Watercolor Pencils, ZIG Markers, Ranger Markers, Spectrum Aqua Markers... - Part II

Yesterday we talked a little about Watercolor Pencils, the Kurateke ZIG Real Brush Markers and the Gansai Tambi paints, which all are great tools to work with. Today we will look at two more options to archive a watercolor effect.

Ranger Distress Marker:

Close to My Heart offers like many other companies (Copic, SU,...) alcohol based markers which work completely different than the watercolor markers. The Ranger Markers are based on their distress inks and therefor can be blended with water. 

You can also use them directly for coloring on your stamps. Stamp you image with the markers and use a lightly wet brush to blend the image. 

The best paper for these markers is the distress watercolor paper from ranger, but you might get good results with other watercolor papers as well.
Also available from different retailers.




Spectrum Aqua Markers:

Another great set of watercolor markers are the Spectrum Aqua markers. They come in four different sets, each containing 12 different shades of color mixes. They have a fine tip on one side and a brush tip on the other side. Again great coloring tool that comes with their own watercolor paper. So make sure if you get these pens to get the paper with it.



So which pens/ paints or markers are the best and how do I know what papers to use with them? 

All pens, markers and the paints are great tools. Each one is perfect for certain projects depending on what you like to do, how good you are with the watercolor technique and what you would love to archive with you project.

My thoughts on all of these are the following....If you are just a beginner or if you don't like to invest too much money in markers etc, then go with the watercolor pencils. You will have them for a long time and they work great on many different papers!

If you like to test the paints, try the new Close to My Heart watercolor paints and see how they will work for you. They are not expensive and might give you a good idea if you like pencils or paint the best.

If you rather would try markers, well all three, the ZIG, the Ranger and the Aqua markers are great. Important here, get the right paper!!!

Or save yourself some time and money and sign up for one of my watercolor technique classes. Find out what is so great about watercolors and how they work and you can test all these techniques to find the one that works for you. 

We will go over the individual pencils, paints and markers and how they react on papers like the once you see on the right. Also which ink to use best to stamp your images...
You will get to try all of them and we will work on a few projects for you to take home...Let me know if you are interested and we set up a date!