More detailed step by step instructions at www.lesliewritesitall.com

Water brushes are such a fun tool to use for brush letter calligraphy. The chambers of these brushes are usually filled with water and dipped into ink or watercolors for lettering. These Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers take water brushes up a notch by pre-filling them with an assortment of fun colors. This review will go over how to use these pens as well as demonstrate some of their uses like making some galaxy lettering.

Things to know about Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers:
*Original price for these pens is $40, but its available on Amazon for less than $30
*The set comes with 12 markers in assorted colors (see above for all colors and their fun names)
*The tips are made of nylon
*The inks are dye-based and not light fast

Galaxy Lettering

What you'll need:

Mermaid markers in Jellyfish and Deep Sea colors
Canson XL Watercolor paper
Uniball Signo Gel Pen in White
Uniball Signo Gel Pen in Gold

Step 1: Understanding blends and bleeds
A blend is where the color gradient transitions smoothly from one color to another. A bleed, however, is when one color seeps into another color and the change between colors is very distinct. The above written "blend" is a true blend and the second "blend" actually is a series of bleeds with the most obvious bleed from between the "b" and "l". 

Step 2: Write your word or phrase
Now, begin writing your word or phrase. Dip the Jellyfish color pen into ink from the Deep Sea marker will give us a variety of colors in between. You can pool some of the Deep Sea marker ink by squeezing on the chamber of the pen and letting a few drops of ink sit on a non-porous surface (like plastic containers or plastic sandwich bags). This effect works best by dipping the lighter color pen into the darker color ink.

Step 3: Add in stars with a white gel pen
Once your work or phrase is written, use a white gel pen to add dots of varying sizes inside the lettering. You can also add different star shapes to create some more interesting shapes than dots.

Step 4: Adding a gold drop shadow
Finally, add your shadowing to further enhance your lettering. To add a drop shadow, I imagine where a light source would be. Here, I'm using the eraser to show where the light is coming from. I then add the shadow to everything behind where the light would hit. Adding a drop shadow gives your lettering a little more definition and makes the painted portion stand out more.

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