's bleeding. If I were to layer and add another colour on to create a 3D effect it'd totally soak through and in some cases create a hole in the paper and totally ruin everything.
2. In the videos and pictures they look like magical pens that create the 3D realistic affect by itself however it's you who have to make that effect and this is called Layering, it's not easy to learn and took me a while. I'm going to show you how to do that soon in a separate blog post today.
The product review:
Firstly, i'm a fashion illustrator but promarkers can be used for any type of artwork, particularly manga. It's audience is obviously artists and designers. Promarkers are made in the UK which is fortunate for me because I don't pay a heavy price to get them shipped to my house however this will cost a lot if you don't live in Britain because they'll be expensive and they'll also charge a large sum to get it sent to you.
There are some alternatives such as copic, I can't speak much about copic's because I don't have any and have never tried using any. However I do know that promarkers do an amazing job. They are twin tipped just like copic and I find that promarkers give the exact same finish as copics and they're even cheaper than them.
It does achieve it's purpose and that's to add vibrant colour and a sense of realism to your drawings. The only thing that would make it even better was if you could refill them just like copics.
If your looking to buy the full Fashion illustration starter pack I suggest.
1. Letraset promarkers
2. Unipin fineliners
3. Bleedproof marker paper
----PROMARKER Q&A----
1. What are your tips for blending?
I could write this all out but it would make no sense to you whatsoever so I will put this in a video.
2. How do you lay out colour flat?
This is something you can't do with promarkers because the minute you colour over a stroke of colour you already had it automatically becomes un-flat.
3. What's the best type of paper to use?
Printer paper is a no. The paper of any marker brand is good or a hardish cardish kind of paper.
Stick around! I'll try my hardest to upload my video today x
Lauren x
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