50 State Quarters: Coloring Pages Using Ohuhu's New Pupe

I was trying to decide what art material to use for my next batch of 50 State Quarter coloring pages when I got an email from the folks at Ohuhu asking if I'd like to review their latest markers. Would I?! Yes! I absolutely love everything that Ohuhu makes. Just read my reviews of the Ohuhu Honolulu and Ohuhu Kaala alcohol markers and you'll see! Affiliate links below.  

Ohuhu's latest set, called Pupe, includes 60 water-based markers. But these are not ordinary water-based markers. They are specifically designed to be paper-friendly, meaning they won't scratch or peel the surface of your paper, even if you color over the same spot repeatedly. This is a total game-changer!

The Pupe markers are double-sided, with a brush tip and a 0.4 mm fineliner tip. They're non-toxic, acid-free, and fade-resistant. They come in a handy carrying case. And best of all, they are extremely inexpensive. But how is the quality? Fantastic! The ink goes down beautifully and my paper held up to 3-4 layers with no issues. Both tips are comfortable and easy to use. The colors are vibrant. If I have any complaint at all, it's that I wanted a paler grey for shading. I'd happily trade one of the oranges or reds for another grey or a light tan. But other than that, I absolutely love the Pupes. Here are the pages I colored: 

 

I know I said I wasn't going to announce my favorite art materials until after I've done all 50 State Quarters, but I will say that the Ohuhu's Pupe set is near the top. Here are all of the materials I've used previously:

• Ohuhu Kaala markers (Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Wisconsin)
• ink and Prismacolor colored pencils (Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Montana)
• Flair pens (Delaware, Indiana)
• Sharpies (Maine, South Carolina)
• Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 (Colorado, New Hampshire)
• Folk Art acrylic paint (Wyoming, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Michigan)
• Crayola crayons (Florida, Maryland, South Dakota, Vermont)
• Himi gouache (Iowa, New York, Utah, West Virginia)
• Derwent Inktense pencils (Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana)

A big thanks to Ohuhu for letting me test out the Pupe set. I'll be back to them soon, but for now I need to set them aside, find a different art material, and start on my next batch of State Quarter coloring pages.

50 State Quarters: Coloring Pages Using Ohuhu Halawa Colored Pencils

I've finished coloring all of the 50 State Quarter coloring pages! The last four states in my 8-month long project completing the 50 pages using different art materials include Alaska, Texas, Kansas, and Ohio. I colored these four with the Ohuhu Halawa colored pencil set. Affiliate link here and below. 

Ohuhu fans like me have been waiting (im)patiently for Ohuhu to release a colored pencil set and it's finally here! Ohuhu has a well-deserved reputation for making high quality art materials at affordable prices and I'm happy to report that their colored pencils uphold that reputation. This was my first time trying them and I was really happy with their performance. I wasn't entirely happy with MY performance; I'm used to wax-based pencils, so there was a learning curve with these oil-based pencils. I intentionally tried a bunch of different techniques while coloring to see how they compare to the other brands I've used. I also tried to use as many of the colors as possible across the four pages.  

The Ohuhu Halawa colored pencil set contains 72 pencils with ultra-soft lead in a nice range of colors. At only 62 cents a pencil, they are significantly cheaper than other brands of equal quality. They're packaged more securely than pretty much anything I've ever received through the mail. That said, I did have issues with repeated breakage in one pencil. None of the others broke, even with hard pressure. I'm looking forward to coloring with them again, particularly in combination with Ohuhu's markers. 

Here are the art materials I used for the rest of the coloring pages:

• Ohuhu Kaala markers (Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Wisconsin)
• ink and Prismacolor colored pencils (Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Montana)
• Flair pens (Delaware, Indiana)
• Sharpies (Maine, South Carolina)
• Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 (Colorado, New Hampshire)
• Folk Art acrylic paint (Wyoming, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Michigan)
• Crayola crayons (Florida, Maryland, South Dakota, Vermont)
• Himi gouache (Iowa, New York, Utah, West Virginia)
• Derwent Inktense pencils (Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana)
• Ohuhu Pupe markers (Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Washington)
• Koi watercolors by Sakura (Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oklahoma)
• Prismacolor art markers (Minnesota, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Virginia)
• Kuretake Gansai Tambi (California, Georgia, North Carolina, North Dakota)

Tomorrow I'll rank the 14 art materials from my favorite to least favorite for coloring the 50 State Quarters. If you've been following along, you can probably already guess what will be at the top and what will be at the bottom!

How Many Different Colors of Ohuhu Markers Are There?

Last week I reviewed the Honolulu Dual-Trip Alcohol Markers by Ohuhu, which has 320 gorgeous colors. In an earlier post, I shared my initial impressions of Ohuhu's Kaala line, which includes four sets of markers (two with 24 and two with 60). Then I took a deeper dive into the Kaalas after making thank-you cards and drawing a frog. As I mentioned in my posts, the markers in both lines are comparable in performance to high-end alcohol marker brands and have a wide range of beautiful colors. I highly recommend them. The organization, naming, and numbering systems of each line are equally haphazard, which is frustrating, but it doesn't take away from the fact that Ohuhu makes really nice alcohol markers at a very affordable price. 

I recently finished swatching the Kaalas. As I worked on swatch cards, I noticed a few duplications between the sets. (More on that below.) That got me wondering how many duplicates there would be between the 168 Kaalas and the 320 Honolulus. Were my Kaalas duplicates of my Honolulus, just with different tips? Were there any colors in the Kaala line that aren't part of the 320 Honolulus? And if so, how many? Just how many colors of Ohuhu markers are there?

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How many different colors of Ohuhu markers are there?

I made a spreadsheet, gathered my swatch cards and markers, and spent hours scribbling notes and trying to find the answer to my question. It shouldn't have been that difficult. Add number of pens in both sets, then subtract any duplicates. Easy, right? Nope! At first, it seemed like it would be that simple. It was not. 

First, I had to eliminate duplicates within the four sets of Kaala markers. Here are the swatch cards: 

And here is the handy chart I made showing the duplicates between the four sets. 

As you can see, there are 16 colors that appear in more than one of the Kaala sets. Of these, two colors (Warm Grey 140 and Black) are in three sets. So the potentially 168 different colors is actually 150. 

Next, I compared those 150 unique colors to the 320 Honolulu colors. There was a potential of 470 colors, but surely there would be quite a few duplicates, right? Actually, no. The only duplicates were Black, YG40, B290, and E440. I was really surprised. Does that mean there are 466 unique colors? 

No. Because that's when I noticed there are duplicate numbers. B290 is in Honolulu with the name Antwerp Blue, while the same number is Sky Blue in Kaala. They are not at all the same color. E440 is Khaki in Honolulu, but Bronze in Kaala. Again, not the same color. So maybe there are 466 unique colors? 

Still no. Because when I compared the swatches of the two YG40 markers (which had the same color names), the colors weren't the same at all. Not even close. So does that mean there are 467 unique colors and I have to think of Honolulu YG40 and Kaala YG40 as different colors? 

Maybe. Honestly, it took me hours to record all this and I'm not 100% confident that I didn't miss something. And there's an entirely different issue I didn't mention, which is that some of the colors have the same names but different numbers. 

Two of the colors with the same name look completely different, Grass Green and Buttercup Yellow (neither of which look like a buttercup at all, but that's a separate issue). The rest of the the same-name-different-numbers are close if not identical. So that means that we need to subtract 7 colors from our total, brining us to 460. 

So maybe there are 460 unique colors of Ohuhu markers, but I won't swear to it. I could easily have made a mistake. I think I'm safe in saying that there are about 460 unique colors of Ohuhu markers. Of course, they could come out with new colors at any time, or discontinue colors. 

Ultimately, no matter how many colors there are, these are good quality markers at an affordable price. The range of colors is enormous, significantly more than you can get with any other brand I'm aware of.  I can overlook the strange color family (dis)organization, the wacky names, and the illogical numbering system, since the performance is what actually matters. 

Doodled Animals with Ohuhu Nahuku Acrylic Markers

Ohuhu is known for making high-quality art supplies that are much less expensive than comparable brands. I own four products by Ohuhu: the Honolulu Dual-Tip Alcohol Markers; the Kaala Dual-Tip Alcohol Markers; the Marker Sketchbook; and the Pupe Paper-Friendly Water-Based Markers. I love them all. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to try out the Ohuhu Nahuku Acrylic Markers (affiliate link here and below). 

I've used acrylic markers ("paint pens") by other manufacturers, but Ohuhu's Nahuku is completely different than anything I've used before. 

I'm used to acrylic markers with a chisel or point nib, where you press down to let the paint flow into the nib the first time you use it. Instead, these markers have brush nibs. The paint flows into the brush without any pressing (though you do have to shake them). There's a peekaboo window on the side of the pen so you can see how much paint is left. Genius! 

And that paint? The pens are really juicy and the paint flows onto the surface beautifully. The colors are highly pigmented. They are gorgeous on white and even more so on black. I did a single coat for my swatch cards; as you can see, most of the colors are completely opaque on both black and white. Only the four lightest colors could use a second coat on the black. 

    

After swatching the colors, I couldn't wait to try the pens on an actual project. I recently found a scrap of paper from years ago where I'd doodled four animals in a distinctive style. (I wish I knew what artist had influenced my doodles so I could give proper credit. Let me know if you recognize the style.) I used the Nahukus to doodle those animals (and a few more) to fill a page. In each case, I colored the base, let that dry, added the secondary colors on top (ears, whites of the eyes, tummies, stripes, dots, etc) and let that dry. I did the outlines with a Flair pen to see how it would write on top of the paint (perfectly). 

I loved working with these markers! The paint flows so well. But using them on paper is a waste of an amazing product. You can use any markers on paper, but these pens are made to write on non-traditional surfaces, like glass, plastic, rocks, wood, fabric, and much more. 

There was an empty plastic Ziploc bag sitting on my desk, so I decided to doodle more animals there. And that's where the Nahukus really shine. The brush nib glided over the plastic like skates on ice. I did the base layers, let those dry, then did the detail layers. I only outlined two of the animals; this time, I used the black acrylic marker to see how fine of a line I could get. 

The bag is wrinkly, so the scan isn't great, but you get the idea. 

I tested the Ohuhu Nahukus Acrylic Markers on two more surfaces, which I put together into a single project. I'll show you that on Monday.

Ohuhu Coloring Gallery Giveaway Challenge

Ohuhu, maker of my all-time favorite water-based and alcohol markers, is sponsoring a coloring contest and you should enter! Why? Well, not only are there fabulous grand prizes for six winners, but EVERYONE who enters earns reward points you can use toward Ohuhu purchases. All you have to do is visit the Ohuhu coloring page gallery, print out your favorite design, color it in, and submit it. You can enter up to three coloring pages. You have until December 15 to enter. 

For fun, I played along but turned it into a challenge. I printed out a cake design, chose 7 colors (plus black, a warm grey for shadows, and the colorless blender) from Ohuhu's Kaala Landscape set (affiliate link), and gave myself two hours to color. This is how my page looked at the end of two hours. 

I love Ohuhu markers. If you've never tried them, buy a small set and see why so many artists absolutely love them. At 55 cents a marker, they are far more affordable than the other artist-quality brands. They make a great gift for tweens and teens who are interested in moving beyond the student-grade supplies. 

Good luck in the contest!

Trick or Treat Halloween Jar Coloring Page

I was in the mood to color, so I pulled out my awesomely huge collection of Ohuhu markers and drew this:

 

Halloween crafts are so much fun! I loved deciding what trick or treat options someone might put in jars on their shelves. In retrospect, perhaps the eyeballs should have gone into a jar with a larger opening though. 

Below you'll find all the steps I did to make my drawing. If you want to skip the first steps and print out my line drawing as a coloring page, feel free. Affiliate links below. 

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Trick or Treat Halloween Jar Coloring Page

Materials:

• cardstock scraps
• microtip scissors
• Neenah Vellum Bristol
• repositionable adhesive
• micron fineliner (black)
• Ohuhu markers

Steps: 

Fold a scrap of cardstock in half. Cut out half-jar shapes along the fold so that they open to make a complete jar. Repeat with jars of different shapes and sizes, making sure they'll fit nicely on the drawing paper you're using.  

Use the fineliner to draw two horizontal lines on your drawing paper. These are the shelves. Position your jars the way you want them, then add a tiny dab of repositionable adhesive to the back of the jars to hold them in place. Carefully trace around each jar, then remove them. 

Add labels to your jars. 

Now grab those Ohuhus and start coloring! Fill each of the TRICK jars with something creepy and each of the TREAT jars with something tasty. You can color first and then outline in black, or outline first and then color. Both work. Obviously, you could also sketch your ideas with a pencil first. When you've filled your jars, you can add lids and stoppers. Or not. I toyed with the idea of leaving the lid off the spiders and putting them all over the page. 

 

The last step is coloring the background, which really makes the jars pop. I used a single Ohuhu pen to make the wood paneling. You can get great variegation by laying down different amounts of ink. 

If you're seeing this on the day I published it, Amazon has an AMAZING sale on Ohuhu markers right now! Check out all the different styles and sets. I've never seen a better price on alcohol markers, and Ohuhu makes some of the best.

Product Review: Ohuhu Honolulu Dual Tip Alcohol Markers

As promised, today I'm reviewing the Honolulu Dual-Trip Alcohol Markers by Ohuhu. I was given the markers from the manufacturer, but this is not a sponsored post. As always, everything I say is my own honest opinion. There are affiliate links throughout this post. 

I'm going to start by jumping right in and saying that I love these markers. I'll go into the pros and cons below, but do know that I highly recommend them. This set of 320 markers is a thing of beauty. Every time I see my Ohuhu Honolulu markers in their carrying case, I am instantly happy. Having so many shades at my fingertips is a dream. 

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Ohuhu Honolulu Dual-Tip Alcohol Markers, Set of 320

The Carrying Case

The case, which is included with the markers, is soft-sided with six dividers and a pocket for swatch cards and a colorless blender (also included) inside. It has both an adjustable shoulder strap and a handle. It measures approximately 14" x 11" x 7" and weighs around 14 pounds when fully loaded with the markers. It zips securely for transport and is comfortable to hold. A word to the wise: Do not move your case without zipping it, even if you're 'just' moving it upstairs. You might be successful, or you might wish you'd been. Let's just say it takes awhile to pick up that many pens if you drop them. I'm thankful I dropped them before swatching and organizing them.  

The Barrels, Caps, and Tips

The markers have round barrels that are very comfortable in my hand. Little grips on the caps make them easy to open and prevent the markers from rolling away on the table. The color number and name are printed on both caps. The caps could be a better color match to the ink. About 80% of the markers are a decent match, leaving 20% of the caps that range from close-ish to just not true to the ink color. 

Each marker has two tips: a brush tip and a chisel tip. Both are exactly as expected and perform well. I am able to get great coverage and get into tiny spots by using both tips. The tips themselves are double-sided, so if you ever get any fraying, just grab tweezers, pull out the tip, and pop it back in the other direction. You can buy replacement nibs if the second side wears down. I haven't experienced this; my tips are holding up perfectly.  

Something I love about these markers is that, with the caps on, you can easily tell at glance which end has which tip. The grey shows on the brush tip side, even with the caps on. 

The Ink

I am really happy with the ink flow of the Honolulus. It goes on beautifully, dries instantly, blends well, and doesn't smear. A small number of markers bled over the lines a little bit when I was making my swatch cards but that was rare. I haven't had the markers long enough to know if the ink fades over time, but the manufacturer claims it doesn't. 

 

The Colors

I've never had a set of coloring implements with anywhere close to 320 colors, so I love my Honolulus for that reason alone. The largest crayon set Crayola makes has 152 different colors (and I don't own it); I don't even have a complete set of Prismacolor colored pencils (I have 77/150). So having so many colors is amazing. I can't think of a color that I need that isn't in the set. 

While I love the color palette, I do not like the organization. The color families don't make sense, and the numbering system makes even less sense. Take a look at Color Swatch 2, for example. There are four color families on it, which I have outlined with the appropriate color. They include: R (Red), P (Purple), V (Violet), and B (Blue). The colors are shown in numerical order. 

If you showed me just the colors in the Red color family, I'd be lucky to guess the color family at all. Look at R24 (3rd row, 2nd column). It's called Dark Violet Light. I'm not sure how a color can be both dark and light, but ignoring that... it's Violet. Literally. Why isn't it in the Violet family? There are so many examples of colors that are in one color family that literally have the name of another color family.  

On top of that, the colors within a family aren't numbered in an order that makes sense. I want to be able to pick up any three pens in a row and make a good gradient. But instead, they skip around. The Blue family is decent in its organization, but that's about it. Scroll back and look at the Swatches. The colors could be organized so much better. 

Back to the names. I pulled out 8 markers with names that do not (in my opinion) match their colors whatsoever. Look at the caps and think about what you would call each one. Off the top of my head, I'd call them Pink Blush, Peach, Pale Peach, Pale Pumpkin, Pastel Orange, Pale Mustard, Lime Sherbet, and Mellow Blue. 

Want to know their actual names? I'll mix up the order so that you can guess which is which. They are: Brown Grey, Vivid Blue, Pink Flamingo, Deep Orange, Horseradish, Chocolate Pink, Carmine Red, and Black Brown. 

Don't see any color that could possibly be Black Brown? Yeah, me neither. 

Here are the answers:

Fortunately, the names of the colors don't really matter and I'm free to organize them however I'd like. It just seems like such a missed opportunity. 

The Price

I saved the best for last. The Ohuhu Honolulu set is incredibly affordable, priced around 75¢ per marker. Considering that the quality rivals that of one of the most expensive brands of alcohol markers, which can cost more than $5 a piece, the Ohuhus are such a bargain. To be fair, the Ohuhus aren't refillable and the others are (not to mention their numbering system makes more sense), so it's not quite apples to apples. But still. Get the Ohuhu Honolulu 320-marker set. You won't regret it. 

50 State Quarters: My Favorite Media for Coloring

After completing 50 similar coloring pages using 14 different art materials, I have some pretty strong opinions about which are my favorites and which are my least favorites. Today I'm going to rank them from best to worst. 

Some points to clarify: 

• I like each of these art materials. They perform well for what they are intended to do. In many cases, they are not meant to be used on detailed coloring pages. That doesn't make them bad art supplies. It just means they're not the best choice for this type of project. 

• I printed all the coloring pages on Neenah Vellum Bristol (affiliate link here and below). It's the best quality paper that works in our printer. It is not made for wet media, so that definitely affected the performance of some of the art materials I used. 

• I printed the coloring pages at full size. Some of the materials I used did a great job covering large areas easily, but were incredibly difficult to try to fill in the lettering. Others were the opposite - great for tiny details and frustrating (and time-consuming and product-wasting) for broad coverage. 

• Some of the art materials I used have been favorites of mine for years. Others I used for the first time for this project. My own skill level and familiarity with the products influenced how each performed. 

• I did a better job coloring some pages than others, separate from the amount of experience I had with each art material. Lighting conditions, the speed at which I colored, and stresses going on in my life while I was coloring all played a role in how the finished pages turned out. I like some of the state quarter designs much better than others, which made them more fun to color. Some art materials had a much more limited range of colors than others due to which sets I own. I tried to think just about the art materials themselves, and not how my finished pages turned out, when ranking them from best to worst. 

Below, I've ranked all 14 art materials I used for coloring the 50 State Quarters. You'll find an affiliate link in the title. I've chosen a representative quarter for each material; that image will link back to the post about that art material. OK, let's get ranking! 

#1 - Ohuhu Kaala

The Ohuhu Kaalas get the top spot because they color beautifully and are a pleasure to use. The broad tip covers large areas easily and the fine tip can get into those tiny letters. The color range is fantastic. The markers are comfortable to use even after a lot of coloring. 

#2 - Ohuhu Pupe

To be honest, I never would have expected a water-based marker to rank in the top 2. But Ohuhu's Pupe markers are a dream for coloring. You can go over an area repeatedly without tearing, scratching, or peeling the paper. Once again, having two options for nibs (brush and fineliner) made it easy to get good coverage and to fit in tiny spaces. 

#3 - Prismacolor Premier Markers

My previous favorite markers are in spot #3. Just like the Ohuhus, they're a pleasure to use, are comfortable to hold, and work well for both large areas (using the chisel tip) and tiny areas (using the fine tip). The quality is nearly identical to the Ohuhus.

#4 - Himi Gouache

I had a lot of fun coloring pages with gouache. I loved how the vibrant colors blended on the page. Being able to reactivate dried areas was a major plus too. Filling in the tiny letters took time, but it wasn't unpleasant. 

#5 - Ink and Prismacolor Colored Pencils

I absolutely love coloring with Prismacolor colored pencils, but I knew that coloring in an entire page would be time consuming and would hurt my hand. By starting with a base coat of inks, I could then add details and shading with the colored pencils. It was a lot of fun, although it made me realize that there are a lot of basic ink colors I'm missing. 

#6 - Kuretake Gansai Tambi 

I enjoyed coloring the pages with gansai tambi - I love how easy it is to get deep pigmentation or a light wash depending on how much water you use. However, the paper did not love the amount of water I needed to make the paint work properly. This is an excellent example of a great product on the wrong paper. 

#7 - Sakura Koi Watercolors

Just like above, I love my Sakura Koi watercolors, but they work much better on proper watercolor paper than on Bristol vellum. If I'd been able to print the coloring pages on the best paper for each particular media, that would have made an enormous difference in the rankings. As it was, the watercolors were still fun to use but I struggled to get smooth and even color. 

#8 - Derwent Inktense Pencils

I like the versatility of the Inktense pencils and had fun using them, but I struggled with covering large areas without introducing too much water to the paper. This is another supply that would have been more enjoyable to use with the proper paper. 

#9 - Ohuhu Halawa Colored Pencils

I know some people can happily fill an entire coloring page using just colored pencil, but I prefer using markers or something else that goes on quickly as a base, then adding colored pencil on top for shading, detail, and tiny spaces. Blending wasn't as easy as with other methods. Coloring with the Halawas was fun, but not one of my top choices of I'd reach for the next time I complete a full-size coloring page on this paper. 

#10 - Folk Art Acrylic Paint

How much I enjoyed coloring with acrylic paint varied widely across the four images I completed. Filling in the letters was a pain in the neck, as were other tiny details. Bigger areas were more fun. I had to add a drop or two of water to some of my paints to get them just the right consistency for coloring, so that I was an extra step I would have preferred to skip (and did sometimes, only to regret it). 

#11 - Crayola Crayons

Crayola crayons rank high for nostagia and have a lot of other things going for them. But ultimately, they are not the best choice for coloring if you're interested in achieving any sort of detail or shading. It's hard to cover large spaces smoothly and painstaking to fill in tiny letters. I enjoyed using them, but purely for the good memories of my childhood, teaching years, and early parenthood.

#12 - Flair Pens

I love Flair pens. They are one of the few art supplies that live permanently on my desk within easy reach. I use them all the time. Before this project, however, I had never used them to complete an entire coloring page. And for good reason. I only ended up coloring two state quarters with Flair pens instead of four like I'd done for every material listed above. 

#13 - Stabilo Woody 3-in-1

Once again, I only finished two pages using the Stabilo Woodys. They are chunky and thus great for making big, bold marks on canvas, glass, and other surfaces... not filling in little letters on paper. I didn't hate coloring with them, but I felt very limited in what I could do. 

#14 - Sharpies

I'm a huge fan of Sharpies, but as it turns out,  I am NOT a huge fan of completing coloring pages entirely with Sharpies. This was the only art material that I regretted using for this project. I couldn't work for any length of time before needing a break from the fumes. I did manage to complete two pages, but yikes. 

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There's actually a secret 15th art material that I tried (and failed) to use for coloring: tissue paper. I thought I could paint glue onto the coloring page, then tear tissue paper to color in the spaces. That didn't work well at all, so I tried using a craft knife and a lightbox to cut tissue paper into the shapes I needed. Nope - not fun at all and the detailed lines on the coloring page didn't show through some of the colors of tissue paper like I thought they would. I abandoned my efforts after an hour of frustration.