I enjoy experimenting with different sparkly type stuff, most often I use a bitmap transparency overlay with a highly defined profile (culttext.jpg - is my favourite - it is one I downloaded from Xara.com and is also somewhere on the Xara X disc). It works fairly well for things like fireworks / explosions (in blends) and for creating star fields, (for when I get in the mood to do a space picture).
In case anyone's interested ... the settings for the bitmap transparency are 270 dpi, with a trans profile setting of around 0.45 or 0.5 in the top box (depending on how many sparkles you want) and -1 in the bottom box (as far left as it will go to give sharp definition).
Often the biggest problem is exporting this kind of thing; due to bitmap export smoothing, which can make the sparkly bits look blurry. So it takes a bit of tweaking with the never smooth option in page options > view ... and using a defined bitmap copy in your picture and/or sometimes a screen grab, to help get what you are seeing on screen. Also jpgs can desaturate coloured sparkles, so sometimes a gif or png can be better to use.
Not exactly sure what a sparkly gel pen line looks like, but I assume that some of the sparkles would catch the light and others wouldn't and so would look darker? ... like with other types of metallic glitter. Anyway had a quick go with a sparkly coloured pen line in the attached picture.
Regards
Su
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