We have just received the first Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers!
H Locke was kind enough to do a review of them to let us know what they are like for illustration work.
Below are highlights of the review. You can read the full review on H Locke’s website.
Illustrator H Locke reviews Winsor & Newton Water Colour Markers
“Firstly, it’s nice that they have the feel and shape of a promarker style pen – something chunky to work with. They also have the traditional double-tip for flexibility and effect.”
“As you can see, there are some vibrant and quite dark colours coming out here. The nice thing about this for any marker fans out there is that these can clearly be used purely as markers without water/blending – and have neither the nasty smell nor tendency to soak through All The Paper that promarkers and other alcohol-based pens have.”
“As you can see, the wash effect works rather well, whilst keeping that dark edge in the original marker work. This is something you definitely can’t achieve with ‘normal’ watercolours.”
“There’s something about the effect that I was able to achieve on these chimney pots which makes me very excited about these pens. I don’t know if it’s because I have to be braver working with this much colour? – I can’t hide behind the gradual build up of colour that I can with a traditional watercolour palette and brush? But I seem to have gone all Quentin Blake on these – something in these pens has changed my whole approach, even in the Micron drawings, freeing up the work, spilling the colour over the lines and capturing much more of the lights and shadows than I otherwise would.”
Close-up of small detail of chinmey pots
on rooftop in an illustration by H Locke
“I have to say W&N, I think you’ve got a convert. Love the markers and will be adding more colours to my collection soon.”
Read the full review on H Locke’s website.
Editor’s note:
H Locke has let me know that her use of “permanent” (in the full review) was not about the lightfastness of the markers but was instead saying they are not waterproof and so will smear when other colours are drawn on top.
Read more about the markers in this additional review on our blog.
[…] this earlier article with illustrator H Locke’s review, where she finds the Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers work very well for her style of […]