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I am pretty new to the stampin seen. I have some image stamps and I am wondering what people use to color them in. Last week I borrowed my dd color pencils because the markers I had were pretty bold/harsh looking. What is the deal with copic markers, why are they so expensive and what makes everyone love them?? Thanks for all the advice!!
They are my favorite method of coloring images for my cards. Yes, they are expensive...they are artist's tools and sold in art supply stores besides more recently in stamping stores. Copics are alcohol-based vs water based. They blend into one another incredibly for subtle shading. There is even one that REMOVES Copic color, called Colorless Blender. I watch for sales and coupons and wouldn't be without mine. I used to use colored pencils and Gamsol, but I learned that Gamsol is oderless turp, but turp, nonetheless. I don't want to be breathing those fumes. These are my own personal reasons for using Copics. I feel they are worth the money and my time, but others may have very different opinions. Hope this gives you some insight.
Copics.....well, they are refillable, and if the tips wear out those too are replaceable.
They blend really, really well, although it will take practice to get them to look the way you want them too.
I became Copic certified a couple of years ago. I love them and quickly accumulated all of them. Now, I am accumulating the refills for them. I've heard that some lss have a refill station. You would take your Copic in and then refill it for a charge.
I have Sketch. They are more expensive, but I like the numbers being on the end of the barrel. I also like that they will easily fit into the air brush system that they have. I have not purchased that, but wanted to make sure that if that time came I'd have what I needed.
Oh, and Sketch has more colors than the other shapes of markers.
I love Copics. I like that they don't pill the paper like water based markers can and that I can do very nice shading with them. I typically get the colors (light medium and dark) from the same color family to get good shading. I have also used just a light and dark and used the tip to tip technique to create the middle colors.
Copics markers have a great color selection. I started with Ciao and now also have some Sketch. I just starting to get some Originals in my must used colors. The fine tipis much easier to use in very small spaces.
Momma Hollis you were talking about markers being bright or over bearing on your stamped image... Well the copics ARE NOT They are perfect for stamping blend well and the color selection is amazing I love working with the very light colors then build up with the darker tones. They are a wonderful tool and I couldn't do without them I would look at scrap-mart.com free shipping!! with any copic order and their prices are wonderful
Art quality, alcohol based markers are not your average "magic marker" or felt tip marker. The alcohol inks are transparent, which allow them to be blendable and the colors can be layered, colors can be soft or vibrant.
There are other brands besides Copic, which all work the same as Copic and can be mixed with Copics - but if you read the manufacturers notes, they would rather have you stick with using only their brands so they don't "recommend" using with other brands - but I use my different brands with each other just fine with very few exceptions.
Refillable is a plus if you use that particular color a lot but I have found it's not really necessay for rarely used colors. The shelf life of these type of markers can be a very long time - I have some Design2 markers which are 15 years old which where buried away. I dug them out and a few had dried out but most were still juicy. They are super smelly though but that was the norm back them.
The nibs on a lot of art markers are also either nylon or polyester which hold up much better than the felt tips and the brush nibs are nice and flexable, like a paintbrush.
Other brands are ShinHan Art Touch Twin (my personal favorite - on clearance prices for under $2 at Dick Blick and Jerrysartarama.com because they are coming out with a new, refillable and replaceable nib and brush markers in a few months. I will replace the current non-refillable marker with the new refillable one on an as needed basis).
I also have some Promarkers and am happily suprised by them. These are made by Letraset and they also make Tria markers, which are refillable and have different nibs. These are cartridge refills so no mess. From what I read on Carpe Deim, they have the same ink as their Promarkers. I wanted to order some because they had a good price on them at Carpe Diem but Carpe Diem apparently doesn't ship to Alaska, I couldn't get any shipping cost and the webpage wouldn't let me advance when trying to check out and Carpe Diem has ignored my email asking about shipping to Alaska.
I have a few Copics but some of the medium dark colors have speckling issues which Copic is aware of - has to due with dye densities, drying times, paper substraites, ect - and I was told it's a personal choice if it bothers me - which it does especially next to markers (regardless of the brand) which don't do this or when blending with a non-speckling color. But anyway....Copic has soooo many yummy colors!
Prismacolor Markers are another brand - I don't have any of these but look at them at Michaels and they seemed to smell a bit stronger than Touch, Promarkers, Copic and Dick Blick but I really don't have enough experience with Prisma's, except I do have their blender pen.
Dick Blick Studio markers are also pretty good but I prefer my other markers. The pink I have lays down flouresent pink but dries to "normal" pink that it is supposed to be. I find that hard to work with.
There are a lot of really great markers at all price ranges and everyone has their favorites they are loyal too. You can get premium results without paying premium prices. Some people are getting art marker results with Shapies and Bic markers!
All these art markers work the same way, you can lean how to use any of them by watching the tons of Copic, Prisma, Promarker, etc., tutorials.
I use my markers for artwork as well as stamping. It's a wonderful medium! I drew my avatar with Touch and Dick Blick markers and this is an 11x17 on smooth bristol, done with ShinHan Touch Twin markers (the colors are yellowish because it's a bad photo, I have better ones on my blog)
Copics are not really expensive - compare them to SU markers. You can get the Copic Ciao markers at at place like Oozak for less than what it costs for SU markers. And there are more colors available.
Jovian7 - Wow, thanks for all the wonderful info. As someone who's considered alcohol markers but hasn't gone there yet, I had no idea that there were so many. I hadn't really looked into them heavily yet since my stock of traditional brush markers is large, the information you gave comparing ones you've used is terrific. Thanks!
When deciding on a brand of markers, another factor to consider is the availability of instructional materials. I learned this the hard way after purchasing a set of artists' watercolors. I chose M Graham, which are wonderful pigments, but most of the books at the time were written for Windsor & Newton. I could approximate the lessons with another brand, but the learning curve would have been easier with the same brand.
For Copic markers, there are certification classes, LSS classes, and online classes with certified instructors. There are Copic books, how-to videos, tutorials, and coloring guides. Many stamping blogs list the Copic colors used, but it's less common to find that type of information for other brands. You can ask questions on the various SCS Copic threads and get reliable answers from experts.
This body of knowledge isn't going to be important to some people, but it will be very helpful to others. It's just one of many considerations when you're deciding which brand of markers is right for you.
Copics...seem expensive Why are they special??
