My House in Prismacolor - by hand marker rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw an elevation colored with Prismacolor markers. I have had some experience with Prismacolor in the past, and it was not a good one. So I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. I realize other interviewees probably lied and were like - oh yeah, do that all the time. And needless to say I did not get the job. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will try some drawings again. I don't have hardly any, if any at all, hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

The year before I graduated a friend of mine gave me her set of markers because she had a better set at home. Granted, half of these were falling apart, but with a little patience I found the ones that still worked and had a fairly decent set of them. I had worked before with some, taking a class that worked with some for a couple of days. They had me buy four gray ones that were different clearness, and then work with them. This is where my true hatred of the things came in. When I went to do this project the other day, I learned some things.

 Things I learned:

1) Markers work much better when not at 20% occupancy. You see, the ones I had been using were semi clear, so if you wanted to make it darker, you drew on it again. Hence, if you didn't line up the marker lines, you ended up with weird streaks. However, full color markers don't have near this problem, and can be very lovely to work with.

2) Dried out markers don't work as well as fresh ones. I know, this should be obvious, and it is. But man, when I went to the store to buy one because the old one was way to dried up, it was an amazing difference. And at $6 a pop, I now remember when I never bought a complete set to start with.

3) Markers are cool. So, one of the cool things about when the markers dry on the page, they create a lot of character in the subtle color differences. I mean, yes, you see it as the same color, but there are just little pools of fun with slight variations.

4) I don't know if I like the new kind. Ah yes, I have the classic kind, with a super fine point, and sides that let me know which is the thick side verses the small side written on the package. I know that those fine points die a lot quicker, but I don't know if we need the thin side that you can get by turning the thick side on its side anyways.

I wanted to share with you my first try. Yep, that is my first try, ever, making a Prismacolor rendering. I think it is pretty good, and with more practice, and good tools, I think I could be pretty good.


Well, the marker version is my Father's favorite one so far, and I have a couple others done. You will get a chance to see those in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.