How to Draw a Holiday Gift Bow Using ABT PRO Markers 4

Hey everyone, Katie here from Studio Katie and I want to show you how to draw a holiday gift bow using Tombow’s ABT PRO Markers. I LOVE these markers for drawing realistically. They are so vibrant and blend well too!

Supplies:

• Tombow MONO Graph Mechanical Pencil
• Tombow ABT PRO Alcohol-Based Markers– I used colors PN15, P249, P277, P245, P195, P192 and P191. However the 5-Packs are awesome for this too!
• Marker paper – I like to use HP premium 32 paper.
• Tombow 1500 Series Colored Pencils

Step one:

Start by sketching out your gift bow using the MONO Graph Mechanical Pencil. I definitely recommend looking at a photo of a bow to use as a reference if you want to make a more realistic looking bow!

Think of all of the little ribbon folds in the bow as curved triangles!

Step two:

Choose a color palette for your bow. You’ll want at least three shades of a color, but five to six adds more variety to the bow!  I definitely recommend the 5-Packs of ABT PRO Alcohol-Based Markers!

Starting with your lightest color, apply it by brushing the color towards the lightest area. Since we’re illustrating something reflective, each of the ribbon folds have a lighter reflective area, mostly in the middle.

Step three:

Use another marker in a medium value (just a little bit darker then your first marker). Start at the edges of the area you’re coloring and flick the marker tip up towards the center. Be careful not to fully cover the area, because you want to keep the lighter area in the middle where the reflection is.

Step four:

Take a darker marker and repeat step three. Flick the color over your medium value, but not completely covering it.

Step five:

Next, go back over everything with the lightest color (the first marker that you used). This will blend the colors together more.

Take a black ABT PRO Marker to fill in the darkest areas of your gift bow.

Continue until you’ve filled each section of the bow. I like to work one area at a time, so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Step six:

As a fun bonus step, you can also get out your 1500 Series Colored Pencils to further the blending and add a bit of visual texture to your illustration.

Choose pencils in similar shades as the markers you used and layer the colored pencils over top of the alcohol marker art.

I hope you had fun learning how to draw a holiday gift bow! The ABT PRO Markers are so good for illustrating realistic art and can make drawing reflective objects such as a gift bow really fun.