Lily Pad's first color challenge with ProMarkers by Letraset

 Does the sight of markers make you happy? I'm pretty sure you would bet that I get pretty excited at the sight of something like this. I love everything about markers, the feel, the subtle smell & the colors. 

One day I received an email from  ProMarkers by Letraset. They wanted to know if I was willing to test their markers and see if I like working with them. You can imagine that I didn't have to think twice about that and couldn't wait for them to show up at my door. Once they did this is how decided to display my pretty rainbow of happiness.

Each pen/marker is double-ended, with a broad chisel nib for large area fills and a fine bullet tip for more detailed work. ProMarkers contain alcohol based inks and come in a range of 92 colours

Before we get started you might be wondering on how these compare to some of the other brands. I do love they way they blend & the real difference for me is in the tip & the value. I have discovered in some of my classes that the brush tip on Copics isn't for everyone. I really like the fine bullet tip on the ProMarkers especially for small detail work like you see in my card below.  If you were to purchase a few I recommend you start with a 5 pack to see how they work for you. Their website & blog has loads of information, tutorials and products.....with that said,

YOU CAN  WIN SOME OF THESE PROMARKERS AT LILY PAD's blog.

Welcome to "Kathy's Color Throw Down" today at the Lily Pad blog.  I hope you have been keeping up with all of their fun posts. Yesterday they showed you how to rescue an ugly spice rack into a snazzy shelf for your craft room wall. Were you able to pick out my baby photo in this post here?? I would love to hear what your guess is.


Take a closer look at the white areas on some of the petals. Can you see the ultra fine flower soft?


The center purple frame was cut from some wood paper and stained with distress ink then I spritzed it with some pearl spray.


HERE SOME TIPS FOR ADDING COLOR:

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ADD AN UNLIKELY COLOR: I  added the blue markers to the green leaves and some BLUE to the green background. They blended so nicely with the markers leaving no "lines"

LEAVE SOME WHITE SPACES IN  YOUR COLORING for accents as you can see on some of the petals in the flowers.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ADD HIGHLIGHTS WITH A DIFFERENT MEDIUM for example, colored pencils to add some more highlights if you need a different color that you don't have.

The only negative I found is that the numbers are soo small on these markers. I easily solved this problem by writing the number larger on each marker for reference & fast blending.

Stamp your image on white paper with Memento tuxedo black ink.

Fill in entire background with a light green marker.

Use a darker green marker to shade in some areas.

Find  an acrylic block or a smooth surface to add an even darker shade of green. Sometimes I'll use some plastic packaging or a plastic lid. (sorry for all the different colors on my block.)

Use your smooth surface to scribble on some darker color. Take the lighter color marker to pick up the darker color (from your block) with the lighter color. You are using the bullet tip as a "paint brush"
Once the darker color is the the tip of the nib on the lighter color marker... Lay the color down on your image to highlight more areas in your background.

Now it's time to take a look at your image and ask yourself if you are satisfied or if with your shading or  would you like to continue to add more layers of color. On this particular image I decided to add some blue to the green leaves & in a few spots in the background.

Once I am satisfied with my coloring I always outline all of my images with a fine tip black marker. I find the outlining really makes any image pop.I encourage you to give it a try and you will see what I am talking about.

I decided to stamp another one of the center flowers. I cut out two of them & trimmed one flower with less petals for a different look.

On the photograph  of my card you will notice that I ended up adding ultra fine flower soft to the center of the flowers. I like to add some glossy accents to the image then sprinkle with a mix of orange & brown flower soft. I also added some of the mix to the stamens of the flowers. I hope you found some of these tips useful and please email me if you run into any snags or have any questions. I hope you will have some fun with any of these colors in the challenge and will link your cards up to the Lily Pad blog. There still is time to enter the challenge at the Penny Black blog here. Angela is creating some real magic with her ATC's. I hope you might have time to stop by Angela's blog because she is a true artist and you will be inspired!

I am grateful that you have visited me today. Have a happy weekend. Hugs, Kathy

SUPPLIES: (click on the photos for more information)