The Black Light BOTA

Ultimately though, I would not incorporate other artwork should this develop further. As an artist, my interest would be to create my own unique work. The Black Light BOTA was created as a learning experience for myself, and I posted it here to share my enthusiasm for working with the BOTA, which I believe a challenging, marvelous tool.

It is great. WHERE did you get the pens, though ? I MIGHT try this. I would colour the cards better than I did before, these days !

I used a set of Sharpie Neon markers. They're pretty easy to come by; I've seen them at most craft stores. You probably saw them already because you mentioned the five-color limitation, and that's what these have. But you can make other colors, like brown and purple, by combining those five colors. Give it a test on some paper and you'll see what you can do.

I found that the Sharpies were too intense for flesh tones. There I used two markers (040 and 054) from the Stablio Neon Fine Points set, blended together to achieve the range of shading you see. I believe I got those from Blick Art Supply, but I'd guess other art supply outlets would have them too.

For the black I used a standard black Sharpie, and to get quicker coverage on the backs I used a very wide point Sharpie. I went over the backs several times to get them black enough. Be careful though. A little too much black, or holding too long on one spot, and you might get a bit of leak through to the faces.

There's a white trim on the back of the cards which was applied with a white paint pen (once again, craft or art store). The pigment ink covers the black, but doesn't show up well in black light. I don't care much one way or the other, but I like the way it looks in white light.

I went through lots of markers. I think I bought at least two sets of the Sharpie Neons, maybe more. I bought a number of black Sharpies too. Coloring an entire deck really sucks up the ink, and the deck maintains an ink odor as well. A friend of mine didn't like all that ink smell, but I kind of do. But hey, I'm weird.

If you hate coloring things in, you won't like this project because it's LOTS of work. But if you enjoy it, you might find this LOTS of fun.

Ah yes - I saw the five colour packs - thanks. I DIDN'T see the Stabilo ones. And that was enough variety of colours for you ? Did you run with the BOTA colouring instructions ?

I like colouring fine. I am just a bit crap at it !

Those are all the markers I used and you'd be able to get the same color range. I DO wish there had been even more colors, like a really good red. But alas I couldn't find that - and this was just an "experiment" of sorts anyway.

I didn't look at the BOTA coloring instructions because I was doing some train of thought and self exploration. What's weird though is that after I finished the deck, I did read up on some of the instructions and I think some of my color choices were the same as BOTA's. Kinda spooky.

I think if this interests you, you should absolutely go for it! It's not a big monetary investment, and while it IS indeed a sizable time investment, you can just do a little here and there over time for as long as you like.

Your colouring is absolutely electric! The cards are so alive with energy, thank you for sharing your work!

Thanks very much for saying so.

This forum is such a rabbit hole. You click on one thing and then another and something else and I don't even know how I ended up here and I'm so glad I did. Amazing work and very inspiring.

Just wondering about your process, agviz. Did you colour the fronts first and then the backs? What did you do with the edges?

Chrystella said:

...Just wondering about your process, agviz. Did you colour the fronts first and then the backs? What did you do with the edges?

Click to expand...

I did color the fronts first. I then colored the backs (as well as the edges) with black Sharpies. I first used a finer tip black Sharpie to trace around the BOTA symbol, then filled in the larger area of the backs with a wider chisel tip. Unfortunately it took several passes and several sets of markers (it takes lots of ink) to get a really solid black.

Beware black ink bleeding through to the front of the card. It happens if you hold the marker in one spot for too long. Or perhaps it's due to paper variations. I'm not entirely sure how to prevent it from an occasional occurrence. One might consider getting a second set of the BOTA deck in case of accidents.

The white line on the back was added with a white paint pen after doing the black. I couldn't find a paint pen that glows in ultraviolet light, but oh well.

Hope that helps.

How do you think BOTA cards would hold up to Copic markers? They are refillable, and have an awesome color range, including neons.