Watercolour, Prismas or Promarkers?

[littleherb]

I'm trying to get an idea of peoples views on this. The reason is, my first attempts at colouring in stamped images were with W H Smith watercolour pencils - cheap, but fine for practice. I then saw that a lot of people were using Prismas so I got some of those. I got on OK with them but to be honest I find myself keep going back to my watercolour pencils. So I was intending to get myself more of those - maybe upgrade to Derwent Inktense or Aquatone or something like that, but then I noticed that so many of you now love Promarkers - so what to do, I'm confused?! I'm very tempted to get a pack of Promarkers to try but I need to stick with something as I can't afford to keep changing my mind and I'd love to know which particular medium is your favourite to colour in your Magnolias etc. Also - are Promarkers relatively easy to use and would they work with my Versafine inkpad or would I need to get one of the others I've seen mentioned on previous posts. Any help would be much appreciated!

Kim

[KJJC]

ditto. I am too soooooo confused. Is it just personal preference?

[Crafty Beast]

Watching with interest...... i want to get some penny blacks to do xmas cards but am so confused by what to colour with them.

can you use sakuras too??? which ones?

[NIKIG]

I don't have any promarkers so can't comment on those, but i do have prismas, watercolours and polychromos pencils as well as sakuras and other gel type pens. I love them all. The most expensive out of those are the prismas, but i love how I can shade with them and add colour on top of colour Plus i find it very therapeutic when i use the prismas I love colouring my PB stamps and magnolias with the prismas. I tend to use the watercolours for bigger stamps or freehand drawings (not that i am in any way an artist)
I am sure someone who has used promarkers will let you know what they are like, I for one know that i won't be buying them as they are pretty expensive and i wouldn't know how i would get on with them, would hate to spend money on pens that could end up sitting and looking pretty in a tub I will stick to my pencils

[taavjax]

Oh I go with promarkers!!
I bought Derwent watercolor pencils,nah not me
I bought Derwent inktense -very nice but lacked the oomphh I craved for!
I bought in Prismas -they lasted one whole week before the sansador nearly choked me -I got rid!
Now Promarkers -they are the ones to go with !!
I have struggled and struggled with watercolouring ,not just the techniques but the actual finishes -everything but the Inktense were too 'watery' for me but even they didnt gve me that 'look'
Promarkers are definate winners in my book-they are so easy to use its not even funny!
Bryony from SillyMonkeyCrafts is an angel -best prices online and the service is second to none!
Inks ?? i don't know about versamark I havent tried it.Stazon doesnt work for me,it does for others (who I am sure will chip in here) I use Impress (available again from SMC) and Memento works as well
I'm feeling a lot of promarker love lately ,so maybe I'm biased!
Ana

[playingwpaper]

Depends what look you want as to what to go for.

I hated stamping with a passion as I was so bad at colouring (using derwent water colour pencils & whispers/marvys) but things improved when I bought a tin of polychromos. I still dont get that really good look that some of our ladies do tho As a last ditch I bought some of the Faber & Castell water colour pencils (not the aquarelle ones) from artifolk (fab service from them) and have noticed a massive improvement. I think the best bet is to buy a few of each and try before deciding which to get bigger sets in. Wish I did, I'd have had the 120 tin of water colours instead of my polys.

[pie-eater]

Another confused colourer! I'm just starting out too and am trying to find which medium I prefer. I think my problem is I don't want to spend too much money buying expensive products which I may not take to. So far I've tried cheap colouring pencils + sansador - not impressed, but is that cos I've used cheap pencils? Watercolour pencils - ok but not brilliant it's probably me but I seem to get lines. Twinkling h2os + cheaper similar product - like these but don't want everything sparkly. Whispers brush markers - like these, have scribbled on plastic with them then used water to dilute and paint and used them direct. Is this how you use the promarkers? Trouble with me is I've no patience I want things to work perfectly first time, I suppose I need to practice with each technique.

[playingwpaper]

Could be the card/paper you're colouring on Maggie Pie, pencils with sansodor need a really really smooth surface. Only surface I've really liked them on is a layover paper but that's incredibly fine and more like a vellum so has it's own issues.

I used to get the nasty lines when using watercolour pencils, if I get them now I just blend over with a koi water pencil and they disappear. Couldnt do that with my cheapies or derwents but the f&c seem to like it. Try getting just a couple of really expensive pencils, you can see then if it's worth investing in more.

Promarkers are unique, as long as they're wet you wont get streaks but if you go over a dry area you'll get a darker shade. Hubby would shoot me if I started collecting those as well.

[ejc]

I have just recently bought a few promarkers to have a go with and I love the effects you can get, I do however find they are a bit thick to do delicate areas but there is probably a trick for this i'm yet to find.

[pie-eater]

Thanks Sue, I think the answer is for me to be more patient and try out the different pencils/pens etc on different types of paper and practice lots and stop expecting professional results the first time I try something!! It's a good idea to get a couple of expensive pencils to see if they do work better for me. Although I have just ordered some Lyra aquacolor crayons which are used like watercolour pencils to see if I get on better with those. I hadn't heard of prismas or promarkers until i started using uk scrappers and now I just want to try everything!!

[charlol]

Same here I hadn't heard of them too until visiting this site. I have got the aquatones and they are fab. They can be quite intense if you use your brush directly onto the crayon and then paint onto the image. I also started off on cheaper watercolour pencils and then bought sakura (gelly roll, mettalic & stardust) which I colour direct for intense colour or onto a shiny surface for washed look. The last of my collection is marvy le plume pens again got them cheaply and have not looked back since. Love my collection and never get bored as I change between them all. I like the look of the promarkers and feel I might get into a mess with prismas but I do think it is personal choice as it depends on how quickly you paint with them and what kind of paper card you use and ink stamps. What you don't want to do is paint over the area too often and puddle paint in the areas you want shadow. hope this helps but I am definitely NO expert just watched lots of other people do it perfectly instead!!!

[littleherb]

Thanks so much for your comments on this everyone. It's good to know I'm not the only one who is confused by all these different ways of colouring - I just keep seeing all these beautiful cards and think that if I only had those particular type of pencils/markers then my cards would look like that! But it's really helpful to read these suggestions and views so keep 'em coming please.

[ann_louice]

I live in Sweden and here we have coloured wih promarkers (including me) for about a year now. It's very popular.

The main difference with promarkers and watercolours or colouring with distress ink is that it's easier to get a good result with markers if you are a beginner. Colouring with watercolours takes more time to learn.

But you should also now that if you colour with promarkers you need to make shadows with the MCP technique to make it look good. Then you use Prisma colour or faber Castel Polychromos and solvent.

So if you think it's hard to get a good result with watercolours you should try promarkers. but i you are very good at colouring with watercolours you don't need to try promarkers.

If you think promarkers are interesting you need to have a waterbased inkpad like impress, adirondack or memento. Otherwise it will make the ink colour thing you don't want to colour black.

Then you need the proper paper. I use a glossy laser printer paper. It's called 4cc and is made by Stora enso and it weights 250 gr. But I have no idea if you are able to buy that particular paper in the UK.

The best colour for colouring skin are blush, then you should buy colours that aren't so bright. then it looks better when making shadows with the pencils.

You also need a grey marker like warm grey 1 or ice gry 2 to draw on the outlines of the motive too make a shadow and to conceal the fact that you actually haven't been able to colour inside the lines.

In the begining you only need three Prisma/Polychromos pencils, one grey, one brown and one dark red.

It can be a little tricky to colour very small things. but if you have a good paper then the colour won'r bleed out as much. but be aware of the red markers they tend to bleed anyway so don't colour so close to the lines.

I also use triamarkers. they come in more colours and are easier to use when colouring small things but the are very expensive so if you just want to try the technique stick to promarkers.

If you would like to look how it looks colouring with promarkers you can take a look at my blogg:

ann-louice.blogspot.com

Or my best friends blogg:

tussans.blogspot.com

I hope this helps.

Best Wishes

Ann-Louice

[littleherb]

Thanks very much for taking the trouble to write such a detailed reply Ann-Louice, it's very helpful. I have just bought three promarkers to see how I get on (a red, green and pink) - just to get the feel of them. I must say that although they seem really easy to use the colours come up really bright - I can't get the same subtle tones I can get with water colours - but maybe I've just chosen too bright colours to start with. But you mention making shadows with a certain technique - I don't really understand that part? Maybe I'll give the prismas another go!!

[butterbee]

I've used all 3........I love my Prismas - I the colours and the smoother the paper the better - I use Bristol Board Extra Smooth Surface drawing paper 250gsm - it is expensive but is so worth it

I love my promarkers - they are good for speed and seeing as I am frantically making xmas cards for a school fair, that is what I am using at the moment, the colours on the promarkers in a lot more intense - look at Craftycaz's blog - she is fab at colouring in with pro-markers and lists the colours she has used