Not Your Average Markers

There are a lot of high quality markers out there these days that blow the marker experience from your youth out the water. If you think back to your grade school days you probably used the affordable crayola or marks-a-lot brands. I bet you can imagine how frustrating it was when you reached for a blue marker to color in the water or a red marker for all of the hearts on a Valentine's Day card only to find out they were all dried up.

This image was found on Copic's website. I couldn't believe it was created with markers!

This year I have invested some of our art budget on purchasing some high quality professional grade markers for my advanced artists to experiment with. So far, I have gotten Prismacolor, Copic, and Touch brands of professional markers. It was like Christmas morning the first time we opened them and the students saw how vivid the colors were and how fluid the strokes were.

Another image I found on Copic's website...it looks like watercolor, but was created with markers too!

The main dilemma I am having is since I myself don't have much experience in drawing and blending techniques with markers, is that I haven't been able to offer much assistance to my students with these materials. However, upon doing some research I have found the the brand Copic puts out some very helpful tutorials, videos, and free practice coloring pages.