About a year ago I was commissioned by Sakura (the fine folks who make the popular and awesome Pigma Micron pens) to do a new package illustration of their 6-piece gray tone watercolor brush pen set using--what else--those exact markers.

I was very excited to do this and submitted a few Photoshop roughs per their direction: something scenic (i.e., not my typical comic/cartoon style) that would showcase the entire range of the set's tones. Here are the roughs I presented:

Ultimately they decided on Layout #2. So onto the bristol board I went... Here is the progression of the final piece, which was then scanned and printed into what you see at the top of this blog:

I highly enjoyed using these markers for toning; they leave a nice slick stroke with some fine, unique texture. I hope you have enjoyed another "behind-the-scenes" of another one of my freelance projects. You can find these markers at (hopefully) your favorite art store, or you can find them at numerous online stores--like Amazon, for example. It's probably easier to find this than to find an actual comic book store with my other works! :P

BONUS: you can see a video Sakura created a while back of me using some of these markers here: