A post from this date 2015 – using ProMarkers
2015: “On a recent visit to Cass art I saw a set of Promarkers on a special offer and decided to try them out as they offered a chance to use colour and thicker markers. Similar in principal to my pigment fine liners as the ink is alcohol based and is permanent. Therefore errors become part of the sketch. My set has a blender included but I have not used it yet.”
2021: The original post on my arty blog ‘Mishmashlearning goes sketching’ which I had started as AndyKnillArt wasn’t even a dream at that point. I still have some Letraset ProMarkers as they were then bought between 2015 and 2016 before Winsor and Newton took over ProMarkers, and they still work where lids have been replaced each time. I have used blenders now more but they were one aspect of using ProMarkers that took a while to develop and watching videos on the likes of YouTube.
2015: “I found that bleed proof marker paper was needed or the ink goes through lighter weight paper. I am trying to do pictures as a black outline initially then add some colour later.”
2021: Between 2015 and 2017 my drawings and sketches with ProMarkers were done on marker paper as it didn’t bleed the colour through as much and my work was photographers and posted by me from time to time but stayed in my possession, once I started in 2017 to sell my work and people asked to buy the original drawings of some of my works I realised it wasn’t of a quality that I was happy with to sell to others and also my new prints were on 245 gsm paper which was better quality than the originals. When mounting and / or framing the marker paper it was easily creased or would not look satisfactory. At this point I started to move to use watercolour paper from pads I bought from Cass Art, my one go to art supplier at the time. I used 300 gsm with texture. In 2019/2020 I started to also experiment with smoother texture watercolour paper of the same weight and I use both to date.
2015: “ I would like to swop ideas with other promarkers users.”
2021: in the last six years I have spoken with other people that use ProMarkers and other similar graphic markers – for most of them it was in the design phase of work in graphic studios.
The one thing that I have come to realise in the five years as an artist selling his work, is that drawing landscapes and seascapes in the manner that I do is very rare in ProMarkers. When I first arrived in Purbeck and found I work in a different medium I commented on this, five years on I still comment on it and I am still the only person I know of who does all of his work in this medium. I have researched online, but of that is going to be the case, that’s fine with me because my work has developed so much from those early drawings inspired by some of the artists I met on urban sketching trips in London.
I continue to work in;
a) pigment fineliner pens for my mono pieces and also for the initial line drawing for all works
b) ProMarkers for my paper based colour drawings
I have added to my repertoire with;
c) Posca acrylic markers for some work on wooden boxes, hats and clothing
d) Linocuts which I first tried in 2017 and am now going back to redevelop my skills in as it matches my line drawing interests so well.
I enjoy reflecting and looking back to where my art has come from and how it keeps developing- it provides great pleasure for me and an honour when others want to buy some of my work because it gives the, pleasure to.
