Notes from one Arist’s Journey | Urban Sketch with Staedtler pigment pens

Notes from one Arist’s Journey | Urban Sketch with Staedtler pigment pens

by | Jun 8, 2025 | Watercolor Pens/Inks

Notes from an art journey? Wuzzat? Well, it’s different for every person. It’ll be dependent on your goals….is your art just for you and your mental or spiritual health? Recovering from an illness in your body and needing something to get you moving? Relaxing after a long day at work? Trying to make a living?

An art journey is the path an artist takes as they learn and grow and develop. It may or may not result in finding your “style” or inventing something so new and great that you make a million bucks with no effort. It may or may not get you to the place you’d like to be with your art – because it’s a journey. It’s got a progression to it, and as far as I know, we never fully arrive. Because the goal posts are always moving further forward.

In the video I’ll talk a little about my own journey. It’s been rocky of late, not because I’m not learning and growing my skills, but because being an artist in a rough economy is difficult. People are not opening pockets for anything beyond necessities until we get a sense of where prices are headed. I totally get that! But it still makes my artist life a challenge, just not one that’ll defeat me. 🙂

In today’s project I’ll show you some of the steps in creating an urban sketch – well maybe more than a sketch, but it still has that vibe! Pen and ink first, using Staedtler’s pigment pens to draw with, then the pigment brush markers.

Note, I’m not paid for this post or any other. Staedtler IS offering up a prize for one of YOU though, and they’ll share my work, that’s all I get out of this. Except for the fun of making the art!

Tutorial: Art Journey Notes | Urban Sketch with Staedtler pigment pens 

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Paper

  1. Baohong Master’s Choice Artist Watercolor Blocks 

Drawing pens

  1. Staedtler Mars Pigment Arts Black pigment liner pens BLICK   AMZ   JACKSONS

Color medium 

  1. Staedtler Pigment Brush pens (60) 
  2. Prize pens: Staedtler Pigment Brush pens (36): BLICK  AMZ  JACKSONS

An inspiring “ad” video

I wish more ads were inspiring like this! Watch below — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there for Staedtler.

These pigment markers

I’ve created a number of projects with them, and they’re fun! They dry permanently so you can color over them once dry without making mud. But if you want the colors to blend, the blending liquid reactivates it! 

These pens make strong, vibrant art, or also can create some fine washy appearances too, depending on how much marker you apply, when you do so, and how much water you use. Pretty cool to get so much out of one product. 

Greens with browns

In my previous video, I talked about adding some browns to alcohol marker or watercolor – the same applies to any medium because it’s all color theory! Once you start to get a handle on what color can adjust another color, it becomes easy to make a drawing with colors that don’t exist on their own.

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The architectural elements

Creating shadows is what really makes buildings sing – which means you want to do your sketching when the sun is not directly overhead. Shadows are far more interesting when at an angle to your subject! Don’t forget to make plants in the shade a little duller and bluer than those in the sunshine.

Shadows on roads can REALLY make a drawing come alive! Adding the plants on the bottom right as well as a second unseen pole…..those made me so happy!

 

Giveaway

Staedtler is giving away a 36 marker set and a bottle of liquid blender! Go comment on YouTube under the video by Weds night so I can draw winners and get the video posted by Thursday night! 

Interested in one of these sketches?

Maybe you know someone in St Augustine who needs this drawing. Or an LA resident who loves the location of the piece I drew at NAMTA! Tap on either pic to shop for it in the store.

How to create wild & realistic greens in your nature art

How to create wild & realistic greens in your nature art

by | Jun 7, 2025 | Color Studies, Copic/Alcohol Marker Beginner

It seems no matter how many greens are in any medium, it’s never enough – so how do we create wild and realistic greens that we need? 

In something like watercolor you may be familiar with color mixing in a palette, dropping one color into another until it looks right. Or adding a little kick to some marker coloring with a dollop of another color. But how do we strategically make the kinds of rich, realistic greens that Mother Nature serves up?

Tutorial: How to create wild & realistic greens in your nature art 

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Paper

  1. Neenah Solar White 12″ x 18″ (bought at Kelly Paper)

Markers and pens

  1. Copic Sketch markers BLICK  JACKSONS 
  2. Copic Multiliner BLICK  AMZ  JACKSONS
  3. Uniball Signo White Gel Pen UM153 BLICK   AMZ    JACKSONS

Petioles

The petioles or stems are a yellow green, but not a bright one – and though I’ve drawn plenty of stems with these colors, it became obvious those were far too bright to be realistic! A coat of YG61, a very tan-type-of-green dulled it down just perfectly.

Leaf blade, ball of achenes 

The blade was drawn with many many layers for both texture and color – same with the seed pod – made up of many achenes (akeens). For the lighter details on the latter, I used a gel pen, let it dry, then colored over it to try to tint the white lines with a dark green color so it would dull it down.

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Finishing details

A little ladybug had been sitting on the leaf when I went out to the yard, but I wasn’t smart enough to snap a pic or video first – darn! But a little googling let me add a tiny friend.

Shop for the Original, Prints and more

The original drawing is for sale here. Care for a print to hang on your wall in the mud room? Check prints out here – or a pillow, or a bag….lots of options!

Can we CROWDSOURCE color?

Can we CROWDSOURCE color?

by | Jun 3, 2025 | Featured, Fine Art & Sketching

My crazy schedule continues right now….I was going to do some coloring today, but I’m burnt out at both ends! I decided to do something a little different – and went for a walk. ha! That saw me return with a handful of leaves that had looked different outside while on trees, in sunshine, and in shade. Instead, in the studio…they looked mostly the same color!

But honestly they aren’t the same when you look close. Textures are very different. Veination. Margins. (Yes I’ve learned what to call leafy things!) 

So I gave my marker fingers a little break and traced the leaves, added some veins….and created a little crowdsourcing project for us!

Tutorial: Can we CROWDSOURCE color?

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Copic Sketchbook 9×12

Copic Multiliner

Class and downloadable

Crowdsource with me!

Go pick up the printable – you’ll get the photo too, so you can try out some color combinations to see how close you can get! It’s not a big hurry – later in summer I’ll recap the submissions that come in.

When you figure out some colors, if they’re Copic or Olo I can replicate them for that video; if it’s Ohuhu I can borrow this set of pens again. But if it’s another brand, and you want to send me a physical swatch of your color mix, that’d be awesome so we can compare apples to apples. 🙂

Get the printable

Preregistration discount

Don’t miss the $10 off this week – once class begins Friday the price goes up!

If you’ve got markers and paper, that’s about all you’ll need. You can make a sketchbook like I’m doing with just things like a bone folder and scotch tape! Or cut the pictures down to make cards with them. 🙂

 

Treemendous Sketches

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For Ohuhu Hex Chart customers

I’m working my tired fingers to the bone – staying up til 3am clicking away to add the chart back to everyone’s account. (And trying not to swear out loud at the shop platform for removing it!) I appreciate your patience – you’re the best!!

Alcohol marker nature journaling | Copic & Ohuhu

Alcohol marker nature journaling | Copic & Ohuhu

by | May 31, 2025 | Copic/Alcohol Marker Intermediate

I’m in overwhelm mode – so this post is the bare minimum! The video has the info, links are below that 🙂

Video: Alcohol marker nature journaling | Copic & Ohuhu

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Class

Treemendous Sketches preregistration

Printables

  1. Leaf Circle Printable
  2. Free Color Mixing Sheet

Hex charts

  1. Ohuhu hex chart both 320 and 363
  2. Copic/Ohuhu combo hex chart 

Stippling paper videos

  1. b&w
  2. color

Treemendous Sketches class

Sign up now for a nice big discount through Thursday! Class opens Friday. Tap the image for more info.

Color Mixing Sheet

Try out your own color combos – see how they layer! Tap the image for more info.

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Leaf Circle

New printable alert! Tap the image to go purchase 🙂

Free gifts & news for my Ohuhu artist friends

Free gifts & news for my Ohuhu artist friends

by | May 27, 2025 | Copic/Alcohol Marker Beginner

Today’s post comes at you with a story – and a big THANK YOU!

 

If you’ve followed along here for the last few years, you might know while I love my alcohol markers, I don’t love them all. And if I don’t like something very much then I give it to someone who will totally love it. When I tried the 320 set of Ohuhu markers I wasn’t super pleased; I know some think they’re awesome and for your projects they may well be. But I gave mine to a school after making the original hex chart as a service to so many of you who I know use the pens.

Over the ensuing years I’ve gotten so many questions about why I wouldn’t add the other new colors to it – part of it was just on principle, if a manufacturer makes more colors but embeds them in big sets that force me to buy multiples of a color…well I’m just not going to play that game. Yes Ohuhu did make their pens available by singles, finally, but the ones to fill in the set just don’t ever seem to be in stock. Again, very annoying if they deliberately left those pens out of the big set, have more in stock more often.   

 

Big ups to Reddit maven MysticSparkleWings*

Thanks to MSW’s posts, I started getting my head wrapped around what made up the “full” Honolulu collection, how it differs from the Oahu collection, and why everyone was seemingly mad at what they got when buying the Japan set on eBay….more of all that coming up in the video and the rest of the post below that.

*MysticSparkleWings isn’t on Reddit anymore, though posts remain; you can find them on many sites like Facebook, Deviant Art etc.

In addition to the many other sets you’d have to get, for me the big bugaboo was the Japan set. There’s ONE set sold in ONE country that’s “included” in the full range of Honolulu (which are the brush/chisel version, and the bullet/chisel use some of the same color numbers but are NOT the same color. Yes more frustration!)…..and no one else can get it. Well at least not without jumping through the hoops of hoping someone on eBay will sell one for a decent price.

At the time of this writing there are some there, but they appear to me to be the NEW set. Because there’s still an only-sold-in-Japan set, but it no longer has 19 unique colors. You may eventually find someone in Japan selling theirs, who knows – but they’ll get more expensive over time. Maybe you can buy a plane ticket that’ll be cheaper! 🙂 (see the shopping list later in this post for what to buy and where to complete your own collection.)

Anyway – if I revamped the Ohuhu chart to have the 320, the three singles that are in sets of 36, and the skintone set, I’d have to face the decision: do I try to figure out what’s in that Japan set? Lots of people complaining about me on Reddit or emailing me about expanding the chart wanted the 363, not just the 344. Whatever I did would be either disappointing to everyone – or hugely expensive for me.

Then a package arrived.

It’s not anything I ordered. (I already did my pre-tariff shopping and nothing’s showing up now.) What was this? Markers? It came via Amazon, with a note from a patron who wanted to gift this to me. The 36 skintone set! 

 

 

 

Then was another dilemma. The original 320 set was gone years ago to a school. Last year after whining to a friend about an Ohuhu/Copic combo hex chart, she decided to buy the 320 set to try it. And forced me to let her lend it to me. HA! (Yes a double hex chart is insanely difficult so I blamed her for weeks for sleeplessness!)

I contacted her to see if she’d re-lend them to me, so I could at least fit the unique colors from the 36 set into the existing chart. And they showed up on my porch.

 

Thank yous!

I offer giant thank yous to Chelle for sending the skintone set – you just blessed the entire coloring community. And you got my message about sending you a little something something. 🙂

And also thanks to Tammy for dropping off her 320 set! You are the BEST. Even if you’re silly enough to buy markers to save me money. 

Video: Free gifts & news for my Ohuhu artist friends

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Hex Charts

If you have yet to purchase these – here are links! Just tap on the picture. The first is the 320 AND 363 versions of the Ohuhu chart, the second is the chart that has both the 320 Ohuhu and 358 Copics on one chart. That one won’t be updated because I nearly went STIRCRAZY making it once. 🙂 

 

Ohuhu Hex Chart (both 320 and 363) 

 

Ohuhu 320/Copic 358 Combo chart

That pesky Japan set

Below is the graphic from the Japan site….and I’m not so sure I trus these little hearts to tell me what the colors are. Bikerprince posted the swatch page – I did my best to find at least a rough Copic match so I could work on flowing them into the hex chart.

If you have the original Japan set with the unique colors in it, please download this PDF, and follow the instructions – the community thanks you for your help in plussing up the correct placement of those colors!

Download the PDF

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Collect the whole 363 set

Collect the entire 360 set by shopping this way:

  1. Start with the Ohuhu Honolulu 320 Set  Ohuhu  Amazon
  2. Add 3 Honlolulu Singles at Ohuhu:
  3. Skintone 36 set to get the 21 colors  Ohuhu   Amazon
  4. Find a way to get that original Japan/Sanrio set – but be careful! You may get the “newer” set that only has the R090 and E020 in it.

Four chances to WIN

Usually I scribble all over my working charts – arrows, circles, scribbles. But I kept trying to be optimistic that “this is the one” so they stayed mostly clear of a mess. So I’ve mounted them on cardstock and am giving them away! (the colors ARE correct shown with each number, but the chart may not be in correct order. But it’ll work!)

To qualify, pop over to YouTube  to do the following:

  1. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don’t forget to see if you’re a winner
  2. Give it a thumbs up! Folks are doing that less and less nowadays.
  3. And leave a comment there – tell me which marker brands and sets you have, I’m curious to know! I’ll be announcing the four winners on Saturday’s video!