Category: How To Shade Faces With Alcohol Markers

Alcohol Marker Face Shading Tips for Scaredy-Cats

17/1/2023

I recently recieved an awesome question from one of my Wonder Bundlers (member of ALL THREE art memberships) at Awesome Art School.

Her question to me was:
Can you shade a face with just ONE alcohol marker?

The short answer is YES. But... I've got a few tips for you to make this technique work EVEN BETTER for you! Watch today's video to see exactly what I mean :)

New to shading faces? Click the button below to grab my FREE Face Shading Guide! It will TOTALLY help you take your drawings to the next level, no matter what art supply you're using.

This cheatsheet shows you 6 EASY shading patterns you can copy onto your own forward-facing face drawings to make them look more realistic.

Super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support.

My FREE Face Shading Guide is a page directly from my very first book, How to Draw Fun Fab Faces.

Another great reference used in today's video is one of my latest art books, Skin Tone Secrets.

This book is SUPER helpful for learning how to shade semi-realistic faces with alcohol markers. It takes ALL the guesswork out of choosing which markers go well together to create beautiful skin tones, and will have you creating gorgeous faces you can be proud of in NO TIME!

What Paper is Best for Alcohol Marker Drawings?

If you're new to alcohol markers, using the right paper for your drawing projects is SUPER IMPORTANT.

HOT TIP: NEVER shade with alcohol markers on a super-absorbent surface like watercolor paper. It will totally wreck your markers! Always use bristol or something like my favorite card stock, which is a cheaper bristol alternative.

Which Skin Tone Markers Are Best for Shading Faces?

For today's dark skin tone face drawing demo, I'm using Ohuhu alcohol marker YR148 / Thin Persimmon.

If you don't have alcohol markers and want to shade the faces you draw, I recommend the Ohuhu Alcohol Markers Set of 24 or 36, it's excellent quality and super affordable!

How to Blend Alcohol Marker Streaking

Here's what my drawing looked like when I tried to shade it as I normally would, except that I only used one marker.

See how you can see EVEY streak and stroke, especially in the lightest areas? This is tough to combat if we limit ourselves to one marker.

Click over to the video to see how the Ohuhu colorless blender worked to blend the streakiness above.

For comparison's sake, I also shaded a light-skinned face. Instead of using the colorless blender, I tried blending the streaks by using a marker one shade LIGHTER than the one I originally used.

I feel like this alcohol marker blending technique worked WAY BETTER than the colorless blender (by the way- today's demo is a great example of why I NEVER use the colorless blender to blend my alcohol marker shading).

If you're NEW to shading faces with alcohol markers or a scaredy-pants about shading, here's what I recommend... USE TWO MARKERS.

1. Shade the face two complete times - once horizontally in one color and once vertically in ONE SHADE LIGHTER (this lighter marker is your "blending friend" and will help eliminate streaks).

2. Add shadows to your drawing using marker #1 to show depth.

This alcohol marker blending technique will give you a smooth and super subtle look...

❤️Watch today's video to see these alcohol marker tips in action!

❤️Ready to dive into shading faces with 3-4 alcohol markers per face? Check out my book,Skin Tone Secrets.

❤️WANT MORE alcohol marker shading tips? Check out this playlist!

Wanna Stay in the Loop?

And get notified EVERY TIME I publish a new video on YouTube? Join my Email Newsletter!

As my way of saying thanks - grab a copy of my FREE Fun Fab Swatch Sheet or my Whimsical Face Drawing Guidelines!

Need More Resources?

❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON
❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my online art classes @ Awesome Art School
❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON (affiliate links)
❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP

Thanks for hanging out with me today!!

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Testing the most expensive alcohol markers, ARE THEY WORTH IT?!

14/11/2022

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In today's drawing tutorial, I'm trying an expensive new set of skin tone markers by Winsor Newton called ProMarkers. I have high expectations for these alcohol markers because Winsor Newton is a top-of-the-line, fine art brand for artists.

I'm curious to see how ProMarkers compare to the go-to alcohol marker brands I reach for every day. My biggest question today is ARE PROMARKERS WORTH IT?!

Wanna draw along today, but not quite sure how to draw a face, or how to make the facial features look proportional? It's WAY easier than you think!

Simply click the button below to download my FREE whimsical face drawing guidelines. I never start a face drawing without them!

Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support.

I've been shading the faces I draw with alcohol markers for years, and
am constantly testing new brands to ensure I'm recommending art supplies with the BEST VALUE for my students over at Awesome Art School.

After testing a million brands of alcohol markers, I've discovered expensive isn't always better, and multiple brands of alcohol markers can be used successfully on the same project - regardless of price point.

The ProMarker set I'm demo-ing today runs around $30 on Amazon and contains six skin tone alcohol markers. Depending on your budget, this might not sound too bad, until you start comparing ProMarkers to less expensive brands like Ohuhu, which will give you a full 30 more markers for just $9 more!

I don't know about you, but I want MORE COLORS to play with, so will choose that every time!

If you're sensitive to smells, you may want to steer clear of ProMarkers. They definitely have more of an odor to them than I notice from my Ohuhus or Copics.

This Promarker set has dual nibs like most alcohol markers. There's a brush tip on one side and a chisel tip on the opposite. Right away I noticed how flexible the brush nib felt. Not sure if I'm gonna love this or get annoyed with it while shading larger areas!

While swatching, I was seriously surprised by the shades Winsor Newton selected for this palette. If you've been following me for a while, or have a copy of my book, Skin Tone Secrets, you know I always recommend selecting three shades of the same color in light, medium and dark to shade ANYTHING.

These subtle variations in color will help give your drawings dimension and make them look more sophisticated.

As far as skin tone colors in the Promarkers set of 6 are concerned, I'm not impressed because I can only find two shades in this palette that will truly go together as my light and medium skin tones. The darker markers included are too big of a jump from the medium shades for most artists to use successfully - as you can see below.

If you watch the video, I'll show you the face chart I selected as today's drawing reference. It has super dramatic makeup in rich fall colors, but my first layer of brown makeup and shadows looks intimidating, even to me!

I keep going though, because I know the only way out of this is more layers of shading, blending, and doodling.

If you'd like a copy of today's drawing reference, you can grab that as a PDF in my YouTube & Cheatsheet Library over at Awesome Art School.

Once I've added detail to the eyes and eyelashes with my Pentel Pocket Brush, the darkest skin tone shading begins to push into the background and becomes less intimidating.

I use my Pentel pocket brush pen for drawing eyelashes on all the faces I draw and paint. It's amazing but has a bit of a learning curve to it. If you need help with it or want to learn how to draw gorgeous eyelashes, check out this video.

Make sure you click over to the video to get my final thoughts on this skin tone ProMarkers set by Winsor Newton.

As you'll see, I did end up getting annoyed with the brush nib on these markers. They just felt too flimsy and flexible to me so I switched sides and continued the project with the chisel tip for greater control.

I hope you found today's product review and demo helpful, and I sincerely hope you take a minute to stop and draw along with me in today's video!

See ya next week!!

Need more resources to get your creative juices flowing?

❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON
❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my online art classes @ Awesome Art School
❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON (affiliate links)
❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP

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Pastel Ohuhu Markers? YES, PLEASE! |Product Review, Demo & Face Shading Tutorial by Karen Campbell

1/11/2022

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I've been recommending Ohuhu markers for YEARS, so when Ohuhu called and asked if they could send me a pastel set of dual-tip alcohol markers, I was thrilled! I can't wait to show you how gorgeous these are in today's face drawing & shading tutorial.

I swatched all of my Ohuhu pastel markers on the swatch sheets that can be found at the back of my Skin Tone Secrets book on Amazon.

If you don't have a copy of the book yet, but have an art supply you'd like to swatch, you can also download my FREE Fun, Fab Swatch Sheet to get started.

Simply click on the button above, and I'll email it right over! If you've never done color swatching before, here's a video on how to use this exact swatch sheet if you need a little extra help.

If you're new to my world, I absolutely LOVE alcohol markers for shading faces. I've been collecting them over the years in all different brands to find out which ones provide the highest quality and best value for my students.

Tons of my students are retired and just can't spend $10/marker for Copics, so I I've been on the hunt for a great Copic marker alternative for years.

When I discovered Ohuhu's skin tone markers set, it was love at first sight. I couldn't believe how many colors I could get in ONE SET. Even better, when I tried them out for the first time- the quality was gorgeous. I've had ZERO guilt recommending them to my students and adding them to my alcohol marker collection ever since.

Since most of my alcohol marker art projects are faces, I've spent a LOT of time figuring out which alcohol marker shades blend well together to create gorgeous skin tones in all ethnicities.

Check out my YouTube series of face drawing tutorials, Whimsical Women of the World, or my latest book, Skin Tone Secrets (watch the page-by-page flip through here) for alcohol marker face shading tips and fail-proof color combos I love for shading skin tones.

This book actually revolves around my Ohhu 36 skin tone markers set. Each face I drew for my book was colored in a combo of three skin tone markers in a light, medium and dark shade. The color combos are noted throughout the book so you draw and shade simple faces right along with me as you read.

Skin Tone Secrets is great for artists of all levels who love drawing and want to learn how to shade faces using alcohol markers. Sometimes it's tough for artists who love working with pencil to jump into another medium like markers, or even to jump into color vs. black and white drawing. The book is PERFECT to help graphite artists make the leap with confidence into the world of color.

Last week I started a new YouTube series for my drawing channel of face drawing and shading tutorials using face charts as my face drawing references.

I found the face chart below on Pinterest and thought it was the perfect inspiration for today's drawing tutorial featuring my new pastel Ohuhu alcohol markers.

If you've been following me for a while, you already know I tend to reach for the boldest of colors, no matter the art supply. Doing an entire project in pastels definitely felt like a challenge for me, but I ended up loving it!

Like all my face drawings, I started this one off using my face drawing guidelines to keep the facial features proportionate. If you've never used guidelines for your face drawings before, download my free Semi-Realistic / Whimsical Face Drawing Guidelines (learn how to use them in this playlist of tutorials). They make SUCH a difference!

I drew both of the faces above, but if you compare them side by side, it's pretty obvious which one looks more amateur. I didn't use guidelines for the face on the right. Her eyes are too high, her nose is too low, and she barely has a forehead.

I used guidelines for the face on the left. Even though she was drawn in a semi-realistic, or whimsical style, she looks WAY more sophisticated than the drawing on the right. It's ALL because of the face drawing guidelines.

Back to today's video!

The alcohol markers in my new Ohuhu set of 48 pastel shades are all dual tips with both a brush nib and a chisel tip. I primarily use the brush nib because it feels very painterly to me (especially for drawing hair).

But I also love flipping to the chisel tip if I've got a lot of ground to cover in one shade, and want to move through it quickly.

I found two shades in the pastel set of 48 that worked well together as skin tones for today's drawing. As I got further into the project, I discovered a pink that complemented these shades as a beautiful mid-tone. Make sure to click over to the video because I flash the name of each marker shade on the screen while I use it.

If you end up buying the pastel set of alcohol markers by Ohuhu, you'll find that it comes with a colorless blender. Personally, I feel the best way to blend alcohol markers without streaking comes from mixing your marker shades together and layering your brush strokes in a variety of directions, so I never use the colorless blender. However, if you've been hoping to try it - you'll be excited to know it's a part of this set.

When I was finished laying down my color, I decided NOT to use my pentel pocket brush for outlining and doodling on top of my drawing because I was afraid the lines would be too bold for the pastel color palette.

Instead, I reached for my Pentel Arts Sign Pen with Micro Brush Tip because I can get much finer lines with it.

I'm SO happy with how this piece turned out! And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new pastel alcohol markers.

THANKS Ohuhu!!

If you're already starting to think about Christmas gifts, Ohuhu has got an amazing Black Friday sale going on already. Be sure to check that link often as new items drop here all the time.

Thanks for hanging out with me today!

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SCARED of DARK Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading? Help is Here!

22/8/2022

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SCARED of your DARK skin tone markers? You are NOT alone! The process for shading faces with dark skin is EXACTLY the same as shading faces with light skin tone markers. Press play to CONQUER these fears once and for all and to see my BEST alcohol marker blending tips in action. Playing along with my #50FunFabFairies drawing challenge? Today's FAIRY face drawing and shading tutorial is lesson 8!

Want easy access to today's lesson and even MORE fairy drawing ideas? Join my FREE #50FunFabFairies drawing challenge over at Awesome Art School!

Simply click the button below to receive instant access to ALL the fairy reference images for each drawing prompt (including today's elf ears drawing reference!), plus info on supplies, cheatsheets, and more!

Wanna become a better artist? Do today's lesson (and every lesson of the challenge) five times, making a few creative alterations of your choice, and watch your skills soar as you practice fairy eyes drawing, fairy and elf ears drawing AND fairy hair drawing 50 different ways!

How to Draw a Fairy Face

To get today's drawing started, I simply draw an oval and sketch in my face drawing guidelines. Not sure what face drawing guidelines are? Check out lesson one of the #50FunFabFairies drawing challenge, and my face drawing guidelines are waiting for you in the FREE #50FunFabFairies classroom over at Awesome Art School!

HOT TIP: Grab a piece of bristol or my favorite cardstock (cheaper and works exactly the same!), to complete this project. This paper is smooth, non-porous, and will help your markers blend more easily!

This week I'm using an ellipse template (above), to sketch in my eye drawing guidelines. You can TOTALLY do this at home too - it's a little time saver, and a simple trick to help you draw eyes evenly if you're just learning how to draw eyes for beginners.

Next I pencil in the fairy ears and facial features. I'm basically creating a "mashup," because I'm using two face drawing references today - one for the fairy ears, and one for the facial features and shading. Both images are with today's lesson in my FREE #50FunFabFairies classroom.

Combining various aspects of different reference photos in this way is an awesome way to create your very own, original art. This is excellent advice as well if you're someone who is insecure about looking for copyright-free images.

I'm an outliner and love this look in the faces I draw, so once I've finished sketching in my fairy face, I outline the whole drawing with a few of my favorite fineliners by Molotow. I use a thicker nib for outlining the hair, and a smaller nib for outlining facial features.

Next, I erase all the graphite with my vanish eraser. This is a really important step if you're going to shade a face with alcohol markers because they will pick up any remaining graphite on your page and smear it around if you're not careful.

How to Select Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading

Typically my students tell me the most intimidating part of shading faces with alcohol markers is getting started and selecting your skin tone marker shades. I always recommend to use at least three so you have a light, medium and dark that go well together.

I have TONS of references to help you with color selection. Inside the FREE #50FunFabFairies classroom, you'll get access to my Skin Tone Markers Guide (shows you the best skin tone marker combos for across THREE alcohol marker brands), along with the exact colors I'm using today from my Ohuhu Skin Tone Markers (Set of 24).

In addition, I recently published a book ALL about shading faces with alcohol markers and how to choose which skin tone markers will go well together.

You can shade a face from light to dark, or dark to light- it's totally up to you. Lots of my students prefer shading light to dark - especially if they're intimidated by working with darker skin tone markers because it can feel like you've got a bit more control.

As you'll see in the video, the contrast between my initial three marker shades for today's project was just too great. This is OK and TOTALLY fixable. It's actually great for you to see this happen to me so you can watch how I troubleshoot.

If this happens to you at home, and the jump between shades 1 & 2 is too great, find a happy medium shade of a "1.5" to fill in that gap and help you blend your skin tones. It's really systematic.

What to Do If You Hate Your Project

If you're new to my world, you may not have heard me talk about "the ugly stage" yet! EVERY project goes through this, especially when you're drawing and shading faces. Here is the perfect example of what I'm talking about below...

She looks crazy, right?! This is the "ugly stage." It's the point in a project when you're about half-way done, and you look down at your piece and think it's garbage. She looks like an alien, you think you should just quit and move on with your life.

DON'T LISTEN TO THOSE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD! I'm serious. These feelings are SUPER normal and you just have to keep going no matter how ugly your girl is. Do NOT let the "ugly stage" win. Just KEEP GOING.

How do you keep going when you hate your project? In this case - more layers.

How to Eliminate Streaking
and Blend With Alcohol Markers

As you watch the video, you'll see me adding additional layers of shading. Whenever I have streaking or want to ease the transition between two colors, I go back with my lightest skin tone marker to blend what I've already done.

Every time you do this add a new layer of shading in the opposite direction from your original layer. When you do this, you reactivate the previous layers of color, and they begin to blend (and reduce streaking). To create contrast, you can also add tiny bits of a new dark skin tone, as I did when I added a 4th "darkest" skin tone.

When I move on to shade the hair, I started off in the same way I did with my skin tone markers. I pulled three shades of the same color in a light, medium and dark. This is how you get dimension in your drawings.

Finishing Touches Make ALL the Difference

To pull everything together, and pump up the drama, I'm using my pentel pocket brush to add eyelashes and eye makeup. It works more like a paintbrush than a pen, and I use it in ALL of my eyelash drawings.

Not sure how to draw eyelashes? I've got a cheatsheet for that too! Head over to my FREE #50FunFabFairies classroom over at Awesome Art School.

As you may notice in the video- the eyes in this drawing were a bit uneven, so I used my pentel pocket brush and switched from eye to eye to even them out with some eye makeup. She ends up looking really glamorous, which I love!

Finally, I added highlights with my copic opaque white "nail polish." Love this product!

Honestly, this project was one disaster after another to get through. And just when I thought I had about one minute left of adding in highlights, my white paint pen exploded on her chin and I had to try and rework the whole area to fix it!

This kinda stuff happens all the time in art, and you just have to problem solve a little to get back on track. It's ok! Accept the challenge, try another solution and move on! This mindset is REALLY important when it comes to your art, or it will destroy you!

Stay positive and you'll get there. Everything is fixable.

Want MORE dark-skinned face drawing projects? You might just LOVE my Whimsical Women of the World series over on YouTube. This also turned into an online art class at Awesome Art School, AND a book! Enjoy!!

If you're OBSESSED with fairies and fantasy art like me, you might just LOVE the Celtic Collective over at Awesome Art School that I run with my Scottish bestie, Lucy Brydon. Add your name to the waitlist to be notified when it's open for enrollment.

You might ALSO enjoy our podcast 1Scot,1 Not. We talk about everything under the sun to do with Scotland - whether it's historical, fantasy, whatever. Just a quick warning - we have a blast and are totally ourselves on the podcast, which means there is some drinking and swearing.

❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON
❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON
❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP
❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM

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blog

Alcohol Marker Face Shading Tips for Scaredy-Cats

What Paper is Best for Alcohol Marker Drawings?

Which Skin Tone Markers Are Best for Shading Faces?

How to Blend Alcohol Marker Streaking

Wanna Stay in the Loop?

Need More Resources?

Testing the most expensive alcohol markers, ARE THEY WORTH IT?!

Pastel Ohuhu Markers? YES, PLEASE! |Product Review, Demo & Face Shading Tutorial by Karen Campbell

SCARED of DARK Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading? Help is Here!

How to Draw a Fairy Face

How to Select Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading

What to Do If You Hate Your Project

How to Eliminate Streaking
and Blend With Alcohol Markers

Finishing Touches Make ALL the Difference

Karen Campbell

Archives

Categories

What Fans Are Saying

Contact ME

blog

Alcohol Marker Face Shading Tips for Scaredy-Cats

​What Paper is Best for Alcohol Marker Drawings?

​Which Skin Tone Markers Are Best for Shading Faces?

​How to Blend Alcohol Marker Streaking

​Wanna Stay in the Loop?

Need More Resources?​​

Testing the most expensive alcohol markers, ARE THEY WORTH IT?!

Pastel Ohuhu Markers? YES, PLEASE! |Product Review, Demo & Face Shading Tutorial by Karen Campbell

SCARED of DARK Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading? Help is Here!

​How to Draw a Fairy Face

​How to Select Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading​

​What to Do If You Hate Your Project

​How to Eliminate Streaking ​and Blend With Alcohol Markers

​Finishing Touches Make ALL the Difference

Karen Campbell

Archives

Categories

What Fans Are Saying

Contact ME

What Paper is Best for Alcohol Marker Drawings?

Which Skin Tone Markers Are Best for Shading Faces?

How to Blend Alcohol Marker Streaking

Wanna Stay in the Loop?

Need More Resources?

How to Draw a Fairy Face

How to Select Skin Tone Markers for Face Shading

What to Do If You Hate Your Project

How to Eliminate Streaking
and Blend With Alcohol Markers

Finishing Touches Make ALL the Difference