Tools of the trade

When I started drawing regularly, I used what was in hand: felt tip markers and colouring pencils. These can be found in any good supermarket worth its salt. Over here in Germany, the most popular brands are Stabilo and the more upmarket Faber Castell.

I tried colouring pencils first and I then soon switched to markers because I was looking for a bolder effect. Being colourblind, some shades are not as easy to distinguished as others so markers were the way to go as far as I was concerned.

I came to the point where I discovered that markers are excellent to colour smaller areas but not so much for bigger surfaces as they leave marks and stripes. I then started to look into all available options and through a friend of mine, I came across bigger, 'juicier' markers, like the Posca markers.

I ended up deciding against it because it had more to do with paint than with markers, so instead I turned towards Edding markers and so far, I haven't looked back. They have a really wide range of markers for all occasions (even markers for clothes!). I remember first hearing of them when we were building our house and my husband asked me to get some in the shop. I couldn't believe the wide range of choice there was but I finally found what I was looking for.

Maybe the slight downside of Edding markers is that it's difficult to find markers with a tip smaller than 1.5mm. I sometimes need to do very small drawings and I need to use a different brand of marker that is not always waterproof. Maybe I need to continue my search and go to bigger shops in bigger cities.

While I have found a good brand of markers, I still felt the need to continue to explore my options and I then started to look into painting. The first type of paint I wanted to try was watercolour and I completely fell in love with it! It can be tricky to use but it gives the most beautiful effect. The brand of watercolour paint I use is Lukas. This is the most widely available brand in my area and it's very easy to refill (I use pans instead of tubes).

After getting excited with watercolour, I kept getting the advice to try acrylics. So after a while, I caved in and I bought a basic set from Lukas. I have to say that even though I was looking forward to it, I was disappointed. It may be versatile but it's not as intuitive to use as water colours. After trying it out a few times, I still feel I haven't gone past the skill level of a 4 year old... So I'm not quite sure what to do now, if I should continue my (seemingly vain) efforts or if I should just give up and master watercolours instead. So far, I have been leaning towards the latter but only time will tell!...

Still, I'm having a lot of fun trying out new media. There are still a few that I haven't tried yet and I'm looking forward to trying them out when the time comes.