What Are ProMarkers? Ultimate Guide

Welcome to the Ultimate guide about ProMarkers!

I try to gather here as many pieces of information about these markers as I can. Please feel free to ask questions in the comment if you have any. I constantly add more info here, so if you have any great tips, please let me know! 🙂

What are ProMarkers?

ProMarkers are alcohol based markers created by Winsor and Newton company. They are non-toxic, blend well and are easy to use, which makes them great for beginners.
Promarkers were originally made by Letraset up until they were bought over by Winsor & Newton in 2012 (the branding wasn’t switched until 2015).

Promarkers have 2 separate nibs built into either end of the pen, called Twin nibs.

• The broad chisel nib
  Used for filling in larger areas

• The fine bullet nib
  It’s more suited for coloring smaller areas and adding more precise details to your artworks.

What are ProMarkers used for?

ProMarkers are often used in illustration – usually for coloring linearts. They can be also used on ink-resistant surfaces like acetate, glass, plastic and wood.

Are ProMarkers Blendable?

Yes, you can blend Promarker colors together – The ProMarker Blender will help you to merge the colors or make them softer. The artwork surface you’re using makes a difference to your end results. The ink dries quickly, so picking up the right paper makes easier to blend colors.

The ProMarker Blender

The ProMarker blender is a tool that helps to blend the colors together. Such Blender pen is included within the 12 Promarkers. The ProMarker Blender can be used not only to merge the colors, but also to soften them.

Remember to clean the Blender after using it!

Below you can see The Letraset ProMarker Set No.1 – Pack of 1 (12 Colours and Free Blender):

Are Promarkers permanent?

Yes, ProMarkers are permanent and extremely quick drying.

Are ProMarkers waterproof?

Yes, the inks are waterproof, but it is possible to blend colors with one another before they are fully dry.

What paper is best for ProMarkers?

They work well on Cass Art Marker Pads and Cass Art Canford Card, but can also be built up gradually on ink resistant surfaces such as acetate, perspex and even glass. Thank’s to its alcohol-based ink, they can be applied to a variety of materials instead of just paper. A specially coated paper such as the Winsor & Newton Bleedproof Marker Paper. Bleedproof paper is specially coated to lift ink away from the page, making it easier to work with inks and preventing the ink from bleeding through the pages.

Do ProMarkers work fabric?

ProMarkers aren’t designed for fabric. 

They are suitable to use on almost all surfaces, including paper, card, vellum, acetate, glass, wood, metal and plastic,  but if you want to paint on clothes, we recommend to choose markers dedicated to painting on fabric.

The longer the nib is in contact with the fabric, the more it will bleed.

If you are interested in checking out the results of using ProMarkers on fabric, please read this article, written by Debbie: What else can I do with Promarkers?

How many Winsor and Newton ProMarkers are there?

ProMarker’s are Available in 148 Colours. Below you can see a list of all colors available:

How do you store ProMarkers?

Are ProMarkers refillable?

Promarkers are non-refillable markers!

However, there are a few tips that could help you to refill them. You can read them below.

How to refill a ProMarker?

Unfortunately, ProMarkers are non-refillable, but if your marker runs out of ink/dries up, you can fill it with rubbing alcohol to make it last longer.

What to do:

• Pull out the nib
• Fill the marker with alcohol
• Put the nib in its place and close the marker
• Shake it (30 seconds)

You can try this if you want to revive your dried markers!

Won’t the color drain?
No, if your marker is missing only the alcohol fluid. If your marker is used a lot, it might be missing color, in which case alcohol refill won’t help and might drain the colour.

TIP: Don’t throw away used markers. You can try to create your own ink – and fill with it your empty ProMarkers 🙂

What’s the difference between ProMarkers and brush markers?

The difference between ProMarkers and Brushmarkers are the nibs – the BrushMarker comes with a broad chisel nib and a brush nib.

Winsor & Newton designed a stiff yet flexible nib that mimics a brush but is made from a solid tip rather than lots of hairs. This allows the pen to make consistent, fluid strokes without the risk of splitting. Marks can therefore be incredibly precise, smooth and streak free.

BrushMarkers are available in 72 colours.

ProMarker and BrushMarker have the same ink formulation. Therefore, ProMarkers and BrushMarkers can be used together.

INFO: The BrushMarker recently became ProMarker Brush. Read more about it here: link

Promarkers vs Copics

There are many opinions, that Promarker’s colors are much intense than Copic’s.

You can find the full comparison between ProMarkers and Copic markers in the article Copic Markers Alternatives – you can find here all pros and cons of Promarkers.

Shading with ProMarkers

You can add more layers of color to give the drawing some shade. You can also use some darker colors and blend them with the lighter color to add more contrast.

You can also use the grey color to add shading. They might leave gray spots, but you can get rid of them by adding a layer of color on top of them. This technique doesn’t work with every color, so better try it first, before coloring your illustration.