Thursday, September 4, 2014

188: Using an acrylic marker

In previous videos I often used a Sharpie marker to draw my underpainting on canvas. Since it is a waterproof marker I assumed it would be safe to use with acrylics and oils. I eventually noticed that the Sharpie was bleeding through the underpainting of both my oils as well as my acrylics.

I am not sure of the chemistry that causes this to happen but is easily avoidable by switching over to an acrylic marker. In this video I demonstrate using a Montana brand marker. I was really impressed with how well the marker covered the canvas. I used it to paint the edges of the gallery wrap black and it worked perfectly.

The acrylic goes on smooth and thick. I could quite easily fill in the white gaps in the canvas. 

From now on I will use an acrylic marker for all of my drawings on canvas. Let me know how it works for you.

Brad Teare–September 2014

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip, Brad. I avoid Sharpies like the plague. The bleeding was a hard lesson to learn!

    I may end up ordering a set and giving them a try! I hate drawing in with charcoal (messy!) and pencil (also messy)

    I usually just do a thinned paint..burnt sienna or Transparent Red Oxide with lots of thinner. But sometimes, I want the control of a fixed point like a pencil...especially when I'm doing more of a fine rendering.

    I've been doing some songbirds lately. Women in my family wanted some for gifts. They really do appeal to women and they are colorful. But I have to one day get back to landscapes and seascapes and more serious works.

    THanks again for the tip. Hope you are well Brad. Best.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I've used thinned paint as well but I find I lose my drawing much easier with that method. I originally started using sharpies because I couldn't see my pencil lines in the videos so switched to the marker. Bad idea! Thanks for your input.

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  2. I use a 60% gray marker on a white canvas. Then do a quick underpainting/wash with a 50% varnish/50% turp medium over the drawing. When it's dry, it is ready to paint. Never had any problems.

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    1. Sounds good. I think I would still use a gray acrylic pen though. I might be paranoid though from my bad experience with Sharpies.

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  3. Acrylic markers are a great tool, they help me to bridge the gap between drawing and painting. My favorite colors for under-painting and construction lines are usually burnt amber and cobalt blue. But lately I mix my own colors and re-fill the markers with diluted fluid acrylics an/or acrylic inks. Sometimes I add few drops of retarder in the mix so that is easier to soften the line edges that have the tendency to emerge through delicate glazes. Lastly I clean and keep the old and consumed marker tips, when they start to split they acquire almost a brush-like quality.

    Thanks for your dedication Brad, I really enjoy reading your blog.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comments Lorenzo. Great idea about adding the retarding gel. I will have to try that.

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  4. Do you use this for your encaustics too??

    Thank you for all the time you take to help make us all better artists!

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    Replies
    1. I think the best mark making tool for encaustics would be pencil, or perhaps colored pencil (with a wax base). Too much of an acrylic underpainting under encaustic might cause the paint to delaminate at some point. If you use the acrylic marker very lightly on an absorbent surface like wood it might be fine though.

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Thanks for your comments!

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