Copic Markers have been growing in popularity, and it’s no wonder why. These high-quality, alcohol-based markers have astounding blending abilities, a wide arrange of bright and pastel colors and of course, brush tips to aid the coloring process. Here is an overview of what Copic Markers are, how they can be used, and what makes them unique.
What exactly is Copic?
Copic Markers are a unique art medium, characterized by bold flat colors that mimic the look of digital art. The Copic Ciao Markers are dual tip, with a brush end and a wide end. Each marker is also refillable, so that you never run out of your favorite colors.
What does it mean for markers to be alcohol-based and how does it affect marker performance?
Copic markers are alcohol based, meaning that they contain alcohol, as well as a dye ink. They are less likely to leave streaks on the paper and blend wonderfully, because the ink soaks into the paper. This does mean you need thicker paper for the markers, like Bristol Board or other forms of marker paper, but even cardboard will do. You can smell the ink of a Copic because of the alcohol contents. Luckily, the smell will fade from your artwork after a while, and won’t be that strong. Copic alcohol-based markers are specialized, can be refilled, layered and blended, which cannot be done as easily with water-based markers such as felt-tip pens. They are the current highest quality alcohol markers.
What are Copic color arrangements and how do I know which Copics to buy?
Copic markers have a very wide range of colors, including beautiful pastels. Water-based markers rarely have pastel tones that can be applied in even, flat washes. Copic’s light and pastel colored markers can be used to build up darker tones by layering, which helps for when you are just starting out your Copic collection and don’t have a wide variety of markers. For striking contrast, they have vibrant, bright colors that stand out from the page.
Copic color codes can also help you know which tones to build on. The ‘C’ lettering code; also called the Cool Grey markers, all have a similar pigment, but get darker as the code number goes from 0 and up. Although markers from different codes can blend together, getting markers with the same lettering codes can aid for an even more effective and striking blend, although it is not necessary. There main color classes and codes are:
E- Earth Colors
BG- Blue Green
B- Blue
BV- Blue Violet
V- Violet
RV- Red Violet
R- Red
YR- Yellow Red (Orange)
Y- Yellow
YG- Yellow Green
G- Green
W- Warm Gray
C- Cool Gray
With so many colors, how does one even know which Copics to start with? That comes down to the style of art you do. If you tend to do more realism based on what you see in the natural world, a good start are markers from the Green, Yellow Green, Earth Colors and Blue Green Classes. If you are more drawn to making bold and bright artworks, Blue Violets, Red Violets and Reds are good markers to start with.
Of course, you don’t need markers out of every Class when you start, because you can create your own colors when blending and layering. You can start with as little as three markers and build up your collection as time goes on. I started my collection with four markers, two Earth Colors, a Blue Green and a Violet.
My Personal Experience with Copic
I fell in love with the look of Copic art long before I got my first markers. I started my collection about a year and a half ago, with four markers and almost no experience with any mediums other than watercolors and pencil. I quickly became frustrated, since I did not understand the medium at first. After a while, I started combining Copic with chalk pastels, and I started to break into the medium. I understood that layering and blending is essential to getting the more digital look I was after. When I finally began to understand the medium, things started going a lot better. I stopped using chalk pastels with the Copics, and learnt to rely on the markers’ unique attributes. The most important thing when starting with Copic Markers is to be patient and persistent. It will be a difficult medium to get use to if you’ve primarily used paints, but soon enough the medium will become more familiar.
