Trying out markers + colored pencils

Again as mentioned for the nth time, I've been trying to get back to drawing and I got more motivation to do that when I was in vacation last month in Bangkok. I've been to a bookstore with a LOT of art books, went to visit art galleries, seen street art in Bangkok, and saw there were some art and music events as well although I failed to attend them. We also passed by a school supplies department in one of the malls and saw they have a massive amount of art supplies selection. I got jealous how they can just go there and pick art materials from brands you would normally see in an art store but they can just buy it easily in department stores. It would always be a struggle for me to buy them and I usually order online cos we don't have them in our place lol.

Anyway I bought a small sketch pad where I could draw some random ideas and possibly carry it anywhere. I know I have an iPad for that purpose but I will always crave a traditional art materials and iPad is too big to carry anywhere.

I have different sketch pads for different purposes and for this one I want to be free and just draw literally anything without worrying if it will match the rest of the series or whatever.

I bought some Prismacolor colored pencils as well just to have some colors on my sketch pads. I already had them before but I left it at my parents' house and it was only 24-color so I figured to just buy a new one anyway. It was a struggle to find these in my area and I had to go to like 5 or more stores but to my surprise they're all sold out. I don't know who's buying these today but when I was broke I saw them a lot EVERYWHERE hahah.

I didn't wanna order online cos I'd have to wait but luckily I found this in one of the oldest stores in my place that I was 100% sure they should have stocks. I was right, but there was only 3 boxes left lol. Pretty sure some of the art people didn't think of checking this mall out as they didn't expect to have them. :P

This brand is the best that I have tried. It's so easy to blend as it's soft but it could easily break. And even if you search for the best reviews for colored pencils for sure this would come up.

Seems I got unlucky cos I found 2 of these pencils that has breakage. I'm not sure what will happen once I sharpen this but hopefully it stays miraculously intact. :<

I'm in an anime mood cos I guess it's easiest to start with markers so I prompted Midjourney and this was the result. This is a Midjourneyed Sailormoon so I guess this is considered a fan art to some extent.

Yeah I'm drawing on a tiny sketch pad. :D I first started with a sketch as any sane artist would do. xD Those who don't, they're fucking gods.

I erased the pencil lines quite a bit so they won't show much on the final sketch, just like lowering the opacity of your sketch layer in Photoshop lol. Using @acidyo's Copic markers, I started with the lightest colors but these are the lightest he has. It's easier to start with lightest first then proceed to a darker color so when you make a mistake you can just put a darker one on top. :P

The thing I don't like with markers is that your strokes are very visible because there's an uneven distribution of the pigment. Thankfully for Copics, that is less visible and it was a pleasure using these lol.

After being done with markers, I then used the pencils on top of it for additional colors and details. It's a nice combination and I've seen a lot of artists do this as well.

I slowly built the details with my pencils. Blending a lighter color on top of a darker one is so easy with these pencils. :D

I then used a white pen to add some highlights to finish the drawing.