HOME | DD

Description
In order to keep up with the pattern practice I was working on (hence the Planet series), I decided to try out the One Marker Challenge thing I'd seen around a bit. I picked a pattern I wanted to use...then I picked another...then another...and in the end I decided, instead of picking the marker randomly once the image was drawn (as you're technically supposed to), I was just going to do a rainbow series, because I have no self control.

The rules: sketch a piece (and ink it, if you like), and then pick a single marker from your hoard (again, you're technically supposed to do this with your eyes closed but I wanted to do a series for the rainbow, so fight me). That's the only marker you're allowed to use. You can also use any white medium (such as white pencil, white ink, etc.), but it cannot be coloured - it has to be white.

Red/Beta
Pattern Used: Vogue 8849
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton "Berry Red" Promarker (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill calligraphy dip pen.
First attempt.
Both the line art and the colouring were done while I was super dizzy, so hopefully future attempts will get better. (Also done with my crowquill instead of Microns, as I'm trying to get better with it. I was really setting up for disappointment with this one.) Outlining the fish in white was not the best choice I could have made, but c'est la vie.
Senate-Sam seemed like a good fit for a fighting fish. Or maybe a fighting fish seemed a good fit for Sam? Either way, they're all sea-life themed. (The face is too long to be Sam - Sam has a short, round face - and the model's also not nearly as short-waisted as Sam, but I'm not as comfortable messing with model proportions as I am messing with the ball-jointed-doll ones, so it really doesn't look like her.)
This is realistically what Huevember is supposed to look like, and may be what I make it into this year, depending on how the others go.
(I actually own this pattern, and fabric specifically to make a dress out of. Have for years but never got around to it. We'll see what happens next time I'm in a sewing mood.)
I wasn't planning on colouring these until after my course at the end of the month, but I was cooped up in my house for too long and went shack-whacky, so I figured a senseless online art challenge would be the best thing to finish off. Goodness knows I didn't want it to be a series I really cared about it.

Orange/Goldfish
Pattern Used: McCalls 6838
6x8" on Strathmore paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton "Orange" Promarker (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill calligraphy dip pen
Attempt 2.
Still super dizzy.
One of the cool things about the ink I'm using is that it's not alcohol soluble, so I can do a full alcohol wash over the paper without the lines blurring/smearing in the least. However (and interestingly), it IS water soluble, so water sends it all over the place. There are smudges all over the piece where I washed my hands, thought they were fully dry, and ended up with ink splotches all over the place. I realistically should have re-inked it, but I'd given up at this point. I was too dizzy to care.
Only ten pages left of my sketchbook, but I want to finish this before I move onto new drawings.

Yellow/Jellyfish
Pattern Used: photo of one of my ball-jointed art dolls
6x8" on Strathmore paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton "Yellow" Promarker
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill calligraphy dip pen
Attempt 3.
Super rushed while super dizzy (was doing a little better, but not much).
Megan looks a lot more like Megan than she did in the Orange piece, but that's partially because she's wearing her proper clothes and because I drew her from a doll instead of a model, so I was a lot more comfortable messing with the features. (Also, she has a gun again. She just feels more like Megan when she has a gun.)
I hate the colour yellow. I don't judge people who like it. I've just always despised it. This challenge has not changed my mind. I assumed Yellow would be the hardest, with the least leeway for shading. So far I'm right. I hope that remains true.
The black ink I'm using (Higgins Eternal Black), as stated in Orange, is water-soluble but not alcohol-soluble, so I tried to use that to my advantage by using water on a paintbrush to bleed out the linework to add some darker shades to the yellow (not sure if that counts as cheating or not?). It did add some shading, but let's be honest, here: it looks horrible. I won't be using that method in the future. Nor will I be using that much yellow ever again (excluding Huevember, if I don't skip it this year for the sake of not having to use that much yellow). I'd have redone the blasted thing if it didn't mean that I had to work with MORE yellow. Besides: I killed the marker.
On the plus side, I'd so far killed 3/3 of the markers I'd used for the challenge, so maybe I should have started with this in the first place. (That being said: I HAD KILLED EVERY MARKER I HAVE USED ON THIS CHALLENGE. If you plan on doing this challenge, keep that in mind. I was probably laying down more ink than the standard person would since I'm intentionally trying to use them up, but it's still something to take into consideration.)
The gun is drawn from the tiny plastic one she was holding instead of a proper reference, because I was lazy and didn't want to google reference pictures.
I'd like to forget that this picture exists now.

Green/Cuttlefish
Pattern Used: photo of my ball-jointed-dolls again
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton Forest Green (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill dip pen
Attempt 4.
The line art turned out better on this one (while still dizzy, I started getting used to the crowquill), though there are a few points where I caught the paper and you can see some splatter. The white and black inks aren't reacting together very well, so when I go to trace white over the black we're just getting a pretty streaky grey colour. The edges of the cuttlefish are 3-4 layers of white ink over the black. I'm thinking my white ink is water-based, which is dissolving the black ink, while everything else is alcohol based and leaves it alone.
The photo used was never actually meant to be used for reference; it's from the "Funeral" staged when one of the dolls kicked the bucket and I realized I had a coffin the perfect size for her (photos, including the zombie-doll crashing the funeral by breaking out of the coffin, are on Facebook). It was an angle I'm not used to drawing, though, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I was worried I wouldn't be able to get much shade difference between his skin and shirt, as they're both very light, but I'm pleased with it in the end.
Cuttlefish are strange creatures. I love everything about them...EXCEPT having to draw them.

Blue/Nudibranch
Pattern Used:
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Prismacolor "Ultramarine" Brush Marker
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill dip pen, masking fluid
Attempt 5.
Easily my favourite. For the most part I managed to NOT oversaturate the paper, it's easily the best line art with the crow quill (I'm slowly getting the hang of it!) and the stance really matches the character. I knew as soon as I decided to do the One Marker Challenge that the nudibranch would be a fantastic candidate, and, while he's mostly hidden behind (in front of?) Trudy here, he is indeed a good match.
I decided to go with a more complex background on this one, and while I like it and it really gives off the water feel, it's a little too much and the characters do tend to disappear into it. I kept that in mind for Huevember/Purple's submission.
I was really happy with how the shading of the skin was going and went to add the final highlight, and when I swished the colourless blended across her right arm I realized it was NOT the colourless blender in my hand, but the marker itself, effectively adding the darkest possible shadow in a place that was supposed to be a highlight. I panicked, I did what I could, I present the end result. Not as light as it should be, but not the dark shadow I nearly doomed it to.
Unlike the Promarkers, I wasn't necessarily trying to kill this one (I will eventually, but I find using the Prismacolors and Copics similar enough to use together while the Promarkers have very different feels to them). That being said, the marker is still happily among the living. Far less ink than before, for sure, but not dying by any means. So you're not guaranteed to kill your marker with this challenge.
Her nose/cheek scar isn't really visible from this angle and I had to change her hair a little to see her face at all, but even with that, it still feels like Trudy to me. (I should draw her more often, but I say that EVERY time I draw her, which is once every...20 drawings? 30? Man, I do need to draw her more...)

Purple/Anemone
Pattern Used: McCalls 6566
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Letraset "Mulberry" Promarker (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, black ink, crowquill dip pen, white Gellyroll.
Attempt 6
Cutiepie Sam on a sea anemone.
The shading in this one isn't as in-depth as the last few. I feel like it all blends together more than, say, Blue or Red did. Fewer shades. The marker base was more of a midtone than a dark one (like Blue was), so I could only really go from light to mid-range instead of light to dark.
"You could have done what you did for Yellow?"
Shh. We don't talk about Yellow.
The scan here has it as more of a purple-purple, while in reality it's closer to a pink/reddish purple. Think the colour of crushed blueberries.
"You were eating blueberry pie at the time. Is there blueberries on this?"
Of course not. That would be cheating.
Reeeeeally like the background on this one. I know it's subtle, but without the white bubbles it's a soft mottled effect, and I'll definitely be finding uses for it in the future. It's not necessarily clean or useful, just fun, and it would be even more prominent if I used it while the piece was on an absorbent surface instead of plastic.
I know that Sam is grumpy and ruthless, but she can be really cute sometimes.
"Is that why you paired her with clownfish? Because she can be cute?"
Oh, no, she's not paired with the fish. She's paired with the anemone. If she had the chance to grow stinging tentacles nothing would keep her from them.
Marker is indeed deceased, though it took a lot. I was still using the Letraset for Mulberry, not even the Winsor&Newton. You know what I used this marker for, these past three years? Their earrings. Sam's, Megan's, Ethan's, and Trudy's. I'd dig it out to do a single dot for a stud earring, and back it went. No wonder it's lasted this long - and it's obvious why I needed something like this to kill it off.
Will I end up using this style for Huevember? There's a good chance. I'm enjoying it, and it will mean I don't need nearly as many shades for each colour. I might not even do Huevember this year, though. We'll see.
Anyway, thanks for sticking around through this silly challenge. I have commissions to work on (woohoo!), so you'll get a break from Sam and Gabriel for a little while (and about time, too; you're probably all sick of them by now ).

Full size images of each one available for download (10 points for the set; I'd give them away for free but it's not an option, so that's the lowest number available.)

Description
In order to keep up with the pattern practice I was working on (hence the Planet series), I decided to try out the One Marker Challenge thing I'd seen around a bit. I picked a pattern I wanted to use...then I picked another...then another...and in the end I decided, instead of picking the marker randomly once the image was drawn (as you're technically supposed to), I was just going to do a rainbow series, because I have no self control.

The rules: sketch a piece (and ink it, if you like), and then pick a single marker from your hoard (again, you're technically supposed to do this with your eyes closed but I wanted to do a series for the rainbow, so fight me). That's the only marker you're allowed to use. You can also use any white medium (such as white pencil, white ink, etc.), but it cannot be coloured - it has to be white.

Red/Beta
Pattern Used: Vogue 8849
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton "Berry Red" Promarker (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill calligraphy dip pen.
First attempt.
Both the line art and the colouring were done while I was super dizzy, so hopefully future attempts will get better. (Also done with my crowquill instead of Microns, as I'm trying to get better with it. I was really setting up for disappointment with this one.) Outlining the fish in white was not the best choice I could have made, but c'est la vie.
Senate-Sam seemed like a good fit for a fighting fish. Or maybe a fighting fish seemed a good fit for Sam? Either way, they're all sea-life themed. (The face is too long to be Sam - Sam has a short, round face - and the model's also not nearly as short-waisted as Sam, but I'm not as comfortable messing with model proportions as I am messing with the ball-jointed-doll ones, so it really doesn't look like her.)
This is realistically what Huevember is supposed to look like, and may be what I make it into this year, depending on how the others go.
(I actually own this pattern, and fabric specifically to make a dress out of. Have for years but never got around to it. We'll see what happens next time I'm in a sewing mood.)
I wasn't planning on colouring these until after my course at the end of the month, but I was cooped up in my house for too long and went shack-whacky, so I figured a senseless online art challenge would be the best thing to finish off. Goodness knows I didn't want it to be a series I really cared about it.

Orange/Goldfish
Pattern Used: McCalls 6838
6x8" on Strathmore paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton "Orange" Promarker (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill calligraphy dip pen
Attempt 2.
Still super dizzy.
One of the cool things about the ink I'm using is that it's not alcohol soluble, so I can do a full alcohol wash over the paper without the lines blurring/smearing in the least. However (and interestingly), it IS water soluble, so water sends it all over the place. There are smudges all over the piece where I washed my hands, thought they were fully dry, and ended up with ink splotches all over the place. I realistically should have re-inked it, but I'd given up at this point. I was too dizzy to care.
Only ten pages left of my sketchbook, but I want to finish this before I move onto new drawings.

Yellow/Jellyfish
Pattern Used: photo of one of my ball-jointed art dolls
6x8" on Strathmore paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton "Yellow" Promarker
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill calligraphy dip pen
Attempt 3.
Super rushed while super dizzy (was doing a little better, but not much).
Megan looks a lot more like Megan than she did in the Orange piece, but that's partially because she's wearing her proper clothes and because I drew her from a doll instead of a model, so I was a lot more comfortable messing with the features. (Also, she has a gun again. She just feels more like Megan when she has a gun.)
I hate the colour yellow. I don't judge people who like it. I've just always despised it. This challenge has not changed my mind. I assumed Yellow would be the hardest, with the least leeway for shading. So far I'm right. I hope that remains true.
The black ink I'm using (Higgins Eternal Black), as stated in Orange, is water-soluble but not alcohol-soluble, so I tried to use that to my advantage by using water on a paintbrush to bleed out the linework to add some darker shades to the yellow (not sure if that counts as cheating or not?). It did add some shading, but let's be honest, here: it looks horrible. I won't be using that method in the future. Nor will I be using that much yellow ever again (excluding Huevember, if I don't skip it this year for the sake of not having to use that much yellow). I'd have redone the blasted thing if it didn't mean that I had to work with MORE yellow. Besides: I killed the marker.
On the plus side, I'd so far killed 3/3 of the markers I'd used for the challenge, so maybe I should have started with this in the first place. (That being said: I HAD KILLED EVERY MARKER I HAVE USED ON THIS CHALLENGE. If you plan on doing this challenge, keep that in mind. I was probably laying down more ink than the standard person would since I'm intentionally trying to use them up, but it's still something to take into consideration.)
The gun is drawn from the tiny plastic one she was holding instead of a proper reference, because I was lazy and didn't want to google reference pictures.
I'd like to forget that this picture exists now.

Green/Cuttlefish
Pattern Used: photo of my ball-jointed-dolls again
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Winsor&Newton Forest Green (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill dip pen
Attempt 4.
The line art turned out better on this one (while still dizzy, I started getting used to the crowquill), though there are a few points where I caught the paper and you can see some splatter. The white and black inks aren't reacting together very well, so when I go to trace white over the black we're just getting a pretty streaky grey colour. The edges of the cuttlefish are 3-4 layers of white ink over the black. I'm thinking my white ink is water-based, which is dissolving the black ink, while everything else is alcohol based and leaves it alone.
The photo used was never actually meant to be used for reference; it's from the "Funeral" staged when one of the dolls kicked the bucket and I realized I had a coffin the perfect size for her (photos, including the zombie-doll crashing the funeral by breaking out of the coffin, are on Facebook). It was an angle I'm not used to drawing, though, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
I was worried I wouldn't be able to get much shade difference between his skin and shirt, as they're both very light, but I'm pleased with it in the end.
Cuttlefish are strange creatures. I love everything about them...EXCEPT having to draw them.

Blue/Nudibranch
Pattern Used:
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Prismacolor "Ultramarine" Brush Marker
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, white and black ink, crowquill dip pen, masking fluid
Attempt 5.
Easily my favourite. For the most part I managed to NOT oversaturate the paper, it's easily the best line art with the crow quill (I'm slowly getting the hang of it!) and the stance really matches the character. I knew as soon as I decided to do the One Marker Challenge that the nudibranch would be a fantastic candidate, and, while he's mostly hidden behind (in front of?) Trudy here, he is indeed a good match.
I decided to go with a more complex background on this one, and while I like it and it really gives off the water feel, it's a little too much and the characters do tend to disappear into it. I kept that in mind for Huevember/Purple's submission.
I was really happy with how the shading of the skin was going and went to add the final highlight, and when I swished the colourless blended across her right arm I realized it was NOT the colourless blender in my hand, but the marker itself, effectively adding the darkest possible shadow in a place that was supposed to be a highlight. I panicked, I did what I could, I present the end result. Not as light as it should be, but not the dark shadow I nearly doomed it to.
Unlike the Promarkers, I wasn't necessarily trying to kill this one (I will eventually, but I find using the Prismacolors and Copics similar enough to use together while the Promarkers have very different feels to them). That being said, the marker is still happily among the living. Far less ink than before, for sure, but not dying by any means. So you're not guaranteed to kill your marker with this challenge.
Her nose/cheek scar isn't really visible from this angle and I had to change her hair a little to see her face at all, but even with that, it still feels like Trudy to me. (I should draw her more often, but I say that EVERY time I draw her, which is once every...20 drawings? 30? Man, I do need to draw her more...)

Purple/Anemone
Pattern Used: McCalls 6566
6x8" on Strathmore marker paper
Marker Used: Letraset "Mulberry" Promarker (deceased)
Other Materials Used: rubbing alcohol, black ink, crowquill dip pen, white Gellyroll.
Attempt 6
Cutiepie Sam on a sea anemone.
The shading in this one isn't as in-depth as the last few. I feel like it all blends together more than, say, Blue or Red did. Fewer shades. The marker base was more of a midtone than a dark one (like Blue was), so I could only really go from light to mid-range instead of light to dark.
"You could have done what you did for Yellow?"
Shh. We don't talk about Yellow.
The scan here has it as more of a purple-purple, while in reality it's closer to a pink/reddish purple. Think the colour of crushed blueberries.
"You were eating blueberry pie at the time. Is there blueberries on this?"
Of course not. That would be cheating.
Reeeeeally like the background on this one. I know it's subtle, but without the white bubbles it's a soft mottled effect, and I'll definitely be finding uses for it in the future. It's not necessarily clean or useful, just fun, and it would be even more prominent if I used it while the piece was on an absorbent surface instead of plastic.
I know that Sam is grumpy and ruthless, but she can be really cute sometimes.
"Is that why you paired her with clownfish? Because she can be cute?"
Oh, no, she's not paired with the fish. She's paired with the anemone. If she had the chance to grow stinging tentacles nothing would keep her from them.
Marker is indeed deceased, though it took a lot. I was still using the Letraset for Mulberry, not even the Winsor&Newton. You know what I used this marker for, these past three years? Their earrings. Sam's, Megan's, Ethan's, and Trudy's. I'd dig it out to do a single dot for a stud earring, and back it went. No wonder it's lasted this long - and it's obvious why I needed something like this to kill it off.
Will I end up using this style for Huevember? There's a good chance. I'm enjoying it, and it will mean I don't need nearly as many shades for each colour. I might not even do Huevember this year, though. We'll see.
Anyway, thanks for sticking around through this silly challenge. I have commissions to work on (woohoo!), so you'll get a break from Sam and Gabriel for a little while (and about time, too; you're probably all sick of them by now ).

Full size images of each one available for download (10 points for the set; I'd give them away for free but it's not an option, so that's the lowest number available.)