art supplies: alcohol markers

Warning: Alcohol markers are an addiction. And they aren't even my favorite medium. I keep telling myself that I need to focus more on my core drawing skills by practicing quick pencil or ink sketches. Or do more with watercolor. Heck, it's been years since I've done any acrylic painting and I have blank canvases taking up space in my closet. (My lack of focus is a large part of why I'm frustrated with my skill level. If I could just pick one thing and get good at it before I get bored and switch to something else entirely, I would be so much better than I am. But I also accept that the real reason I make art is art therapy in which case I just need to do whatever sooths my brain.)

I just bought a marker case to hold all my alcohol markers. I had some in the bag they came in and most in a plastic storage bin, which made it annoying to try to find any specific marker. I now have them almost organized and in a way where I can read all the caps when I stand it up (but it can be stored on it's side so the ink stays evenly distributed).


I somehow misplaced that olive green one and by the time I found it, I was too lazy to readjust things, but I'll get it in position eventually. I also need to do more swatching on the flesh tones to get them in the correct color order. And I'm still torn on where to put the pinks. Part of me thinks that pink should go between red and purple, but the red seems to fit best between orange and brown. (That "Old Red" marker is actually a dark brown with just a hint of red so it feels like a good transition between the two.) But some of my pinks are currently sorted in with the flesh tones in the brown range. So maybe I should put pink in between gray and brown. (I struggle a bit with the pastel blues as well and I think I need to move a few of them closer to the greens.)

Anyway, marker review time!

I have...

a handful of Copic (brush tip & chisel tip)

Blick Studio (brush tip & chisel tip)

Touch New (bullet tip & chisel tip)

Touch Youch Youch (bullet tip & chisel tip)

ArtSkills (bullet tip & chisel tip)

These are only my alcohol markers and as soon as I filled this up, I looked at it and went, "Ummm..." and I just ordered a purple marker bag to put all my OTHER markers in. How do I own so many markers?

I honestly think the Blick Studio alcohol markers are just as good as the Copic if you want a brush tip that also sells refills. Warning: DO NOT buy the "Blick Illustrator" markers. You want the "Blick Studio" markers. They do NOT use the same ink and the Illustrator ones do not age well. (They work fine when they are new, but over time the markers get weird crystal formations on the nibs; I've long since thrown away any of those that I hadn't already used up.) Copic markers are still available in more colors than any of the other brands, but I think that's the only real advantage Copic has over Blick Studio markers.

I've posted before about a bad experience with two of the Touch New markers (only two specific markers out of a large set that otherwise worked well).

The ArtSkills (found in the school supply aisle at Walgreens) have a white plastic case and the TouchYouchYouch (ordered online) have a black plastic case, but otherwise look like they were made from the same mold. And the TouchNew and the TouchYouchYouch use an identical color numbering system despite the "same" color being slightly different between the brands. These three do not have refills, but are way cheaper than the Blick or the Copic. If you are just starting out with alcohol markers (and I would give the same advice for colored pencils), I'd recommend buying the biggest cheap set you can and then once you know for sure which colors you tend to use up fastest, buy replacements from the expensive brands.

Here's the weird thing that I feel strange saying, but ... I prefer the bullet nibs on my cheap markers over the brush tips on either the Blick or the Copic. Every art YouTuber I've ever seen talk about markers prefers the brush tip and laments that the cheap brands don't have them, but I think I just have a heavy hand and prefer a hard tip that doesn't deform with pressure versus a soft tip where I have to be more careful about the angle I touch the paper.

So far the only sketchbooks I've found in which alcohol markers do not bleed through the paper are Crescent Rendr (which I hate beyond words because their bindings are garbage) and Etched (and I'm not letting myself play with the Etched until I fill up a few older half-filled sketchbooks).

art supplies: Tombow Monotwin

Have you ever abused an art supply to death and only afterward gone, "Oh, wait, that was not how I should have used that" or is that just me?

I bought a Tombow calligraphy set, not because I ever do calligraphy, but because it listed an interesting collection of pens/markers that I was curious about. I'll post about the others another time, but this is about the "Monotwin"



It's an oil-based marker so pretty much a fancy Sharpie equivalent. And I was like "meh, whatever" and focused all my love on the other pens in the set and used this thing completely up doing this...



I knew it wouldn't look good. This was just one of those meditative pieces you do when you don't want to think. (I did some other stuff too so I didn't use it up entirely on this one page, but this was the page that finally killed it off.)

Here's the thing. Notice that name is "Monotwin". There are two ends to this marker and one of them was a very fine tip that puts Sharpies' "extra fine" tip to shame. I absolutely should not have wasted this marker on a mindless filler page.

I don't need a fine-point oil-based marker so it's not high on my "buy again" list, but it still feels disrespectful to have killed this off when I have a ton of other black markers that I could have used for this.

art supplies: Etched sketchbooks

( bought more things I don't need )

( sample blank fashion figures )

But again ... I'm now tucking these away with all of my other blank sketchbooks so I can focus on finishing the ones I've already started.