Reviews

 Winsor & Newton

Watercolor Markers

Review by Carl

from time to time as I try out new items to see if they will get added to my field sketching kit I will be doing reviews.  I have paid for all products I talk about and am in no way sponsored by the products I talk about.  Other members of LWBUSK can also submit reviews to me for addition.

On to the review: I was very excited to try out the W&N watercolor markers for myself.  I love Winsor and Newton products overall and was hoping for a new addition to my kit.  First the colors are great!  lovely transparency and richness.  Top marks there.  The downside is that I had a hard time softening the edges of stroke on dry paper using a wet brush.  Some colors moved better than others but none moved like watercolor paint while still wet.  I was able to do two things that made them more to my liking.  If I pre wet the paper I could run the color a bit and mingle too colors with a soft edge in a nice watercolory way.  to get a really nice sot edged wash you can let out the color from the pen onto a palette and mix with a wet brush this combined with the previous technique makes for lovely passages but it does thin out the colors.  The other issue I had with this method is if I'm going to mix colors on a palette why not just take out my set of pan watercolors and work as normal.  Its a good question.  I think these markers have real potential but I'm going to have to find my best way to use them before they take up valuable space in my sketching bag.