Letraset Pro Markers: An upaid unsolicited review

Okay...I'll start this out with a simple statement. I LOVE these markers. I bought mine on Amazon.com when I was looking for a cheaper alternative to the much beloved copic markers. No...these are NOT exactly like copic markers. I couldn't really tell you the difference because I'm not schooled in such things... but I know copics are freakin' expensive! At over $3 a marker I can't add them to my stash except for a few at a time..on a whim..when I feel splurgish.

So, the Letraset Pro Markers came in a pack of 12 for just over $24. I got two sets, a pastel set and a "Vivid" set and I love them both. I played with them when I first got them, laying down color, then laying another color down over the top of the first. They blend gently together using the blending pen and to some small extent, they are water soluable if you work quickly and immediately after putting the color down. I've found that over paint they smush around nicely with your finger but dry firmly in place. They go over acrylic paint fairly easily with little clogging and they show up fairly well.

Blending and overlaying

The colors are beautiful, bright and vivid as you can see. This was a page just playing around as I watched the Hatfields and McCoys on History. You can see how nicely the colors blend. 

I've bought some of the aqua markers from the same company but I have yet to really try them out. I am definately wanting to get some more sets of these Letraset Pros, and for the price, I can! 

Finding a style

I'm sure people look at my work and think "oh, I can see Tamara Laporte or Suzi Blu in that..." and the truth is, you can. That's because I took classes from both Tam and from Suzi. I loved them, they both opened up my eyes to what I COULD do and set my muse free to start creating my own BHGs (Big headed girls). But have I found my own style?

In some ways, I have. I don't use the techniques of either Tam or Suzi religiously, rather I do a combination of both with a bit of something of my own. I don't use just pencil, just water color. You might find some marker in my work, some acrylic paint, some ink, some charcoal....it depends on what I grab and how I'm liking the piece. I'm noticing a "look" that is mine also, a gesturing, a look to the eyes, a shape of the mouth...a way of laying out back grounds.

It's hard to admire artists so much and yet not look like them. It's hard to find a place that is your own when your inspiration and technique were learned from others. I'm hoping that I'm starting to develop my own "groove" and my own niche. There are many other classes that I would LOVE to take...Jane Davenport for instance. But for now, I'm trying to work on my own "voice", seeing if I can get it to speak louder and bury the layers of the "learned" beneath it.

Pain and Paint

Melancholia

There is a touch of sadness that always seems to come out in my art girls. A bit of loneliness, melancholy or just outright heartache. I don't always set out from a place of "pain" to paint, but often bits of pain leak out from my fingers, seeping from my soul to the page in a way I never intend or imagine when I first start to sketch or paint.

Spark

I make no secret that I struggle with depression. It's been an ongoing battle for me since at least 1996, probably much earlier. I fight anxiety and a deep seated pain that lurks always just behind my eyes, rooted in my heart. I can't pull it out, I can't get rid of it. I can only go along for the ride and see where it takes me. So far, art has been a surprising ingredient in this battle. I've read many times that genius breeds madness. But I wonder if it's not the other way around? Not that I'm a genius...far from it more likely. But there is a certain madness to some of the worlds  most creative minds that is undeniable. 

Everlasting

We are, in part, creatures of our environment, but there are also larger forces at work around us. I read once that Shamans of ancient tribes often struggled with great pain and illness before coming to their calling as great healers and magicians. I wonder if there is something to that, if there is a calling to suffer in order to strengthen what is inside? Is it fate that depression lurks inside me, or is it simply bad genes? The luck of the DNA draw? 

Whatever it is, it is definitely a part of what makes me. It is so deeply rooted inside of me that even though on most days I am well medicated and functional, it always looms and lurks, crafting my decisions and feeding my creative urges.