What do you use to fill in large black areas with ink?
Reader Question: What do you use to fill in large black areas when making ink art (or coloring in backgrounds in coloring books)? I use Pigma pens for details. Right now I use black Sharpies for the big areas, but I feel there must be a better way.
When you're making art (or coloring in a coloring book) and you want to fill in large black areas, you have a few options. You are on the right track with using black Sharpies, but there are better art markers out there that you could try. This is the one I use:
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I use the big black one. These Faber-Castell Pitt big brush artist pens are high-quality pens that can be used for making fine art, because they are acid-free and fade-resistant. They actually contain the same India ink that are in the Pitt Artist Pens, but the brush-like nib of the Pitt Big Brush Artist Pen gets you better coverage. Even though these Big Brush Artist Pens look similar to markers, they won't bleed through paper and once applied, they are waterproof and smudgeproof.
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Copic Sketch Markers have large, flexible brush tips that are useful for filling in large areas with color (and you can also use the tip for finer lines). Copic Markers are renowned amongst comic and manga artists for their quality and coverage. To learn more, check out my extensive reivew of Copic Markers.
The Copic Black Ink Pro Kit is a great set if you do a lot of work in black ink. This set contains everything you'd need to create black lines, thick and thin, and also to fill those large areas with black ink. Note: Copic no longer sells this on their website, but as of this writing you can still find it on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you don't want to use markers to fill in large areas with black ink, you could also dip a brush in a bottle of ink, such as Daler-Rowney Pro Inks, which is also a good way to achieve quick coverage over a large area. If you brush on ink from a bottle though, you need to be careful to use thick, sturdy paper so that the ink does not bleed or warp the paper. Strathmore 500 Series Cold Press Illustration Board is a strong, high-quality paper made from 100% cotton (which means it is acid-free).
