Art With Alcohol Markers

 

One day I watched a video where a gifted artist sketched a building and used alcohol markers to colour the sketch in. There was no messing around with water and paints and the paper did not buckle because no water was used. I thought that it would be wonderful if I could do the same.

I proceeded to buy some alcohol markers to experiment with. That was where I learned that it was much harder than I thought. For one thing I found it difficult to avoid making marks when I coloured in with my new markers without creating lines when I moved them back and forth on the paper. It looked aweful.

Then I also saw that my marker ink was far too bright on the paper. Another thing that I disliked was that ther ink bled right through the paper to the other side. All my efforts looked far worse than my watercolour paintings. I hated them.

To find the right markers and paper became an obsession but no matter what I bought I could not get satisfaction. I was about to give up when I recently decided to just try something to see if it would work. Somehow, Things started looking better and my artwork looked much better than all my previous efforts. I started to smile and say to myself, "Now that looks far better than all my previous efforts, well done!"

At the top of the page is my little house on a hill. It is so far my best piece of art created with alcohol markers. Now I have some satisfaction that I did not fail this time. I can build on what I have accomplished. 

Let me encourage anyone who tries very hard in the beginning and fails time and time again. Use your failures as stepping stones to your ultimate success. It is worth it in the long run. It is persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success - perseverance.

When you follow this example, you learn what I did with my watercolour paintings. They usually looked ugly near the end. But when I persevered and carefully looked at where I could add some small adjustments or enhancements, they started coming to life and shone, leaving me proud that I had persisted.

That is, unfortunately, where we usually fail. We often choose the easy way out not realizing that something good always requires extra effort. The people who make it look easy have many failures and lots of learning under their belt.