Tips for colouring with fineliners

Every pen has its own particular characteristics and also its challenges. The STAEDTLER triplus fineliner has a fine tip that produces the ideal line for filigree work in small areas. But what can it do in larger areas? Even, parallel strokes are the first thing to try, to avoid making areas seem choppy and chaotic.

If you go over the same area several times with a fineliner, you will achieve a darker tone that works well. Though you should wait until the previous layer has dried before applying the next, otherwise (as with fibre-tips) you’ll risk destroying the structure of the paper.

In the same way as with fibre-tip pens, fineliners cannot produce the completely homogenous transition from one colour to another that you can achieve with coloured pencils. However, you can incorporate one or more changes of colour within larger areas by using thinner strokes to move from one colour to the next.

The STAEDTLER triplus fineliner colour spectrum is wide and vibrant – and you should use this to full advantage when colouring. To achieve a highly colourful result you can work amongst other things with contrasting complementary colours.

They sit on opposite sides of the colour wheel from each other and are the most contrasting, i.e. yellow and violet, blue and orange, green and red. Last but not least you can take inspiration from the colour spectrum to obtain a colourful result.

Fineliner tips are very thin and colouring with then can take a little longer. But you shouldn’t see this in any way as a negative. Quite the opposite: why not turn colouring with fineliners into a meditative exercise?

Put on your favourite music. Then connect with your inner self as you trace the colours and lines, forget the hurly-burly of life and relax completely.