Tombow Brush Tip/ Dual tip Marker Fashion Illustrations

TOMBOW BRUSH TIP MARKER IS A CLASSIC

When we are drawing fashion design, what is our goal? Tombow brush tip markers bring a rich, organic constrasts and drama to the fashion sketch.

When we are aiming for mood, texture, expressiveness, and definition, we can use a bold, dark color: Holding our pen more vertically with a light touch, can achieve fine, irregular lines. As we apply pressure or hold our pen to expose the side of the brush, we can make bold, broad strokes, tapered strokes, or even chiselled chunks of tone, easily..

PROPERTIES OF WATER-BASED MARKERS

TOMBOW is a water-soluble brush tip marker, so you can’t paint over it when drawing fashion unless you’re planning on it running like a tie-dye effect. Also known as “wet-on-wet” or “bleed” technique.

Some people use a water-loaded paintbrush on purpose to create watercolor washes with their water based markers. But I wanted crisp bright lines in this fashion drawing session.

USING WITH DRY MEDIA FOR COLORED SILHOUETTES

THAT’S WHY i used a green pastel (Derwent Graphite Blocks) to smudge color onto the dress drawing below. – I knew I needed something dry and sheer to layer color over the Tombow marker. Dry color won’t cause a bleed. It did soften my lines though, due to the pastel’s opacity.

fashion drawing with Tombow brush tip markers , with Derwent colored graphite blocks on sketch paper, by Laura Volpintesta fashion illustration

ULTRA-EXPRESSIVE LINE QUALITY

The wide range of expressions that com out of a single brush pen can be just what you needed to emphasize layers and folds, pleats, gathers, ruffles, overlaps, or crisp shadows under hems.

Brush pens speak the very language of fashion with their ripply magic.

Drawing Fashion DesignS WITH BRUSH-TIP EFFECT

is what my Fashion Sketch Group (live on zoom weekly) and courses are ALL ABOUT!

This week in sketch group I decided to commit to using my brush tip marker for the entire two hours. That’s what I’ve decided to share with you today.

I usually love PITT pens brush tip markers in black waterproof ink for art that I can paint over without any bleeding of the ink into my paint color.

But because I knew I was working with dry media only this day (pastels), I decided to use a TOMBOW brush (“dual-tip”) without any worry. (GREEN DRESS ABOVE).

BELOW: Gouache silhouette first, then passed over with brush tip watercolor marker for crisp detailing and contrast holding line to give a “finished” and defined look.

Play

drawing fashion with Tombow How to draw cascades, flares for fashion design (circular fflare and circle skirts) by Laura Volpintesta

faber castell art markers , dual tip, water soluble, for fashion drawing

Not only that, but all decent quality water based art markers can be “colored” onto a palette into color swatches, mixed to create the exact color you need, and then applied to paper with a wet paintbrush!

I love this transparent watercolor technique and will share another day.

You can shop around and experiment! You don’t always need to have the most expensive product in order to create beautiful, sensitive art.

The soft touch marker sketch effect for fashion

One way to get a soft effect with brush tip markers is to NOT use marker paper.

Porous sketch and watercolor papers will absorb ink quickly like a sponge, and your marker tip won’t be able to keep up the speed of flow!

THIS CAN LEND AN ATTRACTIVE DRY, SCRATCHY QUALITY TO YOUR SKETCH as you can see in parts of the fashion illustration and background below. Otherwise, use marker paper to keep a crisp, clean, wet flow to your markers.

Finally, an older marker will start to have a drier behavior. When it reaches this point, label it so that you can use it for this purpose.

Now as I look at the fashion portrait below, I’m tempted to take a wet brush and add some smokey soft edges to the illustration.

BUT I CANNOT because I used marker paper and it will wrinkle up like CRAZY if I wet it because it’s so thin.

Tombow brush tip marker on brsitol,, sketch of a face with fashion

GOUACHE WASH process (BELOW)

In contrast, for the sketch below I used sketch paper for the study, and a black Tombow marker.

I laid in the color and pattern using gouache afterward, but did this with some care. If I just blindly swabbed my brush all over the brush pen drawing, the folds, gathers and seams that I had carefully drawn may have lost too much of their definition in the bleed.

DEPTH AND FLOW

I took advantage of that capability to create deep shadow in the underarm area. Water bled and softened the back to create depth and shadows organically.

LEAVING WHITE AREAS

If you peek closely, you will definietly see white areas next to many of the black lines. that was me avoiding the lines enough to keep them crisp and clean.

I’m pretty sure I kept most of my strokes parallel to my lines so I wouldn’t “scrub” them with my brush tip.

This is not required, but it’s always an available option in your fashion illustration.

ADDING SPLOTCHES AND STROKES WITH WATER

Following your instinct and emotion, building mood in your fashion drawing or looking for how to establish clarity of information about the garment, “JUST ADD WATER.”

fashion studies, using Tombow brush tip water soluble /watercolor marker and a wash of water.

Above, I used regular vellum sketchbook paper.

***PRO TIP: USE MARKER PAPER for your brush tip marker fashion drawings

I used two kinds of marker paper during today’s session of Fashion Sketch Group: both were bright white and sheer.

PALE SOFT COLORS FOR A SLOW BUILD TECHNIQUE

No matter what I’m working with, when sketching I ALWAYS have several of the softest, lightest beige-y Tombow markers in my kit.

I often build my fashion drawings up off of a super-soft, whispery, almost invisible marker (I also do this with a super soft pencil pressure, or watered down gouache).

THIS GIVES ME THE FREEDOM to sketch almost invisibly, and then build up definition and commitment onto the base frame using darker marker, or even just pencil or pen, over the soft base.

THIS GIVES ME THE ABILITY to self-correct along the way, and the PROCESS on my page adds to the aesthetic and moodQ

Strathmore “smooth” 100 percent COTTON 500 marker paper **WHICH THEY HAVE DISCONTINUTED** was my favorite paper ever. They have replaced it with their 400 series marker “layout” paper, which is sheer and thin but is not made from cotton.

They have also released a “marker paper” that is thick and smooth, like a cardstock.

NOTICE WHAT YOU FEEL IN YOUR OWN BODY

Fashion drawing classes are so meditative, an excellent way to build your connection to your intuition and somatic awareness.

As you look at these sketches, you can feel the stark difference between how soft, sheer lines on paper feel in your own body VERSUS a black, bold brush, on white paper.

IMAGINE how it FEELS to actually be using these tools! This is why drawing sessions are priceless experiences full of feeling, discovery, where we connect with our own voice and feeling nature.

Even though this marker paper said “smooth” on the package, it actually had a gorgeous texture to it that felt sensitive and “deep” like a fine organic silk organza! In truth, it was COTTON from the discontinued Strathmore 500 pad.

The other paper I used today was Canson’s marker paper which was MUCH smoother and more opaque bright-white.

Personally, I love myself a little texture. Especially because fashion illustration is about FABRICS which are textural!

COTTON PAPERS ARE AMAZING

I find that the Strathmore and other cotton marker layout papers (Bienfang used to make one) I have used are MUCH RICHER quality-feeliing. Shopping for papers… is like shopping for fabrics! The raw materials you use DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

INDULGE YOURSELF IF YOU CAN

because the paper itself evokes an emotion and well…. quality, period!

You want your fashion design drawing to communicate quality, right???

Use materials that inspire you.

ULTRA LIGHT STROKES

AS bold as the brush tip is, one of my favorite ways to begin a Tombow fashion illustration like the one in dark grey below is to (peek closely or zoom in) begin my sketch with a super-pale, soft washed out color Tombow (ruffled dress ABOVE).

Beige is one of my favorite colors for “undersketching”- mapping out my drawing in a super light color before making decisive choices and lines wtih my brush tip pen. Below, can you see how I mapped out my sketch in beige before finalizing with the dark grey brush tip pen?

brusht tip marker fashion drawing Laura Volpintesta

ABOVE, By the way, just for fun I used a dark grey brush pen marker instead of a black one.

If you focus in on the hair, for example, you can see how LAYERING strokes over strokes adds saturation to the color. Most of the brush pen fashion sketches on this page make evident the irregular, organic nature of wet, layered pigments making uneven line, uneven tone, the delicious unpredictability and rich quality that makes us feel alive.

NOTICE how the brush pen can express everything from laying down large areas of deep shadow and graphic shapes, to framing the page composition and then for fine lines like gathers, polka dots, ruffles, and cuffs! It’s super for sharpening crisp shadows that make your fashion design drawings POP.

USING BRUSH TIP MARKERS WITH COLORED PENCILS

Here I added some POP with colored pencils for the skin, and for the hair accessory and makeup. Everything else is Grey brush tip art marker, or black (I used on the bow, I think!).

Why do I even use marker paper?

It lets your markers glide without skipping or drying up.

Marker paper isn’t as porous as other papers and resists over-absorption and bleed-through which is infinitely more of a problem with design/art markers based with alcohol.

Like Sharpie (which i love in various thicknesses for sketching flats, along with Micron pens), chemical markers can pass straight through other papers.

A RANGE OF GREYS

FOLLOW YOUR NOSE

Tombow brush pen (watercolor, watersoluble) and Pitt (indelible ink) don’t bleed through paper much anyway, thankfully, and they are fume free.

DEEP SHADOWS AND CREASES

Below I used colored pencils and the graphite blocks for dusty, powdery, dry, sheer color application.

Look how much fashion design information is said with the brush pen: the perforations of lace trim, the zipper and neckline construction seams, the shine of the hair.

Darts, deep box pleats, and the chunky shadows that fall under ruffles, chins, hems, cuffs- ANYTHING THAT PROTRUDES FROM THE BODY.

drawing fashion with Tombow BRUSH tip markes PENS Laura Volpintesta

DRY PIGMENT OVERLAYS

Finally, from this week’s session, another go on this dress with a different approach. I layered sheer pastels over the brush tip marker to add some of the color of the outfit. I added transparency overlays of color which emphasized the contrast color of the trim in the design concept.

What can you do?

Get a generous brush tip marker like a Tombow, and experiment drawing fashion with it.

How does it sketch with a light touch on the tip, or a bold stroke in the side of the tip- and everything in- between! A wide wide range of dynamics from fine and thin to loud and dark.

Tell dynamic stories about fashion, beauty, style, culture, and design.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Love, Laura