How to Color a Large Area with Alcohol Markers

Spun the Stars

“She spun the stars on her fingernails, 

But it never made her happy,

Cause she couldn't ever have me”

• Panic! At The Disco

Spun the Stars Before & After

When I first started drawing, I had ideas on top of ideas that just want to pour out. I didn’t know enough about the technicalities to know if I was doing a good or bad job executing it either. It’s that baby bird freedom of first flight. After years of practice, hard work, and focusing on the technique I kind of fell into the trap of making things look “perfect” and lost some of my uncapped imagination along the way. On the other hand, all of my imagination fountain doodles are comparatively terrible!

On this journey, from imagination to technique, I found my favorite medium: alcohol markers and ink. At first, I thought I poured out all of my ideas, but when I looked back through, I realized what I had was a pile of sketches, ideas, and encouragement ripe for the taking. A gift from high school Kailey to future Kailey. So past Kailey, thank you for channeling your antsy hands and desire to be anywhere but school into some brilliant ideas. I hope I can make you proud and transform them into magic.

Hot Tip: How to Color a Large Area with Alcohol Markers

Coloring large areas with alcohol markers without any streaking is quite an incredible feat. While I primarily use Prismacolor Brush Markers, I’ve tried with a couple of different brands to achieve the same, semi streaky result. I firmly believe it would take a wizard to get that smooth consistent color on a large scale. 

After much experimentation, I came up with a solution! Create a purposeful texture that adds to your artwork. Creating texture will add visual interest to your piece, help you highlight different areas, and give your work a signature that no one could replicate!

Before and After Spotlight

Night Sky by Kailey Lauren Kay 2014

Spun the Stars by Kailey Lauren Kay 2020

It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to transform this painting. My original piece started out with a simple idea: the night sky. It was actually a college assignment from an oil painting class. The task was to sit outside in the dark and paint what we saw. I knew I wanted to turn the new piece into something way more magical, but I couldn’t quite figure out how. It’s almost like there were a crippling amount of possibilities so I froze up like a deer in the headlights. 

After a couple of weeks of serious thought, I was driving home and the song “She Had the World” by Panic! At the Disco played on my shuffle. 

“She spun the stars on her fingernails, 

But it never made her happy

Cause she couldn't ever have me”

• Panic! At The Disco

Those lyrics, brought some inspiration that hit me like a ton of bricks! I had a full visual of how I wanted the piece to turn out. I ran upstairs and jotted it down in my sketchbook.

Hot Tip: Blending Colors in a Large Area with Alcohol Markers

I’ve found that one of the few things I don’t love about my Prismacolor Markers is that they always seem to be missing the bridge colors. For example, while there are dark, medium, and light purples they tend to be different shades of purple which makes for an ugly dark to light blend. Alternatively, I couldn’t find a blue light enough to represent a beautiful cloudy sky or help me make that blend from medium blue to white paper. So when I want to color something like a galaxy, the mission seemed quite impossible.

After another few hours of experimenting, practicing, and failing I came up with a solution! Really, it’s kind of the same solution as above. However, it works a bit differently. Instead of fighting the areas where the colors didn’t blend seamlessly, I chose to embrace them. I utilized texture to create a purposeful look that showcased the different colors of the markers, while still giving the general effect of the blend I was going for. 

The Process

I needed the perfect girl to bring my drawing to life. Luckily, my beautiful friend, Ana, volunteered to be my model. I rigged some colored light bulbs in clamp lights to a dog crate and a vacuum and we got the perfect shot after a few short minutes.

I like to use Photoshop to collage my reference photos together so I have a full representation of the piece before I start drawing. So I took the pictures from our shoot and just kept layering awesome things in until I felt the magic.

Due to the filling large spaces with Prismacolor Markers situation, I had to do some experimenting before I found the perfect texture to bring the piece to life. I took a deep breath, had a small panic moment, and went in. 

I went for the face first because it’s the hardest part, if I fucked it up I didn’t want to have to color everything else again. Guess what, to everyone’s surprise, mostly mine, I didn’t! I went for the background next because that was the next scariest part of the drawing.

Everything after that was smooth sailing. This was the first time I went for the hard scary stuff first, and it was so freeing! Once I got through it I felt invincible. If I nailed the portrait, I can totally do flowers and crystals. Easy peasy! 

I wanted the light and starts to be the main focus of the piece so after I colored everything, I topped it off with some Jelly Roll Highlights and the rest is history!

Hot Tip: How to Fake a Large Smooth Area with Alcohol Markers

Spun the Stars by Kailey Lauren Kay 2020 Prismacolor Marker and Ink

Sometimes, a textured background isn’t the perfect solution for your piece. If you have a really detailed subject matter, you might want it to stand out against a smooth background. In this case, I have one last secret tip for you. A smooth blend is totally possible in a smaller area. The key to that smooth blend is making sure the whole area stays wet until you’re done blending. Since alcohol is the base of the markers, they tend to dry way too quickly to execute a large space. 

If you add things into your large space, you can break the background up into smaller more manageable pieces. For example, if you’re coloring the sky, strategically place your clouds so it leaves smaller spaces open for the blue sky. 

Conclusion

This was definitely a drawing where I spent the whole time thinking “Why did I do this to myself?” It turned out to be my favorite drawing I’ve ever made. I even learned (was forced to figure out) new ways to fill large areas with alcohol markers. I’m so excited to share this piece with you today and I look forward to all of the possibilities this adventure has opened up for my future artworks! Sometimes, you have to just close your eyes and do the scary thing.

If you want to grab one for yourself, hop on over to my print shop!