Some of my drawings coloured with Letraset Promarkers

Homemade blender solution

Watercolour pencil blended with homemade blender solution

I made blender solution to get a smoother blend when using watercolour pencils. It's made from two parts of glycerin to one of water with half a teaspoonful of liquid gum arabic. Used with turned watercolour pencils the effect is a bit similar to using pigment markers. I thought it was too slippery for my liking and gave a slightly streaky effect so I thinned it down with more water,  settling on a three to one ratio. I suppose you should use distilled water but I just used tap water which may shorten the shelf life. Glycerin is quite viscous and sticky so it takes ages to dry, the gum arabic helps I think. Some people add a touch of isopropyl alcohol  (rubbing alcohol) to the mixture but it's hard to find here and unless you want it for other (cleaning) purposes probably not worth investing in, that is unless you're a Copic, Spectrum Noir, Promarker or other alcohol based marker user. But that's for another day. 

The photos demonstrate the 2:1 solution before I added the extra water used with Daler Rowley watercolour pencils. From looking at various blogs and YouTube videos I think the streaky effect looks similar to the new Winsor and Newton pigment markers but I haven't used them myself so can't do a direct comparison. Actually the look of pigment markers isn't to my taste so I won't be investing in any. I've also used the solution with my Akashiya Sai and Clean Colour Real Brush pens and although I haven't tried would expect it to blend my Aquamarkers just as well. I only have a couple of individual watercolours and it blends those too, although it isn't really necessary with watercolours.

I can't take credit for the recipe - it's my adaptation of the various suggestions on YouTube. I've loaded a water brush with the solution though it works equally well with a paintbrush. When my Aquamarker blender runs out I plan on refilling it with my homemade solution either by taking out the chisel nib and dropping it in with an eye dropper or standing the pen in a mug of the solution and letting the chisel end soak up some of the liquid. 

Sorry about the quality of the photos, I took them late in the evening without flash. 

Getting Started

So far the collection includes Letraset Promarkers, Flexmarkers and Aquamarkers  But then there's the watercolour pencils, the Akashiya Sai and Kuretake Clean  Colour Brush pens and a few random oddments. Maybe it's time to share my thoughts on all these....