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Sharpies for coloring

Brian McInturff

Brian McInturff

Joined
Sep 8, 2005
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I've not ever used anything to "accent" a turning other than dyes. Do sharpies work? I've got 2 beads on a turning I'd like to blacken. They are about 1/16-1/8th. Would a sharpie work or should I get one of the dye pens.
 
Any time I have put finish on a sharpie color, it runs. Maybe color first, then sanding sealer would work better.

robo hippy
 
Jimmy Clewes uses a black sharpie to define lines on his colored pieces.

If my recollection is correct - he uses sanding sealer first, then the sharpie
 
Brian McInturff said:
I've not ever used anything to "accent" a turning other than dyes. Do sharpies work? I've got 2 beads on a turning I'd like to blacken. They are about 1/16-1/8th. Would a sharpie work or should I get one of the dye pens.
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Prisma color pens work great and the colors stay pretty true. Most art supply and hobby stores have them.

Sharpie black seems to keep its color.
 
I use black sharpies quite a bit. Define the edge to prevent bleed out with a fine cut,groove, or what not. Spray lacquer lightly for first coat to seal things up, let dry, steel wool and spray lacquer till desired level obtained.

I have used a danish oil type finish without seeing any run also, but not very often.
 
I would recommend Prismacolor Premier Double-Ended Brush Tip Markers instead. The link that I included is to Dick Blick Art Supplies. I have also found some of the colors at Hobby Lobby, but the price there was much higher. I took a class from Andi Wolfe a few years ago and These are the pens that she used for coloring some of her foliage turnings. Prisma makes a wide range of pens and pencils, but the one in the link are what I am specifically talking about. Andi doesn't apply the color directly to the wood using the pen for several reasons (contaminating the tips with other colors and picking up contaminants and extractives from the wood). Instead, her method is to use a small flame tip brush dipped in 91% isopropyl alcohol and then use the alcohol wetted brush to get the color from the felt tip of the Prismacolor marker. This works well, but is very tedious. On white wood like maple, if I am coloring areas where colors won't be meeting, I use the pen directly. I am not so much a purist as she is when it comes to caring for my pens. Besides they will probably go dry long before the ink is used up. If you are also doing any woodburning along with coloring, the "cooked" resins serve as a barrier to keep colors from bleeding in some types of wood that otherwise might have a tendency to wick the colors along the grain.

For the type of black line that Jimmy Clewes does, a Sharpie does an excellent job, but from personal experience, I avoid other brands of felt trip markers because I have had some really bad results from some of them (Sanford is the worst in my experience).
 
Bill, by chance are these the same ones Bonnie Klein uses? Packard sells them. I need to order a few things from them this week is why I'm asking.
Thanks!
 
Brian McInturff said:
Bill, by chance are these the same ones Bonnie Klein uses? Packard sells them. I need to order a few things from them this week is why I'm asking.
Thanks!
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I don't remember for certain. I saw a Bonnie Klein demo at SWAT about eight or nine years ago where she made spinning tops and did chatter work and then colored them. If you are ordering more than just a few, it would be worthwhile to compare the Blick price to the Packard price. I have found that the price for these pens varies considerably from one retailer to another.

Also, make sure what Packard is selling is the same as the pen that I linked to. Prisma makes a very large assortment of pen types.

John, thanks for the link. I think that is actually the ones that I use although the only difference appears to be the tip design. Those chess pieces are beautiful.
 
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The colors running are usually related to the wood being unsealed and the solution from the pen running the ridges of the grain or tear out.
Sealer first goes a long way regardless of which pens.
You might want to look into Krink paint pens also, the choice of street artists (read Graffiti).
 
Bill Boehme said:
So, I assume that is what you use? How well does it hold up in the weather? And does it work well on box cars, too? 😀
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Never used them on box cars, but they have great coverage. Just one of those experiments things.

I use al kinds of colors from spray (House of Kolor) to Sharpies and several markers.

Sharpies arent as black as I would want them and primarily use them and the Prisma for signing the work.
 
There's one other kind of pen that I forgot to mention -- Sakura Pigma Micron pens. They use micro pigment based ink so the colors should be very long lasting. They are archival quality and acid free. I have the 05 size, but they come in a variety of line widths. I first bought some from David Nittmann a few years ago at SWAT and have bought a few more from Dick Blick Art Supply since then.

I think that David uses these pens for coloring his basket illusion turnings. The size that I have makes a very fine line (0.45 mm) so it would work well for signing turnings.

I agree with Steve that the black Sharpie doesn't seem to be as dark black as some other art pens. The problem that I have found after trying out a large number of black art pens is that the really dark ones seem to have problems with dissolving into a blurry line when lacquer is applied over it. I haven't checked out how well the Pigma Micron pens work in this regard, but since David Nittmann uses them, I feel fairly certain that they do quite well. The size pens that I have with their very fine point would not be very good for coloring a wide line so determine what you want to do with them before buying a bunch.
 
How to finish over Prisma Markers?

My wife has been embellishing my work with woodburning and Prisma markers for some time now. My issue is that I use a wipe on Oil and Urethane finish on top to create a luster, and that smears the color in some cases, (mostly the lighter colors). What buff-able finish can you suggest I use over Prisma color?
Bruce
 
Bruce Perlmutter said:
My wife has been embellishing my work with woodburning and Prisma markers for some time now. My issue is that I use a wipe on Oil and Urethane finish on top to create a luster, and that smears the color in some cases, (mostly the lighter colors). What buff-able finish can you suggest I use over Prisma color?
Bruce
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Start with Krylon Workable Fixatif and follow with Deft spray lacquer in light coats. This will also prevent the yellowing caused by oil and oil based varnish.
 
Bill Boehme said:
There's one other kind of pen that I forgot to mention -- Sakura Pigma Micron pens. They use micro pigment based ink so the colors should be very long lasting. They are archival quality and acid free.
Click to expand...

Cynthia Gibson uses these on her teapots and other pyrographed designs.

I think the most important detail whenever looking to add color dye to a piece is that the product must be archival. The generic (Sharpie) markers do not retain their color for all that long.

I think that David uses these pens for coloring his basket illusion turnings.
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Just in case you didn’t know, since you used the present tense a couple of times, David Pittman died about a year ago.
 
Owen Lowe said:
.... Just in case you didn’t know, since you used the present tense a couple of times, David Pittman died about a year ago.
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Yes, I know that David Nittmann passed away last year, but please check the date of the post that you quoted. I just got back home from SWAT yesterday and still think about seeing him there laughing and smiling every time that I saw him. Seeing his marvelous work is what inspired me to try my hand at basket illusion pieces, so he definitely did his part to pay it forward. I'm still learning, but here is my second attempt that I felt confident enough to show it in the instant gallery at SWAT. It doesn't quite hold up to close scrutiny where it comes to burning and coloring skill, but I've learned a lot in the process of doing things the wrong way.

My_basket_1.jpg

I started this one late last year after seeing a program on Native American baskets by Jim Adkins last year at SWAT. Using Jim's recommendation, I used Copic marker pens to do the coloring which are another great choice for an archival quality ink. They come in a wide variety of styles as well as a broad range of color choices and different nibs for some pen types. The ones that I got at Hobby Lobby are the Copic Sketch pens, but they are not the best choice for this type of work. The Copic Originals are far better with a finer tip to do detailed work. Next time I will know better. My first basket illusion piece used Prismacolors just because I had a bunch of them. I was not pleased with them because the colors tended to fade a bit ... I don't believe that it was from exposure to light and air, but because the color continued to soak into the soft wood. After numerous reapplications of color, the color on the surface was finally acceptable. Still, some of the Prismacolors like blue always seemed to be rather weak in comparison to other colors.

So far, I have two favorites: the Sakura Pigma Micron pens and the Copic Marker pens. They are used differently so it is useful to have both.
 
Lauren uses several different inks.

Her favorites are Copic Multi-Liner SP pens and brushes (archival pigment)
She sometimes uses Copic Sketch markers (dye based, makes for some very finicky finishing)
Sometimes she uses Pigma Micron pens, but still prefers the Multi-Liner
For some colors she uses pens from Eberhard Faber.

Lots of arrows in her quivers <s>
 
Bill Boehme said:
Yes, I know that David Nittmann passed away last year, but please check the date of the post that you quoted. I just got back home from SWAT yesterday and still think about seeing him there laughing and smiling every time that I saw him. Seeing his marvelous work is what inspired me to try my hand at basket illusion pieces, so he definitely did his part to pay it forward. I'm still learning, but here is my second attempt that I felt confident enough to show it in the instant gallery at SWAT. It doesn't quite hold up to close scrutiny where it comes to burning and coloring skill, but I've learned a lot in the process of doing things the wrong way.
Click to expand...

I do apologize — for some reason I thought I was reading a number of recent posts and not just one.
 
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