[Joe]

I love the art of Feng Zhu and I want to marker up some cool sketches but they're sooo damn hard to work with please someone give me an idea of what I'm doing wrong.

First of all I'm using Prismacolor markers and the problem is streaking! Everytime I make a stroke you can see streaks and patches of dark and light color that annoys me. I can't get a smooth color. The only way to get some smooth color is to do one fast stroke, but then I loose control and go outta my lines wrecking my pic.

I don't know how to do it got any tips?

Also sometimes it bleeds out of the lines of the picture. Is this due to the sketchbook paper??

Thanks guys!

[burn0ut]

All i can say is it comes with practice, practice practice practice.
and it prolly bleeds cuz of the paper, but it will bleed on most paper anyways.

[EviLToYLeT]

Hrmm... well I was bugging the shit outta Ed (fengs freind) a while ago about markers and everything associated with it. I think your bleeding/streaking problem is probably attributed to the type of paper. I recokn there's a special pad for markers.. and don't use markers on xerox /printe rpaper. it'll suck it dry.

[Mike]

you can try using marker paper(i used to use letramax but bienfeng makes a good pad too i think it's the 340) . it has a wax coating on one side(that's the wrong side to use marker on) and marker goes down on it pretty smooth. this will help with some of the streaks, but i think depending on your technique, you'll always have streaks.

one way to not have streak is to "scrub" with your marker. you put the marker tip down and move it around in little circular strokes to fill the solid shape up(like waxing your car).

[Joe]

Alright thanks for the tips guys and if anyone else has anymore tips for markers please reply it would help a lot

Oh yeah and this Marker paper you speak of? Is it expensive and you can just pick it up at an art store right??

Thanks!

[runt]

Hi, I just picked up some prismacolors a few weeks ago... Yes they bleed pretty bad but thats what you have to get used to. You have to color really fast and learn how far away the ink bleeds on the paper... get used to the bleed and dont go over where you have marked before.... also... on some sorts of paper you can use q-tips to blend stuff and smooth it out. I hope this was helpful to you because it works for me. Just practice and develop what works good for you.

[aneurysm]

Hm, had to reregister. *shrug*

I've been messing with Prismacolor markers for a bit too, and the paper and speed you make the stroke are most important. You can't just use printer paper (heh, I tried laser jet paper ) I just grabbed some thicker paper. It still bleeds, but doesn't leave as many strange streaks.

Hey, Runt, noticed you're from Plymouth too

[aneurysm]

I haven't actually had to get anything since that store near Ford and Lilley closed - my mom does a lot with markers, so she has a huge stockpile of paper.

I'm pretty sure there's a place in Westland tho...can't think of any in either Plymouth or Canton.

[runt]

Hey thats cool. whats up

[runt]

Oh where did you buy your art stuff around plymouth?