China Pen or Paint Marker?

[KC10Chief]

I am wanting to draw some white lightning bolts on a body I'm painting. I have a question though, what would be better to use? A China pen (grease pencil), or a white paint marker? I've tried to use a China pen and it doesn't seem thick enough. The background will be black and dark blue. Is there anything I don't know about paint markers? Thanks for any info! Matt

[raffaelli]

I think that Tamyia used to make these paint markers. They still might.

[Quietfly]

If you choose to use a marker then i would recomend acrylic paint pens by testors, they seem to work on lexan pretty well.

-Chris

[HauntedMyst]

If have a better method that requires more time but I think it looks better. You can do it even if you don't have an airbrush, you just can't "fog" it.

Lightning Effect

One of my favorite effects to do is the lightning effect and it’s a fairly simple effect to practice your airbrush control with, plus, it’s one of those designs it’s hard to screw up on! Cover the entire
body or section of the body you want to have lightning on with liquid mask. In between coats of liquid masking, doodle lightning streaks on the outside of the body. Don’t worry about creating straight lines since lightning isn’t straight and don't forget to add multiple forks in the lightning. Once the liquid mask is completely dry, cut out the lines of lightening as thin as you can. Again, don’t worry if their irregular since lightning is irregular! Once you have the lightning streaks cut out in the body, it’s time to break one of the supposed cardinal rules of painting, painting the white first. Spray the lighting with 3 or 4 coats making sure to get even coverage. Once it’s dried, spray it with a backing of Pactra Silver from a paint can. This will protect the background color from bleeding into it. Once that step is dry, peel off the rest of the liquid mask. Using white in your airbrush, you want to spray about a quarter inch fog down the solid lines of the lightning. This will give a nice haze effect that lightening has. DO NOT attempt to back the fog/haze with silver, you will only screw up the body since it’s impossible to do with any accuracy and it’s unnecessary. Now it’s time to add the night sky. I usually use a two-tone sky with black around the bottom of the body rising up occasionally into the open spaces. Only one coat of black is necessary. Then I paint the rest of the sky with a few coats of dark metallic blue. I’ll add a bit of the black (just of few drops) to Parma Fasescent Blue. Experiment with other colors. As you can see from the sample photo, I used metallic purple and it looks like an Ion Storm. Once it’s dry, back it with Pactra Silver and you have a lightening effect body.