Brittle Wings

I’m going to have to talk about this. It’s been getting on my nerves for a while…

I’m talking about the joy of going into an art store and picking something up, maybe giving it a little fondle between your index finger and thumb (to check the texture and quality, of course) and if you are as bad as me, inhale it (lets face it, we all sniff pens). So when I go into an art store and they don’t have what I’m looking for, it will take forever for them to order/they can’t order it and I could really do with getting it there and then, I feel like I don’t have a choice but to buy online.

I don’t like buying online. Can you smell the ink of a pen online? Can you feel the gsm of paper? It is the same as buying a book online – I don’t like doing it, but I don’t feel like I have much of a choice anymore (especially around these parts – we have but one book shop). Another problem I have with online purchasing is product description. At the moment, I’m looking at Magic Markers as an alternative to Copics but I will be buggered if I can find any information on the width of the fine end of them. This, of course, would not be a problem if I could just walk into a shop, pick one up and inspect it but doing such a thing during these times is almost impossible. Is it really asking too much for a site to just say “Okay, the width of the fine liner end is 0.8mm”? Maybe there is a site out there that does tell me such a thing, but I am yet to find it, just as I am yet to find a store within a 50-mile radius that has a good selection of markers (outside of Letraset and Copic – it’s as though no other marker exists, what with the onslaught of manga art). But what attracts me to Magic Markers is this selling point:

Magic Markers have both Chisel and Fine tips, and can be used on photocopies, photographic film, laser printer papers, tracing papers and many other substrates.

I like the sound of this. If there is one thing I hate, it’s colouring my original line art. Being able to use markers for flash on laser printer paper means easy and clean reproduction of line art. It means not having to spend a fortune on bleedproof paper. But as I have already said, I’m still a little reluctant to buy because I can’t find any information on the width of the fine nib. Again though, just because is says that you can use it on laser printer paper doesn’t mean you actually can…

And so I struggle on with markers.

Flush flush... Again I jump!

They have been great for sketching though, and I will admit that I love the grey blends. They are ideal for Japanese-style flash backgrounds and getting ideas onto paper in general. Since getting the new colours, I’ve found layering and blending much easier. I still need a hell of a lot of practise using them though. I don’t think marker work will ever be as sharp in reproduction as digital colouring is, but it makes a nice change getting all mucky and covered in ink.