Art Markers

Art markers are a wildly popular tool for making art, whether you’re a beginner, a hobbyist or a professional artist!

If you’re new to markers, this is the place to learn everything you need to know before you embark on your creative journey.

On this site, you can:

• learn all about artist-quality markers, and how they differ from the markers you used as a kid

• learn about specific brands of art markers

• follow step-by-step tutorials to learn how to use your art markers

• see several examples of art made with artist markers, to give you an idea of the possibilities that await you!

• see examples of how markers can be used with other media to create a variety of different types of art

Let’s begin!

Markers: A Buying Guide for Beginners

If you’re brand-new to the world of art markers, start with my Markers Buying Guide! This guide is especially handy if you’re not sure whether you want to buy water-based markers or alcohol-based markers, because I provide detailed explanations about the differences between these two main types of markers, along with visual examples. You’ll also learn about tip shapes, brush strokes, basic blending techniques, and lightfastness. I also provide several recommendations for the best water-based markers and best alcohol markers for all budgets.

You can also check out my video below, Intro to Art Markers: A Beginner’s Guide:

Watch my video above for my Beginner’s Guide to Art Markers! You can see even more marker videos on my YouTube channel. 😊

Alcohol Marker Tutorials

Learn how to use alcohol markers with my fun step-by-step alcohol marker tutorials! Below you can see 2 of the artworks that you can learn to color in my step-by-step alcohol marker lessons.

If you prefer to learn from videos, check out my Alcohol Markers playlist on YouTube, where you can watch videos like the one below, where I demonstrate how to draw realism with alcohol markers!

If you enjoy my videos, subscribe to my channel so that you never miss a thing! 😃

Overview of Art Markers

If you haven’t used markers since you were a kid, then you might be surprised to learn that they are considered a professional-quality medium.

Markers are used in many creative fields, such as architecture, graphic design, manga, comics, fashion design, storyboarding, character design, landscape design and more.

Pros enjoy using them because they require no set-up or clean-up. You simply uncap the markers, make your art, then cap your markers when you’re done. That’s so easy and convenient, especially compared to the process of preparing a canvas, squeezing paint onto a palette, and then cleaning your brushes when you’re done.

Art markers are also the perfect creative tool for hobbyists! Because they’re more affordable than many other art supplies, and don’t require any extra accessories, you can simply buy a set of markers and paper, and you’re on your way to a new creative adventure!

How do art markers differ from kids markers?

When you were a kid, you probably grew up using Crayolas and Sharpies. They’re both fun brands, with a wide range of bright, vivid colors. In recent years, both brands have developed new products aimed for artists and professionals, but let’s focus on comparing their “kid” brand markers with artist-quality markers. Their “kid” brand markers are the kinds you’ll see for sale at the grocery store, for example.

The biggest differences relate to quality and price, two factors that are completely intertwined. Kids markers are noticeably much cheaper than art markers, and this is because they are comprised of more affordable materials (such as cheaper dyes). However, those cheaper materials are not meant to last as long as the higher-quality materials in art markers. As such, the colors and vibrancy in kids markers will generally fade much faster.

Art markers also come in a range of prices, from cheap to expensive, but on the whole they are meant to last longer. Professional-quality artist markers are refillable and have replaceable nibs, so you can literally use them over and over for years, if not decades! Kids markers, on the other hand, are meant to be thrown away once they dry up.

Art markers also come in different nib types, which are used for different purposes, and allow artists to create various effects, such as blending.

At a glance, these are the main ways that pro-quality artist markers differ from the cheaper kids markers that you grew up with. If you’ve never tried art markers, but you’re curious about them, definitely check them out! Even if you haven’t made art since you were a kid, holding a marker in your hands now can instantly take you right back to those carefree days of childhood creativity. 😊

Types of Art Markers

There are a few different ways to describe the types of art markers available:

• alcohol markers

• water-based markers

• acrylic paint markers

• solvent-based markers (a.k.a oil-based markers)

There can be some crossover in how specific art markers are defined. For example, Copic markers are alcohol-based, but broadly speaking, they are also oil-based. Posca markers are filled with acrylic paint, which makes them paint markers, but they are also water-based.

In short, markers are typically either water-based or alcohol-based. They either contain pigment (in paint markers) or dye (in alcohol markers and some water-based markers). This might sound confusing, but don’t worry! I go much more in-depth about the difference between water-based markers and alcohol-based markers in my Markers: A Buying Guide, which is a good place to start if you’re brand new to the world of art markers.

Alcohol Marker Art

Below you can see a few examples of artwork that I made using alcohol markers as the sole medium. This gives you an idea of the versatility of alcohol markers, and how they can be used to create vibrant works of art! All of these artworks were created using Copic Sketch Markers.

These are all artworks that I created for my coloring books and printables. Click on an image to view it larger!

Using Alcohol Markers with Other Media

Alcohol markers work wonderfully with other media, such as graphite, ink, colored pencils, gel pens and paint pens. I like to use these other media on top of a base layer of alcohol markers to do things like: add details, add texture, slightly change the hue underneath, correct mistakes, brighten highlights and deepen shadows.

Here are a few examples of artwork that I made that combines alcohol markers with additional media. The artworks you see below were all colored in 100% with alcohol markers, and then other media was used on top. These are all artworks that I created for my coloring books, courses and printables. Click on an image to view it larger!

As you can see, art markers are versatile tools that can be used to create a wide range of art, from whimsical to abstract to realism! You can see even more examples in my Alcohol Marker Art Gallery. 😊

Ultimate Guide to Using Alcohol Markers

If you want to learn how to use alcohol markers to create eye-catching art, check my Ultimate Guide to Using Alcohol Markers! This self-paced video course is designed to take you from a complete beginner level to an advanced level. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to color in the vibrant cherries below, which I show you how to do, step-by-step. Printable line art is included, so you can follow along at home!