Tool Talk - Copic Markers!

With Christmas just around the corner, I know that a number of you have probably asked Santa for Copic Markers. I use the Copic Ciao Markers but have very recently purchased a number of Sketch along with the airbrush system. They haven’t arrived yet, but we can still talk colors. I’ve had a number of people ask me what colors I would choose if I had to get just a starter kit of markers. Well, I can’t do that! When I got my markers, I got them all at once. What I can do, however, is give you the numbers and colors that I use the most. I highly recommend going to the Copic website and request a color sample brochure. That’s one of the first things I did. It lists all the colors the markers come in and has a symbol chart for each specific type of marker. I don’t go shopping without it!

Here’s a picture of my favorite and most used colors:

and they are:

Colorless Blender
100 Black

C-1 Cool Gray No. 1
C-3 Cool Gray No. 3
C-5 Cool Gray No. 5
E00 Skin White
E11 Barely Beige
E31 Brick Beige
E33 Sand
E35 Chamois
E37 Sepia
E57 Light Walnut
E77 Maroon
Y00 Barium Yellow
Y06 Yellow
Y17 Golden Yellow
Y28 Lionet Gold
Y38 Honey
YR16 Apricot
YR68 Orange
R05 Salmon Red
R11 Pale Cherry Pink
R17 Lipstick Orange
R35 Coral
R59 Cardinal
RV10 Pale Pink
RV13 Tender Pink
R22 Light Prawn
R27 Cadmium Red
R29 Lipstick Red
R37 Carmine
R46 Strong Red
R85 Rose Red
RV23 Pure Pink
RV29 Crimson
RV34 Dark Pink
RV42 Salmon Pink
YG23 New Leaf
YG67 Moss
YG95 Pale Olive
G07 Nile Green
G14 Apple Green
G94 Grayish Olive
G99 Olive
BG01 Aqua Blue
BG10 Cool Shadow
BG12 Aqua
BG96 Bush
B00 Frost Blue
B02 Robin’s Egg Blue
B12 Ice Blue
B32 Pale Blue
B45 Smoky Blue
B93 Light Crockery Blue
B95 Light Grayish Cobalt
B97 Night Blue
BV29 Slate

Even those these are the colors that I use the most, it doesn’t necessarily mean that these are the colors you will use. My recommendation would be to get 3 shades of the same color. You will need a light, medium and dark. I use the colorless blender only to correct any little boo boo’s that I make (coloring outside a line, a drop of ink, etc.) Prismacolor has a fabulous colorless blender pen that has a fine nib on one end that allows you to get close to the stamped image and in small places. I keep both the Copic and Prismacolor on hand at all times. I also use the BG10 Cool Shadow and the C-1 Cool Gray No 1 for any highlighting I might do around the image. If I feel the highlighting is bolder than I would like, I then use the colorless blender to tone it down.

I hope you’ve all been good girls and that Santa has been watching!