Playing with Tombows

This is one of my first few attempts using my Tombow markers. I am quite disappointed with the results of my first few pieces. This is the last piece I just coloured and it looks passable if I ignore all the smudges I created by mistake. I am still not getting the hang of blending the markers directly on paper. This image was coloured by picking up colours I scribbled on an acrylic block.

If there are any fellow crafters out there using the Tombow markers, please help!! I would like to be able to colour with the markers and not struggle so much. I am using both heavyweight watercolour papers as well as medium weight cartridge papers. Strangely, the heavyweight watercolour paper was blotchy and looked horrible after colouring. The picture above is of medium weight cartridge paper. I have a friend who uses coated printing paper but she usually uses the colourless blender to blend her colours. I have yet to try that and will try to find time to do so in the following week.