In my last post, I shared how I received some new markers from Ohuhu Art.
I created a simple sunflower as my first drawing with the markers but I wanted to challenge myself to a full page of art done solely with markers.
I’m comfortable with doing little illustrations all in marker (such as the sunflower) but for some reason, a full page of art created fully in markers scares me.
In this post, I share the process of creating this forest drawing from start to finish along with some of my thoughts on using alcohol ink markers. Let’s get into it!
Related:
Forest Marker Drawing
I went into this kind of blind with no idea of where it’d go. The idea was some sort of magical forest so I laid down a light sketch of some trees for a little direction. I decided to start with mostly blues and greens and see where that went.
First I started color-blocking the background in a light blue and then the foreground trees in a bright blue.
Once again I didn’t put much thought into it. I grabbed pretty colors that stuck out to me and started basically scribbling! It was going to take a while before it turned into anything so I laid down lighter colors and started building up.
Shading & Details
Next, I grabbed a dark blue color and added some shading to the trees. Working light to dark is an important rule when making art but it’s especially important when using markers. Once the dark sections are down, there is no making them lighter.
These markers are so vibrant and very fun to work with. I can best describe them as “juicy” (lol) because they just lay down GORGEOUS pigment.
In this drawing, I made aggressive and broad strokes to give it texture. As I mentioned, I was essentially “scribbling” and did not want a perfect look so I could replicate brush stroke texture, but with markers!
I kept blocking more areas and distant trees with light colors, knowing those would serve as the highlights of the piece before I added shadows.
I added some more grass detail, a distant horizon line, and background details which helped start it to form into something other than blobs. Sticking with mostly cool colors, I added a variety of greens, blues, and some purple.
As you can see it looked a little like a mess at this point, but as with any sort of artwork, it always goes through ugly stages before it looks pretty!
Supplies
For reference, I’m using the 120-pack of Ohuhu Markers! These are some of the best-quality alcohol ink markers I’ve ever used. I’m also using Ohuhu’s Marker Pad which is a must in my opinion if drawing with markers.
One of the most used colors on this drawing was the BG II 05 color! This gorgeous blue-grey color was the perfect color for shading and adding depth.
I had no idea what I was going to do for the far background, so I went with some sort of floral vine look. It gave enchanted forest vibes so it works!
I also used a Micron Pen to add some fine-line details but at this point, I started to hate it and was struggling. I stepped away and took the picture below from afar.
It looked so pretty in this picture so I decided to stick it out and finish the challenge.
Here’s the finished drawing! In the end, I probably used around 15 or so colors.
Conclusion
Personally, I think I use markers best when mixing them with other mediums, for example, as accents in my watercolor paintings or illustrations. That’s just what I’m comfortable with.
There are some crazy talented people out there who just use markers for all their art! I love looking at other’s artwork.
This set of Ohuhu markers now lives on my desk and will definitely be an asset to many future works I create. Plus, I’m obsessed with how pretty all the markers look in the organizer. š
I had fun doing this challenge of creating a full page of art just in markers! Do you use markers as your preferred medium? Let me know in the comments below!
Next, I want to create more floral illustrations with the markers. I enjoyed creating the sunflower drawing with Ohuhu Markers, next will probably be another version of a sunflower and then maybe some other flower. Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
-Amanda
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