The Sharpie: My Go-To Tool

Alex Malanoski, EMC Staff Writer

I have been interested in drawing and art in general since I started school. I’ve always been involved in art and drawing classes and have consequently drawn many things with only the use of a pencil and an eraser. But, a dilemma always seemed to occur whenever I needed to color in my drawings. I could just leave the drawing how it was and not brighten up and enhance the image, but I’m not one to just leave something that’s good enough. So, I tried many things: crayons, colored pencils, regular markers, water based paints, oil paints, and pens. One day, as I was going through the at drawers in my house I discovered a bag full of what looked like one-hundred colorful Sharpies. And so, my adventures with Sharpie art had begun.

My first Sharpie drawing was the infamous Joker from the Batman movies. I started out by drawing him freehand and once I liked what I had done, I colored it in with the Sharpies. I of course added the iconic green locks of the joker and made sure that all the colors fit well together. The Sharpies worked across the paper like magic and they created such a rich color that was like nothing I had ever seen before. They did bleed through some of the paper in my sketchbook, but that’s okay.

The second piece of artwork I created with the Sharpies was a dog. I have always been an animal lover, and I am especially fond of dogs. This particular dog resembled a Bernese Mountain Dog and again, I drew the dog first with my pencil and eraser and then filled in the sketch with my Sharpies. 

My most recent drawing was on a birthday card and I drew it on the envelope. I first created a flower on the envelope with a pen and made sure that everything looked exactly how I wanted it. Then, I colored the drawing with my Sharpies, yet again, to create a beautiful picture. I have been drawing on envelopes for years, but I never thought that Sharpies would work as well as they did on them. I have had a great experience coloring with Sharpies on anything from regular paper to birthday cards. I never thought that I would say this, but they are now my go to coloring tool.