When daughter and I were in the US over the summer, I made sure to stop by Hobby Lobby with a few 40% coupons so I could stock up on Tim Holtz' Distress Markers. I love his Distress Inks and Stains, so I thought I'd like to try his markers as well, especially after seeing him demo them on YouTube. They are completely different from the alcohol Copic markers - these are water-based. I waited to purchase them in the States as a pack of five is a ridiculous $27.99 here in Canada! The same set at Hobby Lobby is $14.99 regular price, but with my 40% coupon, came to under $10 a pack.
So far I have 17 of his 37 colours; three sets of five and the two-pack of Black Soot and Picket Fence (white). Today I finally found some time to try them out. First, however, I took the advice of another YouTuber and created my own colour swatch on watercolour paper. It's a great reference since the pens' cap colours are not reflective of their true hues.
After making that, I decided to try my hand at a quick sample to practice blending. Instead of a water brush, I used my regular paintbrushes and a bowl of water (after shooing away two cats attempting to drink from it...) and created a small landscape on a scrap of 90lb Beinfang Watercolour paper I have had for years but rarely used - I never really got the hang of watercolour painting, preferring oils instead.
I LOVE the way it blends on this paper. After painting, I went back and used the same markers to create more details. The only one I could not get the greatest result from was the Picket Fence (white) marker. It is made to write on dark paper, so I am not surprised I didn't get the opaqueness I needed - I should have been more patient and waited for the piece to dry completely first. Instead I pulled out some white acrylic to do the sea foam. Otherwise, everything else on this piece is Distress Marker.
Yep, I can see myself getting more of these; they are wonderful to work with, and I am sure they'll be a breeze to colour in stamps with too (just have to make sure I use StazOn ink or emboss the ink before attempting to add water to blend colours).
I'll have to try that next.
I love HL, great to get all those on sale, love your watercolor! So very soothing❤
ReplyDeleteThank you Dagmar. Yeah, Hobby Lobby is great; the US prices are so much better than Canadian ones. I mean our dollars are almost equal, so how can they justify nearly doubling our prices? Crazy.
DeleteI love your painting. Do the markers bleed through to the back? I'm having a lot of trouble w/ my colouring books and markers/gel pens with bleeding. All the colouring pages are double sided so I can't even put a blank piece of paper behind my design b/c it doesn't help.
ReplyDeleteThank you JoJo! Nope, they don't bleed through the watercolour paper at all! They work just like regular watercolour paint. Now, they may bleed through your pages - but I just tried scribbling on a regular sheet of copy paper and no bleed-thru at all either.
DeleteOh, I adore your results and just look forward to the day when I have time to try all these neat ideas. I have been eyeing the Tim Holtz stuff myself recently but good golly, so many ideas and so little time!
ReplyDeleteOh I have been addicted to Tim for years now... I even have toyed with the idea of heading down to Scrapfest at the MOA just to see him; but the thought of dealing with thousands of other Tim fans gives me chills. ;) Love his stuff.
DeleteWhat a deal you got! Don't you just love those 40% coupons? I sure wish I had a talent for painting. Love what you created!
ReplyDeleteThank you Betsy!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, those coupons are wonderful, especially when the regular price is so much lower than ours! I never shop Michaels up here without a coupon ;)