Sketchbook session ✦ with Arrtx acrylic markers

Hi guys! Welcome to a new video. Today I'll be trying out some new materials. Artex kindly sent me their 90 color set of acrylic markers and I've been really excited to give them a proper test. So let's get into it. These are cotton core markers which basically means you don't need to shake or pump them. They are ready to draw with straight away. My first reaction was honestly like wow that's a lot of colors. I started swatching them immediately but that was a mistake. It's better to let them rest horizontally for a while before you start using them. That's why some of the colors look a bit transparent. But it still gave me a good idea of the color range. Some of the caps didn't match the paint color perfectly but overall it was easy enough to navigate the set. After that I spent some time just playing with them, testing layering, trying to blend and seeing how they behave with other materials. I would say they are definitely more layerable rather than blendable. I also tried pencils and wax crayons on top which worked pretty well. At some point I even used the acrylic marker over neocolors which I probably wouldn't recommend because the wax can clog the nip over time. But for testing purpose everything survived. Here are some sketches I made. Since working with markers feel quite different from painting I decided to make them more stylized. For the first illustration I chose a complementary color palette, mostly greens and pinks and added some browns to soften the contrast. One thing I noticed is that it's better not to go too much back and forth with acrylic markers because it can peel the paper surface. It works best to lay down the first layer, let it dry and then build opacity gradually. From what I've heard about acrylic markers in general cotton core ones tend to be a bit more transparent and those with a pump system or with liquid ink flow can be more opaque. So it really depends on what kind of finish you're after. These ones have a flexible brush tip which is very comfortable to draw with. I'm still curious how durable it will be but so far it feels nice and easy to draw. This illustration felt like a warm-up but actually I really love how it turned out. I had no issues layering pencils or crayons on top except maybe when trying to add very tiny details. But that's pretty similar to working over acrylic paint. For the second illustration I chose my oldest sketch with a girl in a greenhouse. I showed it in my last sketchbook tour so you could check it out if you haven't seen it yet. I like the original color palette but I wanted to push the contrast further and see how different the mood would feel with a new material. And of course I thought this one needs a cat. You could see some of the markers have a paint on them. That's because I think I haven't stored them properly but there was no leaking while I was using them. In this piece I tried again if I could blend some of the colors especially the dark ones. And it worked a bit but I gave up at the end because the paint dries so quickly. I just went with the new colors on top instead. For this illustration I experimented much more with the layering especially in the background and I think those light shades of pinks and greens work really well and I'm really happy with how it turned out. And for the last illustration I decided to go with a night scene and even a higher contrast. This was probably the piece I struggled with the most. Everything was fine at the beginning. I really love the limited color palette I chose but when I started layering the new colors I couldn't make it work especially with ultramarine. I think I regret picking it up. But nevertheless I think it blended well at the bottom and I like this part. This piece involved a lot of layering and not everything worked well and that's why I stick the rough sketch on the next page. But it was really fun to experiment with the materials and in the end I think it came together quite nicely. I really enjoyed experimenting with these markers. They are really great. You don't need to set up a palette or mix colors. You can just grab the box and start drawing. Just don't forget to store them horizontally for better paint flow. I hope you enjoyed watching this. If you'd like to check out this set all the links will be in the description. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Bye!