| 1. Start with lines.Most artists begin a drawing with a | | | | You will quickly get a sense of what a marker can do |
| kind of shorthand, a series of gesture lines or | | | | if you fill a few pages with scales or shapes of |
| construction lines -- just something to get them | | | | different grays. Try dragging the side of the marker, |
| started and to map the placement of the major | | | | as well as the point, and try varying the pressure of |
| shapes. I'm comfortable using the marker itself to | | | | your strokes. |
| make those first lines. However, if you find such lines | | | | 4. Use a slip-sheet. |
| to be too obvious or intrusive, try using pencil for | | | | If you apply the marker heavily, or in layers, the ink |
| that initial line-work. | | | | will bleed through your light sketch paper and make |
| 2. Make clear shapes. | | | | blots on the following page. It doesn't bother me, but |
| Areas of light surrounded by half-tones will "read" if | | | | if you prefer to keep your pages clean, put an extra |
| they are clear and definite. | | | | sheet of paper behind the page you're working on to |
| 3. Control your values. | | | | soak up the blots. The one sheet can be used over |
| When you touch a marker to your paper, it makes a | | | | and over, of course. |
| positive black mark that can't be erased or altered. | | | | 5. Save those old markers! |
| To make a gray tone, then, you have to make a | | | | Don't throw your markers away as soon as they |
| pattern of black marks mixed with the white of the | | | | start to dry up. You can use a marker that's running |
| paper: scribbles, dots, or the simplest, line-groups. All | | | | out of ink for quite a long time, to make an effective |
| the halftones in my drawing are grays produced with | | | | "dry-brush" for light tones. You can make gray tones |
| line-groups. | | | | by dragging a semi-dry bullet-point marker on its side. |