Mermaid Markers & Gouache

Easy Shading with Mermaid Markers and Gouache

Late night journaling is my passion and I love spending ages on shading and blending while watching a favourite TV-show. I find it to be so relaxing and rewarding! But with gouache adding layer after layer can be a bit difficult… A new layer might activate the layer below and leave you with ugly lines and stains that are hard to fix. So I thought: “If adding layers over gouache is tricky, why not try putting Mermaid Markers underneath?” 🙂

For this page in my small watercolour journal I quickly sketched a cute girl using a purple mechanical pencil (picture-1).

Then I went in with Jellyfish Mermaid Marker (my favourite!!!) and added some shading around the eyes and the hairline, under the chin and mouth and on the nose. I also added a bit of diluted Starfish on her cheeks, her nose and her shoulders (picture-2).

Time to add gouache and look how pretty the Mermaid Markers shine through her peachy skin (picture-3).

Easy peasy shading right? Her eyes, her hair and the flower in it were done in exactly the same way, using gouache, Bluebottle and more Jellyfish (picture-4). I added some final details with Deep Sea, my purple pencil and a white paint pen (picture-5). All done!

Bonustip 1: You can mix beautiful soft colours using white gouache and your favourite Mermaid Marker (picture-4)

Bonustip 2: Don’t open a Mermaid Marker over your journal page… Had to give my girl freckles to fix a few tiny Deep Sea-drops… 🙂 (picture-5)

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cheers,

Mariëlle