Tutorial Tuesday - Watercolouring with Tombow Markers

Welcome to Sunflowers and Dragonflies weekly tutorial. Today I will show you how to use Tombow markers in a manner that will add beauty to your piece. This is one of my favourite techniques. This tutorial may look complicated, but it isn't. My instructions are very detailed, as it is difficult to write this tutorial without actually being with you to show you how it is done. Don't be scared off by my long descriptions. My image is from Sunshine Designs. Krista, the designer, taught me how to properly use Tombow markers, and ever since then, I have been using her images with Tombows over and over again. Krista developed a colour guide . Readers outside of Canada are now able to purchase Sunshine Design stamps through the Stamp Barn. How much do I love this technique? I coloured approximately 50 images this past Christmas season.

Supplies:
Variety of Tombow markers
Paint brush
Water colour paper
Stazon ink pad


The image that I will be working on is sitting on top of the Tombow markers so you can see the size of image that I am working on. This technique works well for larger images as well. I just love to wear my funky orange magnifying glasses (I'm getting old) to work with these fun stamps by Sunshine Designs. Believe it or not, this image used every one of the markers shown here. Use two water containers. One will be used to clean off your brush. Use the clean water each time you clean off your brush and start moving the Tombow marker around.



With Stazon, stamp your image onto watercolour paper. With the fat end of the Tombow marker, draw a light blue line around your image. To blend you will use a small brush dipped in water. Tap the brush onto a paper towel to take most of the water out. I dab the brush on the back of my hand rather than a paper towel, and that is another option for you. Next, place the brush on the line of the image, and in a small circular motion, draw your brush away from the image, and carry the brush/colour right out to the end of your cardstock. This will prevent a solid line from showing where you stopped the colour. The left photo shows you how the colour was drawn, and the right photo shows you the results after blending with water. By colouring around your image you are "grounding" your figure so it doesn't look like it is floating.


To prevent unwanted bleeding of colours, start with the lighter colours, working your way up to the darker colours. In large areas, use the wider tip, and in small areas use the smaller tip. Add your colour in tiny circular motion to prevent lines in your work.

In the photo on the left you will notice I added a tiny bit of dark brown to the gold. As you can see, the photo on the right shows how lovely the blended colour turns out. For each colour you use, you will use a deeper shade of the same colour, or a different colour all together, to add dimension to your piece. The step of colouring and blending cannot be rushed. If you are comfortable with adding a second colour, add a colour that is midway between the light and the dark colours. Look closely and you will see that a third colour was used in each yellow gold area.

Next we want to make green shoes and hat. One cannot add light marker on top of dark, but one can add darker on to light, and that is why we add a thin line of green on top of the beige. You can see the results of blending in the right hand photo. To prevent your brush from contaminating the entire surface of the hat and shoes, repeatedly wash your brush out and dab it onto a paper towel as you blend your colors. This keeps the highlighted areas bright. Can you see that the shoes and hat are really green now?

Continue adding colours, and continue blending with a damp brush. The face is done in flesh tone with a hint of pink on the cheeks. If you go outside the line, use a clean, wet brush and rub out the colour in a circular motion, then dab a kleenex or paper towel on top of that area. Red will not come out very well, and loves to contaminate the area around it, so be sure to add red very last.

After all of your colouring is finished, feel free to embellish. Unfortunately, the Stickles I added does not show up.

A close up view of a finished card.

My image is all painted and was turned into a card.