Tioga Pass – InkTorrents Graphics

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

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Little Stories – Travels And Tales

Posted on July 9, 2025
by Soma Acharya
Outside The Lines, Paintings, Photography, The Girl And Her Cat

I had to take a break from post writing for much longer than I had anticipated. Need of a change of air took me to Yellowstone for a few days, and then to the Eastern Sierra mountains. Back at home, I have been painting and binding books with new inspirations from recent travels, as well as making tiny arts in my old bullet journal. I also have another art supply experiment to share today. So here we go.

A few photos from Yellowstone

Please click on the image thumbnails to see the photos –

Yellowstone was profoundly overwhelming. I was hoping for late spring snow, and mother nature listened. It snowed there every day during our stay. The landscape transformed with mist and smoke from every part of the ground when the sun came out after the snowstorms.

The storms also gave me this beautiful contrasting dark sky. During an early evening walk we heard a loud noise and saw an ever-increasing plume behind us. Not sure which geyser went off, as there are many in that area.

Off to Tioga Pass

Please click on the image thumbnails to see the photos –

Then we went off to my favorite Sierra mountains. The trails were still closed due to snow. We took it slow with walking around a few new and old areas, and simply reading while listening to the rain.

Even though it was warm in the valley, it got cold in the mountains with oncoming nightfall. I was glad to have packed my winter jacket as we waited for the mountains to take on the colors of Alpenglow. I really missed these mountains. Now I am back home until the weather cools off again, and I can breathe freely outside with pollen-free air.

Outside the Lines – Gesso and Watercolor ground

Outside the Lines is a series where I share my experience with new art supplies. This time it’s watercolor on Liquitex gesso and watercolor on QOR watercolor-ground.

I converted my last year’s bullet journal into an art journal. That’s when I thought of using gesso and watercolor-ground to cover up the writings. To see how they each perform, I covered two discarded paintings with gesso and wc-ground each.

Gesso on the left, Wc-ground on the right, both after 3 coats

I needed to apply multiple thin coats in order for the paper to not warp.

Gesso covered and sealed off the darker under-painting and writing much better. Wc-ground didn’t perform very well with the coverage even after three coats. When used to cover up writing, it picked up the ink color and got tinted by it. It’s a bit more wet than gesso, so the paper warps more too.

At the end, I ended up applying gesso first, then wc-ground over that.

Watercolor on wc-ground lifted off completely, even after a full night of drying, showing the white surface underneath. That’s fine with mistakes, but it made it very hard for me to layer colors. The colors simply lifted off or moved around, which made them very muddy. When not layering though, it worked well enough. I couldn’t get any definition on small things like the girl or the cat.

I sanded down the gesso paper just a little to get a smooth surface. Watercolor on gesso lifted off too, but much less with some drying time in between each layer. Watercolors tend to slide on gesso, but I could layer on colors with caution. In the large areas, I could keep the subtle colors with ease. The girl was a little better here, but I had to use pencil for the cat.

Overall I liked gesso better for my journal, even with its limitations. Wc-ground would be great for fixing small mistakes in a painting. The colors stick on gesso more with proper drying time. The covering and sealing up is much better too. Both of these qualities were lacking on wc-ground. Additionally, since I have to use gesso to cover the writing/work first anyway, I might as well stick to that for my converted bullet journal.

If you are using a clean surface and do not paint watercolor in layers, you might like the wc-ground better. Always remember to a couple of small test paintings first.

Here is the same painting on paper only.

Art Journal

Ever since school, I have always used a planner. Last year I hand made this book for my planning. Instead of discarding it, I converted this bullet journal to an art journal. I am mostly using Tombow dual brush pens for colors and various pens for drawings. I am covering up the previous dates and writings with darker marker, bits and pieces of discarded paintings, darker washi tape, printing and drawing paper, and now occasionally with gesso.

I only work on it for 15-20 minutes before bedtime. Sometimes I draw one day and color it the next day. I am filling the pages with random small drawings, paintings, writings of my own, and occasional quotes. It has been really wonderful for calming my mind before sleep.

Little watercolor cards

As part of my art study, I started painting these little watercolor cards more regularly. A lot of times it takes a while to get what is in my head down on paper.

Tiny Alpine Gentian flowers grow in the meadows at the Sierra mountains – a reminder of cool weather and the gorgeous outdoors.

A Hot spring – somewhere in the mountains that is in my head.

My friends came up with a couple of beautiful names. Fluttering by Kim and All Aflutter by Dixie. The Butterfly Effect is what I came up with afterwards, after reading more about it.

I really love the art of sword and archery disciplines. This little painting of a scabbard took close to two days to draw and paint. According to me, scabbards are blessed by dragons and imbued with special powers. The butterflies light the dark path and the oak leaves warn the carrier of this scabbard of nearby dangers.

The Girl and Her Cat – she wants him to get under the umbrella. He needs to go into the hedge to find the thing they came here for. “Also, cats don’t get sick from a little rain” was his answer.

With increased study load, I am forcing myself to take more breaks so I don’t repeat another crash. I hope these photos, art and the stories brought you much joy and respite. I will wrap up here with these four lines I wrote along with this painting –

Life is wonderful in my boots,

Exploring from roots to shoots.

Into the mountains, here I go,

Finding myself, no friend nor foe.

Until next time,
-Soma

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