How to Use Colorless Blender Marker | You Need to Know

Colorless blender markers are the new hype of this era. However, it’s been a long time since the blender pen has been released. But it has become one of the most wanted tools for artists and designers nowadays. They are finding it too helpful while drawing with markers.

Whether for fixing mistakes or creating highlights, it can be one of the best art tools. But if you don’t know how to use it properly, it can ruin your artwork. That’s why I’m here today!

I’ll share some tips and techniques to use colorless blenders efficiently. It’s not just for fixing mistakes or highlights. They can also be used in many other ways, like adding texture with a watercolor effect or creating an ombre look on your artwork!

So, follow this article to the end and learn how to use colorless blender markers according to the purposes.

What is a Colorless Blender?

A colorless blender just looks like a regular marker. But it acts just like the opposite of the colored markers. And their main difference is, a regular marker hold ink of different colors, and a blender contain only clear alcohol solvent. 

Though it is named blender, beginners often fell in trouble because it doesn’t work as the name suggests. If you use them as regular blending markers, then you won’t get the result you wanted. Well, it’s actually a versatile tool if you can use it properly.

However, you can use this inkless pen to do the next-level creative art project. It helps in adding highlights, creating faded and blending effects, watercolor effects, adding textures to the artwork, fixing mistakes, cleaning up edges, and many, to name.

Most professional artists are using it as their must-have art supplies to create additional dimensions to their projects. This blender pen is enough to bring life to your sketches.

Different Ways of Using Colorless Blender Marker

Using a colorless blender for alcohol marker art is fun if you can do it in the right way. But people often mistake by taking it as a color blender. 

That’s why I’m here to give you a hand. You’ll get some methods below by which you can use the blender accurately depending on its purposes. So, without any further issues, let’s dive into the methods. 

Retouching and Recoloring

After finishing an artwork, sometimes it happens to me that “if I can add some colors here or change the colors, it would be better.” If you also feel so, then grab a blender pen and start working on it.

One of the advantages of using the inkless marker is that, even if you finish a project or the ink dries fully, you can give a retouch on it. You can change the color and give a lighter or darker shade by overlapping, layering, or removing the color using a blender. It’s pretty easy!

Fixing Mistakes and Errors

Do you panic like me when you make mistakes while coloring a project? If so, then you can take full advantage of the blender pen.

It’s actually a common problem for beginners to color outside the main area. Still, sometimes it happens to me. Whether for removing any color or cleaning up the edges, colorless blender markers are a great weapon.

But I’ll suggest you remove the errors when the ink is dried thoroughly. If you try to erase it as soon as you make a mistake, you won’t be able to remove it properly. You’ll end up with a faded color stain.

But if you wait for the ink to dry and then rectify the errors, you’ll be able to do it smoothly.

Adding Textures and Patterns

It’s such an interesting and unique way to add different textures and patterns with the colorless blending marker. Whether to draw highlights or designs, all you can do using this one single pen. That’s how professional artists create additional dimensions to their artworks.

So, here I’m giving some examples of the patterns below that you can easily make with the pen.

Bricks – Creating brick shapes inside an already colored area is easier with a chiseled tip blender pen. And it’s also one of the popular patterns among artists. For this, you have to start by pressing the chisel tip for at least two seconds. It’ll ensure you form the brick-like shape easily.

Dots – Creating a dotted pattern is just a piece of cake with blender pens. It’s mainly added to create an illusion on the art. And you can easily do it on the area which is already colored. For this, you have to press the blender tip against the surface for a few seconds.

Then lift the pen, and you’ll get your desired dots. You can press a long time if you want to have the dots more prominent.

Highlights – Adding highlights to the art is a common thing to do. It’s actually created to add reflection to the image. Just grab the inkless pen and color over the area you want to highlight. You can color in a circular motion, up and down, or right to the left, whatever you want.

By doing so, you’ll see that the original color of the area is becoming lighter, creating a highlighting effect. For the desired result, you may need to do the process 3-4 times.

Fabric Pattern – Using your chisel tip blender, you can create the striped and plaid-like pattern that you mainly found on the fabrics. For creating a striped pattern, just draw horizontal or vertical lines over the colored area.

But creating plaid is somewhat tricky as here you have to draw tilted lines from one corner to another so that they cross each other. It becomes easy if you can do it perfectly. These types of shapes are mainly needed for fashion designers.

Lightening the Color Shade

It’s a known factor to all. Since a colorless blender contains clear alcohol ink, it’ll lighten the color in which area you’ll brush it. That’s how you can quickly change any color shade.

Sometimes it happens that, by overlapping or layering ink, streaked lines are created. So, you can quickly fix those marker streaks by lightening the color of that area. Even sometimes, the shade becomes darker than necessary. In that case, you can create the lightest shade you want by using a blender.

Professional artists use this technique for creating small details in the artwork, like creating reflections to the eyes and so on.

Mixing and Blending Colors

It’s another popular purpose for which you can use the blender marker. Though it’s not the best way to blend as it has clear alcohol ink, it can provide you the result you wanted. For this, you must know to use it properly.

The most common way to blend is to wet the paper with the blender pen first, where you want to mix two or more colors. Then use the colored markers and blend smoothly.

However, there is another way to use it for blending colors. It works when you overlay two colors. So, after applying the first colors, wait for the ink to dry. Then use the blender to remove the streaked lines you have got. After that, apply the second color. 

Now, you’ll see the blending effect of both colors creating the lightest shade in between. It makes your artwork look professional.

Things to Keep in Mind Before Using Blender (Pro Tips)

For getting the most out of your colorless blender pen, you should consider some things. So, here I’m giving some tips by which you’ll get the best result using the inkless marker.

Ensure the Paper Quality

It’s important that what type of paper and surface you are using while working with a blender pen. Remember that not every kind of surface or paper will work great.

However, using it on a flat surface or smooth paper will give you the best experience than using it on textured papers. You’ll find so many brands of paper that are actually made for blending. So, you can easily use them. Though sometimes, the result depends on the art you are trying to create.

But don’t even try to use the blender on cheaper paper as it won’t give the desired result rather damage the surface.

Make Color Swatches

Playing and experimenting with colors is always a good idea. You’ll quickly get to know which two colors will create a third color. And it’s an essential part while coloring.

You should keep a scrap piece of paper always on your working desk. And experiment with colors and the blender so that you can create the best outlook. It’ll also help you know how it’ll look before applying it to the main project.

For example, use the colorless blender if you think of blending a yellow and orange color and adding patterns. So, you can test this on the scrap paper first and see how it looks. If it’s okay, then apply it to the main project.

Practice More and More

We all know that there is no alternative to practicing. The more you practice, the more you’ll get control over blending colors as well as the blender marker.

So, you have to practice blending, shading, highlighting, mixing as much as you can. You must need to have proper knowledge of using the blender. Only then you can create artworks as professionals do. 

Warning ⚠️

Remember to use a blender pen only over the dried ink to get the best result. Otherwise, you’ll end up with faded stain marks. So, if you want to retouch or fix any errors, wait till the ink is completely dry. And then use the blender marker.

FAQs

Q: How do you make a colorless blender at home?

Well, you’ll find colorless blender markers of different brands readily available at such a reasonable price. Still, if you want to save some penny or experiment, you can easily make it at home.

For this, you’ll need an empty Copic marker and a Copic colorless blender refill. The process is pretty simple. First, you have to open the marker and clean the tip and the ink reservoir so that any old colored ink doesn’t remain.

Now, take the colorless blender refill and pour it into the marker, just like the way you usually refill the Copic markers. It isn’t that much hard. 

Q: How do you refill a colorless blender?

For Copics, I can say that refilling them is pretty easy as you’ll get single colorless refill packs for the blender. So, just buy them out and fill your blender just like the way you do with your Copic markers.

But I can share with you a technique by which you can make homemade colorless ink and even fill the blenders that are not meant to be refilled. Here I’m showing you a refill technique that I had experimented on Tombow Dual Tip Blender Pen.

For this, you’ll need –

Now, take a mini cup and consecutively add 4 tsp. water, 1/4 tsp Alcohol, and 3 tsp. glycerin. Then mix them properly with the mixing spoon. After that, use small pliers and pull hard the fine tip grip to open the marker (don’t ever try to open the brush part as it’ll ruin the tip).

Finally, use the pipettes and pour the solution slowly into the marker. After pouring a generous amount, put on the cap and shake the pen slowly so that it can soak the solution properly. And yes, you bring back your dead blender into life again.

Q: How do you clean a colorless blender?

Cleaning a blender marker is a task that will take just a minute. But do you know why you should clean it?

If you use a colorless blender pen frequently, then you should also clean the tip very often. It’ll prevent the ink from setting on the tip permanently. And also, if you don’t keep it clean, you’ll face problems while working on different colors.

However, it’s just like the way you clean your highlighter pen tip. But here you won’t have to follow so many steps. You have to take some scrap paper and brush it until you see the tip is inkless again. Voila! You have got your blender as clean as before.

Final Word

Till now, you have learned that colorless blender markers are one of the best art tools that you can use to create professional-looking artworks. And also, it won’t be tough for you to use it anymore.

You’ll find a huge variety of inkless pens in the marker and can grab any of them, depending on your need and budget. But I recommend having both a brush and chisel tip colorless blender. Who knows when a creative idea hits on your brain! So, it’s better to be prepared.