8 Tricks to Make Great Paintings with Sharpie and Alcohol

Do you want to bring an extra attraction to your artwork with the help of sharpie and alcohol on canvas? If you are saying YES to our question, then the good news is we are here to assist you! Without any doubt, we can say that creating a masterpiece with a combination of sharpie and alcohol is not an easy task at all.

Do you want to know how you can add sharpie and alcohol on canvas? Well, you do not need to look around here and there because in today’s guide we have some interesting as well as amazing tricks for you to give you an idea that how you can easily make paintings with alcohol and a sharpie.

All these tricks will help you to apply simple bits of colors in your paintings to make vibrant and radial designs. Let’s explore how to paint with sharpie and alcohol!

Trick No 1: Using Plastic Cup to Burst Colors on Fabric

Basic materials

Any cotton fabric
Small plastic cup
Complete pack of sharpie permanent markers
A good quality rubber band
Rubbing alcohol

Step by Step Guide

Let’s learn the first trick to play with sharpie and alcohol to make beautiful paintings:

First of all, you have to place the plastic cup into the middle of your fabric on which you are planning to do the canvas. It may be T-shirts, towels, wall hangings or a cotton pillowcase. You need to simply position the whole opening of your cup directly under the area of the fabric which you are looking ahead to adorn. You have to stretch the rubber band over the fabric and then the cup so you can secure the fabric into your place.
In the next step, you need to place some of the circles or the dots of the ink by using the marker. You have to do this in the form of circle patterns in a quarter sizing by stretching the fabric from the center placement. If you find it interesting then you can use different other colors for dots or dashes. You have to place around a quarter of the circle size dotting in the middle of the plastic cup opening as you are all done. Do remember that bright colors and plenty of white spaces are good things to make this simple design “WOW”!
You have to squeeze around 20 drops of the rubbing alcohol right into the center circle of the dots. Believe me, it will make the vibrant burst of colors. You should not be including any sort of extra design over the area with some rubbing alcohol. You can drip the whole rubbing alcohol slowly into the center designing area and let the molecules of the ink be spread in the outward direction from the center place.

It is your choice how much of the rubbing alcohol you want to apply to it. But you should not be letting the pattern be spread all beyond the area of the cup edged.
It is important enough to heat the colors by placing your fabric into the laundry dryer for at least 15 minutes.

Trick No 2: Using Ochre Acrylic Paint to Paint Letters

Basic materials

8 x 10 canvas
Complete pack of Sharpie Markers
Sharpie Oil Paint Marker -White
Yellow color Ochre Acrylic Paint
Painting Brush
Gesso -Not important
Pencils packets
Hard surfacing to work on

Step by Step Guide

Now let’s check out another trick of using sharpie and alcohol on canvas:

First of all, you need to add some of the Acrylic paint that has to be yellow ochre on top of the Gesso and then you need to prime the canvas. If you are looking ahead to choose the white background you can skip this step and choose a background that you want to include.
Now as the canvas has been drying, you have to start the process of tracing the darker letters into the darkest possible settings.
Now turn over your paper and locate it on some hard surface. You have to trace down the letters over the backside of your paper. If you want to make it look dark, then make sure to trace it two times!
After that, you have to turn the paper all over once again at the good side placement which needs to be away from the canvas. You have to place the canvas tracing down and make sure that it is in the center area.
By using a sharp pencil tip, you have to trace the letter as in a way you normally do it so. What this means is that you have to transfer your lead pencil marking as earlier as you do the tracing over the backside of the canvas.
You have to be gentle enough at the time of tracing the letters and make it get filled with some light pressure touch. If you press it hard so much, then probably the ink might get dry so sooner for a long time. Having a gentle pressure will make sure that the flow of the ink will remain constant throughout the whole canvas art.

Trick No 3: Graphite Transfer Paper to Transfer Image to Canvas

Basic materials

Graphite transfer paper
A pencil pack
A copy of your reference photo
Archival artist tape

Step by Step Guide

Are you familiar with a carbon paper that can create a copy of anything that you place above the sheet? Well, the Graphite transfer paper works exactly like the carbon paper. The only difference is it uses graphite instead of carbon!

Now, you can also create the art of sharpie and alcohol on canvas through the use of transfer paper! This trick can aid you a lot to transfer an image to canvas if you cannot afford to have this done professionally. You can easily get the transfer paper sheet from any store or the art shop which is available in the graphite material. It is attached to the pencil lead on one side. You can get it in different colors such as white or black as well as in dark grey. It is not only greaseless but also leaves less residue, ultimately making the paintings a lot cleaner than the carbon paper. Purchasing it in a roll paper will be a lot helpful for you. This will make it reusable so you can use the same sheet of paper for any other task.

By using the graphite transfer paper, you can easily look ahead to transfer the canvas on the easel. Make sure to locate the graphite paper on your side to be in the facing position of the canvas and let it get the tape at one place. (To get better results, make sure that the clean side of the paper is facing up and the messy side is facing down!)
After that, you have to take some printed copy of any image in which you are looking ahead to create an art on canvas. Make sure it has been sized perfectly so it will not bring any sort of disturbance in the canvas art.
You have to locate the image on the top side of the graphite paper. Tape it in one place. By using a pencil, you have to completely trace the whole printed image.
As you are all finished with it, you have to remove off the canvas. This will let the image get transferred on the canvas straight ahead. If you are using some sharpie or the alcohol, you will be spraying all the lined on lighter pressure with the use of little workable fixative. Graphite somehow might leak all through the oil paint and will display the whole art paint in front of you.

Trick No 4: Using Charcoal Sheet to Draw Sketch

Basic materials

Charcoal sheet
A pencil pack
Alcohol ink markers
A copy of your reference photo
Archival artist tape

Step by Step Guide

The next most amazing trick is about using the charcoal method besides using the graphite sheet. If you are not able to find the graphite sheet from any place, then having a charcoal sheet will work best for you.

The first step is to blow away the excess amount of the charcoal dust otherwise it can become so much messy.
After this, tape the drawing on top of the canvas in which the charcoal should be facing your main canvas. You need to trace the entire lines one by one just in the same way you are doing it with the graphite transfer paper. Thus, this will enable you to get a copy of your main drawing over the canvas.
You can also spray it with some of the little fixatives so you can let the lines stay in one place. It will come up with the art of something which is normally done by using the color of any muddy charcoal.
As the paint gets dried, always make sure to clean away the whole rag and then flick off the whole excess charcoal so it will not be getting too much muddy for the remaining art.

Trick No 5: Using an Art Projector to Paint

Basic materials

An art projector
8 x 10 canvas
A pack of drawing pencil or marker

Step by Step Guide

Some art lovers even choose to use the projectors as well. Using the art projectors is one of the best tricks to make beautiful artwork. Most artists like to use the art projectors so that they can easily enlarge as well as transfer the image from a small photo onto a large canvas. There are various kinds of projectors that you can use depending on your painting requirements as well as budget.

For creating an art with sharpie and alcohol on canvas, you can use the hard copy of the projector that is available in the printed version of the image.
Some of the projectors can also get connected with the computers so you can even choose to select the image from here. If you are having a projector, you just need to load an image into it as per according to the instructions of the manufacturer.
Just make sure you have completely set the canvas in the front line and then adjust the lens of the projector unless and until you do not get the focused image.
Moreover, you can adjust the whole size of the image either by moving the canvas or even through the zoom up settings of the lens.

Trick No 6: Using a Grid Method to Paint

Basic materials

Paper or canvas (You can also use wood panel in this case)
A copy of your reference photo
A ruler
A pencil

Step by Step Guide

Painting with a grid method is another technique that you can apply to your painting as well as drawing. Although it is not a pricey option, it takes a lot of time and is not as quick as using a transfer paper or a projector. This trick is used by most artists to improve their drawing as well as observational skills.

Want to improve your accuracy in artwork? Use the Grid Method!

Yes! It is right! The amazing art of sharpie and alcohol on canvas can even be carried away through the art of gridding. This trick will be including some of the drawing patterns as well. But for the beginners, it would not be easy enough rather than copying the images directly from any observation.

The first step is to make a small copy of the image and then start it from the lower left side.
You can use a ruler to mark one inch of the section alongside the bottom edges of the image. Make sure to do the same trick on the other sides of the image as well as on the top.
It is always better to use a ruler at this point so you can easily connect the horizontal lines altogether. This will be ending up with the whole bunch of around one-inch squares on the top side of the image.
You just need to make sure that you have completely scaled-down the drawing on top of the canvas sizing. In case if the image has the sizing of around 8” x 10” then it is important to get it two times the size of the 16” x 20” canvas. In this way, you will be marked around two inches of the square on the canvas. As you are all done with it, you will be starting your drawing as around one square at a time!

Trick No 7: Using a Tracing Lightbox to Trace a Photo on Canvas

Basic materials

A copy of your reference photo
A black paper
A tracing Lightbox

Step by Step Guide

Looking for a reliable tracing method that can not only produce viable results but can assist you in getting the most out of drawings? Try using a Lightbox!

This is another interesting trick which we would like to share with the readers who love to use sharpie and alcohol on canvas! Although you can use a tracing paper to trace the pictures, it can be very time-consuming. On the other hand, a lightbox is an amazing tool that can help you to trace the whole image so that you can make your artwork look professional.

The first step is to place a copy of your reference photo on a lightbox.
Place a blank piece of paper on the top.
After that, turn on the light of the lightbox to start the tracing process. It will make your reference photo to hide under the blank piece of paper that you placed on the top (see step 2).
Make sure to set the right luminosity so that you can get a smooth trace
In the final step, you need to trace your reference image on the paper and you are good to go!

Trick No 8: Using Colors to Tie Dye a Tissue Paper

Basic materials

A pack of watercolors or food colors
Good quality tissue papers
Paper towels
Plastic cups or bowls

Step by Step Guide

The last incredible trick by which you can make great paintings with sharpie and alcohol is to tie-dye a tissue paper. It is an amazing technique widely used by most artists.

The first step in this technique is to fold a tissue paper to get one long rectangular sized paper
Take the bottom right corner of the paper and move it towards the left side so you can get a small triangle. After making a triangle, repeat the step to get one large triangle. (You can use the same folding technique on other tissue papers as well if you want to tie-dye more than one).
After that, use good-quality liquid watercolors. Take a plastic cup or bowl and put your favorite watercolor in it. You can use as many colors as you want!
Then, take the corners of the tissue paper and drip each corner in the color, hold it for a few seconds so the paper can easily soak the color.
Take a paper towel and put tissue paper over it to let it dry. Never unfold the tissue paper before it is completely dried up. If you unfold it when it is wet, the tissue paper will tear. (For fast drying method, you can put your paper towel in the baking tray of the over for at least five to ten minutes).
Wait for few minutes and check the tissue paper if it is completely dry or not. If it has dried up completely, unfold it. You can use a warm iron over it to remove any creases.

Conclusion

So this is all we have ended with the top 8 amazing tricks to learn the art of canvas or painting with the help of sharpie and alcohol. All the tricks are exciting to play with and you will be falling in love with this art form for sure.

Question of the Day: Which trick of using alcohol and sharpie would you try?

Trick No 1: Using Plastic Cup to Burst Colors on Fabric

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 2: Using Ochre Acrylic Paint to Paint Letters

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 3: Graphite Transfer Paper to Transfer Image to Canvas

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 4: Using Charcoal Sheet to Draw Sketch

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 5: Using an Art Projector to Paint

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 6: Using a Grid Method to Paint

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 7: Using a Tracing Lightbox to Trace a Photo on Canvas

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

Trick No 8: Using Colors to Tie Dye a Tissue Paper

Basic materials

Step by Step Guide

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Conclusion