It's thirty degrees below zero outside, and the power keeps going off in my house o_O
Oh well, at least it's daytime and I still have light. And it's sunny, so the house isn't losing heat too fast. My laptop is charged and I have internet with my cellphone, but my Cintiqs won't work without electricity, so it seems like a good time to play around with some new markers I got for Christmas. I'd gotten some Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Watercolour Brush Pen markers in various shades of grey last fall, and I liked them so much that I ordered the full set of colors. I was using the greys to block out tones on manga pages. I like to print out small thumbnails of the finished pages and then color in the lights and darks until I'm happy with the way the pages are balanced. Of course, I could do this on the computer, but sometimes getting away from the screen and seeing the page in print helps me catch problems. And it gives my eyes a rest. Anyway, I got the full set of colors so that I could use the same process in my illustration work. I can print out several copies of the finished lineart and then use the markers to play around with color until I find a combination I'm happy with. The brush pens are great because you can get into really small areas with them. And they dispense a good amount of ink and the tips don't dry out easily. The only thing is, they're water based markers, so I'm not really sure how lightfast they are. So I'll still be reaching for my Copic markers for non-digital commissioned artwork. But for process work, the Kuretake markers are great. I also like that I can use them in my Hobonichi Techo planner. The planner uses super-thin Tomoe River paper, and Copic markers bleed right through, but the Kuretake markers don't. Even the darkest and brightest colors don't bleed. So overall, I'm really happy with these markers. Oh, now my power is back on, so it's back to work for me!