Marker Art Tips For Coloring Comic Characters
I would be lying if I said my interest in Black Widow wasn't renewed by Scarlett Johansson and her many assets but I do think she did a phenomenal job in Iron-Man 2, Captain America The Winter Soldier and the Avengers films. Hey don't judge me, inspiration doesn't choose where it comes from, what matters is that it keeps you motivated and creating. Right?!
Ok, if you're new to comics or just not familiar with Black Widow (a.k.a Natasha Romanoff), here's the 4-1-1. Widow is another of (Marvel Comics) Stan Lee's creations. She was originally a Russian spy and an antagonist of Iron Man. She later defects to the United States partly due to a romance with another criminal turned hero Hawkeye. Once defected Widow does a stint as a freelance agent of S.H.I.E.L.D as well as co-stars in quite a few issues with Daredevil and eventually joins the Avengers.
“As a side note, tell me it wouldn’t be awesome if Black Widow made an appearance in Netflix’ Daredevil series.”
Yeah, I don’t normally outline.
Now that you're more familiar with Black Widow let’s talk Art. As you might already know I'm a marker artist but unlike most guys or gals who work in this medium I don't usually ink or outline my sketches before the coloring phase.
In my opinion it can become a crutch for defining form instead of using light and color to flesh things out.
As a result I've adopted the use of a non-photo blue or red pencil to sketch with for any art which will be rendered in marker.
This choice is mostly due to the way ink reacts with graphite. Coloring with markers directly over graphite tend to smear and stain the marker nibs pretty bad. So beware you've been warned.
Always light to dark.
Once I'm ready to render I tend to work light to dark. There are a few reasons for this.
For one, most ink is unforgiving and it's easier to correct a lighter color than it is to fix a dark one.
Second, building layers to create depth in my renders is a lot more fluid from light to dark.
Lastly if you have a light area such as skin next to dark colors like Widow's suit it becomes pretty easy for those existing dark colors to smear into the skin by accident if you rendered the dark colors first.
Highlights are my favorite.
The cherry on top for most of my works is the highlights. Once I'm satisfied with my colors I use a white paint marker to add highlights such as the shine in Widow's suit or her wind swept stray hairs.
I also use white paint markers for adding rim lights to further enhance shapes.
Hopefully you found these few tips useful but feel free to ask additional questions below. Now go on and make some wonderful marker art you crazy kids.
Be sure to leave a comment with you Instagram account so I can check out your work.
Your neighborhood marker slinger,
Ivan Castro
