Outside The Lines

Alcohol marker painting of Tenaya Lake at Yosemite Tioga Pass — Copic marker tutorial by InkTorrents Graphics

Painting Yosemite with Copic Markers

Posted on May 6, 2026
by Soma Acharya
Outside The Lines, Paintings, The Girl And Her Cat

There are familiar places in the forests and mountains of California that I love revisiting for a reset and recover. I fell in love with the High Sierra mountains and Tioga Pass during my first visit many years ago. It’s a place that slows me down and pushes me to work harder at the same time. Recently, I made a marker painting from a lakeside drawing I did there. Along with the painting, I also want to talk about swatch making, different papers for marker painting, and other accompanying tools that I use with markers on this Outside the Lines art supply review.

Late afternoon at Tenaya Lake is one of my favourite places on Tioga Pass. Here time really slows down for me. I have a favorite secluded spot behind a gigantic glacier erratic. I tuck in behind that boulder with my camera and my sketchbook. While I wait for the sky color to change for photography as the sun sets, I try to make sense of the vast landscape in front of me on an 8″x5″ sheet of paper.

Flipping through my sketchbook for a different project, I came across this drawing. In January, my husband got me a set of Copic markers for my birthday. I got excited about painting this with my new markers.

Note: You can use these tips for any alcohol markers, not just Copic. I shy away from using generic paints. Paint can be toxic if not properly bound, and I simply don’t trust the quality control of the pigments and carriers of generic brands.

I always swatch new colors. Instead of guessing or trying out the shades all over again, I know exactly what colors I need to start a painting when I have my swatch cards at hand.

I used a 3/4″ circle cutter to cut out the circles and painted the colors on them. Afterwards, I affixed them on cardstock with glue sticks. I could have painted on the paper directly, but I wanted have a little fun with the swatches. The process of making swatches is very therapeutic for me.

A few other tools I use along with the markers –

02 and 005 micron pens – For black outlines and shading.
HB pencil – For the initial sketchbook drawing. Creates soft lines on paper that are easy to erase.
2H pencil – For copying the drawing over to the paper for painting. Creates light markings that are barely visible under the painting.

Pro-tip – A wide brush-pen or a flat-nib fude pen filled with permanent ink is nice to have when you have a large area to fill and a micron pen is too small.

Paper plays a big part in painting –

Smooth marker paper blends colors best — the longer the alcohol stays wet, the smoother the blend. Paper tone matters too: white produces bright, luminous colors while cream produces warmer, more subdued tones.

Examples from the photos:

Top left (white) — Most luminous and best blending. Detail lines didn’t show well.
Bottom left (cream) — Slightly muted colors, good blending. Detail lines remained visible.
Top right (high-texture watercolor, cream) — Absorbed paint quickly, leaving lines. No blending, but great for bold color-block styles.

Pro tip – Alcohol markers bleed through most paper, so place an extra sheet underneath to protect your surface.

Feel free to click on the image to pin it to your Pinterest board for future use.

Now that I have my swatches and a feel for the markers on paper, I am ready to paint.

Pro-tip – Before you start, take a little time to think about the mood and style of your painting, then choose the paper accordingly. Use the swatch card to pull out some of the main colors. Keep a scrap paper handy to test color combinations. These habits will make a big difference.

I wanted to have a warm and cozy feeling for this Girl and Her Cat painting, so I used the warmer-toned paper. Just as expected, details, textures, and shadows remained visible on this paper.

For this landscape painting, I wanted the colors to be very vibrant to depict the late afternoon sunlight on the rocks. I used the white paper for this one.

I started the painting by drawing the lines and shading marks with micron pens, similar to the drawing in my sketchbook. Pro-tip – To prevent smudging, give the micron pen lines a few minutes to dry before painting on them.

I started with the lightest yellow and earth tone, then layered the other colors slowly on top. On this paper, layers of colors blended into each other, giving me a watercolor effect.

Painting this was a beautiful way to rekindle the memory of our last visit there.

I just started a new drawing for my next marker painting. I drew them a little closer than usual so the faces are more visible this time. These two are playing outside again, and this time they have friends. I love drawing stories about these two.

Last weekend, I drew this little flower in one of my handmade books. The colors blended seamlessly, and I was also able to add additional detail strokes. The paper kept the colors vibrant and bright. I am really happy with this new smooth, thick paper I am using for my 100% handmade journals. You can purchase them here in my shop. They are wonderful for both writing and drawing.

I am very thankful for living close to these beautiful places that inspires me to draw and paint. This gives you a little insight into my painting process. I hope you can incorporate a few of these techniques in your own painting habits. Most importantly though, just play with paint and paper.

Until next time,
-Soma

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them. Hosts of linky parties – please grab a photo of you choice for your party. Thank you for hosting!

Opposite Seasons

Posted on August 20, 2025
by Soma Acharya
Bookmaking, Kitties, Outside The Lines, Paintings, Photography, The Girl And Her Cat

My seasons are spent completely opposite. Winter is when I am mostly outside gathering ideas and I spend almost all of my summer days inside, working. Along with another set of Simple365 b&w photos of my everyday life, today I am sharing a few in-process photos of this book I made as my husband’s birthday present. Included is the photo of the redwoods that inspired it. I have another Outside the Lines art supply review of my favorite brush pen for you today as well.

Simple 365 – Set 14

Here is another set of Simple365 photos from a year of everyday black and white photos. We had rolled into the first few days of October by this time. Naturally, I started taking October-themed photos.

Please Click on the image thumbnails to see the photos.

I created a page with all the previously shared photos from Simple365. That way I can relive my journey through the year via black and white photos, like in an old photo album.

We made one special trip to Los Angeles to bring our kitties home. The haze of the California desert at Hwy 395!

Tavish, the orange one, Pemberley in the middle, and Merwyn at the front – the merry band of the Ink Torrents Atelier staff!

The colored photo of the winter forest painting that appears in b&w in the Simple365 set. As I mentioned in the previous post, I enjoy working on monochromatic watercolor paintings.

On the last post, I shared process photos of tiny little books and travel inspired paintings. If you missed that post, you can read it here.

I am really happy to share that the last post and other recent posts were featured on these link-ups.

The Really Crafty

Weekend Traffic Jam

Crazy Little Lovebirds

Monday Morning Blog Club

Thank you so much ladies!!

Outside the Lines – Art Supple Review

Kuretake No 8 Fountain Brush Pen

Brush pens are mostly used for calligraphy, but I use them for drawing too. The variable line width that can be created with a brush pen makes it very versatile. On my search for a brush pen that is refillable, I came across the Kuretake N0. 8 fountain brush pen.

To get a feel for the pen, I filled it with permanent fountain pen ink and scribbled a few coffee cups with it. The coffee-addict me approves.

This pen uses cartridges. I like using my own ink. Kuretake does not make a fountain pen converter, but a Platinum Fountain Pen Converter can be used with this pen. It’s the middle piece in this photo; it holds ink for fountain pens and can be filled with any ink of your choice.

Since the pen does not have the capillary action of a fountain pen, I fill the converter by dipping it into an ink bottle directly. Since I use permanent, non-water-soluble ink, I always fill the pen half way. Permanent ink left in a pen can clog it up pretty badly. By filling it halfway, I can use up the ink before that happens. Every now and then, I clean up the pen thoroughly with water between uses.

Once the converter is filled and attached to the pen, I push the ink to the brush tip by turning the screw of the converter gently until I see ink tinting the brush tip. Once that happens, I prime the tip by drawing lines until I get a set of smooth lines starting from thin to thick. Then I know it is ready for use.

I created lines of varying thickness for the trees and then used the same pen for shading. Once I finished drawing the picture, I used watercolor for the background. I kept it super simple by using just two colors.

I really love this pen. It is one of my staples for not only drawing in journals, but for writing too! If you do calligraphy, I highly recommend it for that as well.

Here is a very quick painting I did of the Girl and Her Cat standing at the edge of a forest. It’s a misty day and they love playing in the forest with leaves and butterflies on such days.

A Book from the Time in the Forest

We love visiting the redwood trees in the north of California during the winter months. This is a very narrow and twisty road at Redwood National Park. We drive up there during the early evening hours and stay until the darkness completely envelopes us. The looming darkness makes these towering trees look even taller. Perfect for story time! Sometimes we listen to audiobooks; sometimes we read sitting in the car.

For a book for my husband’s birthday present, and I drew this tiny, tiny picture with our car on that road.

After that I started working on the book itself. Book cloths are paper lined so the glue does not seep into the cloth. I made the book cloth for this book myself using cotton quilting fabric that I had at hand. I left an inset in the cover for the picture. I also added little matching black and silver bands at each end of the book aligned with the spine. Finally I affixed the picture on the cover inside the inset.

I wanted to make something for him with our shared times in mind. The drawing and the book felt right. I should mention that I finished the book way after his birthday. He was surprised, and very happy too. That made my day! Since then, I get requests every now and then to make books for his notes and I am happy to oblige.

While I am looking forward to being outside again, I am using this time to work and spend time with the kitties in my atelier. I hope your summer days are going well.

Until next time,
-Soma

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them.