Out of Order and Into Color

My August SketchBox Marker Experiments

accidentally completed the August SketchBox lesson backward, beginning with the desert artwork and returning later to the neurographic warm-up. Along the way, professional markers helped me explore color layering and mixing outside my comfort zone.

The Magic of Alcohol Markers

This month’s creative treasure came from @getSketchBox. I used the professional illustration markers from my August SketchBox to explore color layering while creating a stained-glass-inspired desert sunset and a neurographic study.

Discover Treasure

SketchBox professional markers displayed with completed desert and neurographic artwork on an artist’s desk.

I completed this month’s SketchBox lesson a little out of order.

The neurographic exercise was supposed to be a warm-up, a chance to become familiar with the professional illustration markers before beginning the larger stained-glass-inspired sunset. Instead, I became excited about the desert artwork and went straight to the main project. I finished the entire desert scene before realizing that I had completely forgotten to do the warm-up.

So, naturally, I went back and warmed up after I was already finished.

That backward order turned out to suit the experience surprisingly well. By the time I returned to the neurographic piece, I had already spent time layering the markers, watching their colors interact, and learning how much could be created from the selection inside the box.

Beginning with the Desert

The main project in the August @getSketchBox lesson was a stained-glass-style sunset created with professional illustration markers. My finished piece immediately felt like desert art to me, with its large golden sun, patterned sky, warm mountains, cactus, and brilliant strip of blue across the foreground.

Color mixing is something I genuinely struggle with. When I see a limited collection of colors, I do not always instinctively know which ones to combine or how they will behave together. That made this month’s challenge uncomfortable at first, but it was also exactly what made it useful.

The markers themselves were much simpler to use than I expected. Instead of needing every color to be supplied individually, I could layer and combine the markers to create colors that were not already sitting in front of me. The more I worked, the more I began to understand how one color could shift another and how repeated layers could deepen an area without requiring a completely different marker.

The strong outlines and small patterned sections also gave me room to experiment without feeling as though I had to solve the entire picture at once. I could concentrate on one little area, try a combination, and then carry what I learned into the next section.

You can watch my desert marker art video HERE.

Returning to the Forgotten Warm-Up

After finishing the desert artwork, I realized that I had skipped the neurographic warm-up. I went back to complete it, although I wandered away from the original plan there too.

The tutorial included orange in the neurographic color palette, but I left it out of mine. After spending so much time among the glowing oranges and yellows of the desert, I found myself drawn toward cooler blues, teals, purples, and muted reds for this second piece.

The flowing shapes gave me another way to practice layering. Rather than building a recognizable landscape, I could pay attention to how the colors sat beside and over one another. The piece became a small experiment in rounded forms, shadows, highlights, and the new colors that appeared when the markers overlapped.

It may not have served as a warm-up in the traditional sense, but it became a lovely way to finish the lesson. I could approach it with more confidence because the desert project had already carried me through the most unfamiliar part of using the markers.

You can watch my neurographic marker art video HERE.

What I Took Away from This Box

What I loved most about this month’s SketchBox was how approachable professional markers became once I stopped worrying about finding the perfect color and began experimenting with the colors I had.

This challenge brought me into uncomfortable territory, especially where color mixing was concerned, but it also gave me a practical way through it. I learned that combining colors does not always require a palette and a brush. With markers, the mixing can happen gradually through layering, repetition, and a willingness to see what the next color changes.

I did the lesson backward. I forgot the warm-up. I changed the neurographic palette. I also learned quite a bit, which is precisely why I enjoy opening a new SketchBox and seeing where the supplies take me.

If you would like to explore SketchBox, you can use my referral link:

https://www.getsketchbox.com/refer/Renee-HLXUGLEU

This is a referral link. If you decide to subscribe through it, I may receive referral credit at no additional cost to you. I am also a member of the SketchBox Social Squad.

@getSketchBox