Copic Marker Thoughts

As I mentioned earlier, I am ready do dive into the world of the COPIC coloring system, but for weeks have been debating about a number of things: Which set do I get? Do I get a pre-boxed set or a designer set? Do I need a set at all? How many markers do I need to do decent coloring? Should I join a marker club? Would it be cheaper to just buy on Ebay? Is cheaper necessarily better?

You get the picture.

I'm happy to share the fact that I figured it out. FINALLY. I looked at five major retailers of the COPIC markers: Dick Blick, Oozak, Ellen Hutson, Copicmarkers.com, and Carpe Diem Store. Ellen Hutson stands out from the group because she offers "designer sets" of markers, meaning you actually get a bunch of useful colors as opposed to the pre-boxed sets that offer quite a few grey shades. Even with the designer sets, you'll notice that there aren't a lot of colors that are similar to be used for good blending (according to the guidelines posted on the Copic site). Although you can get some dimension from just one marker (by coloring more at the spots you would like to be darker) it won't be the same as if you were to use more than one marker... meaning even the designer sets aren't perfect. You'd still have to buy more individual markers to get the desired results.

I've been told Ellen Hutson's sets are slightly more expensive because of the time and thought she took to decide which colors to group together. I mean no offense to her or any other retailers who have put a lot of time and thought into their sets - I think that is a great resource for people who want a fast buy that works - but personally I'd rather put my own time and thought into it and pay less. That's just me. And believe me, there has been A LOT of thought going into this!

I started a thread about this on Splitcoast, and had a number of private messages requesting the list of markers I came up with so I thought I'd post it here and explain things a bit more in the process. Hopefully I can help a few people out who are trying to figure things out as well.

The bottom line is that Carpe Diem Store still has the best prices out there. If you buy the 36 pen set, it is $139.23, or $3.87 per pen. If you buy the 72 pen set, it is $278.46, which is still $3.87 per pen. So there is no real benefit to buying the bigger set over the smaller set. The problem with buying a set is that you still have the dilemma of the set having a ton of grey's in it (for instance 13 of the 36 markers in that pre-boxed set are grey or black - who needs that?!). SO, I checked and the price for each individual pen is $3.95... You only save $0.08 per pen by buying the set, which really isn't much in the grand scheme of things.

I went through the entire color chart and picked out all of the colors I like and the colors that would blend well with them where applicable. According to my research, the key to good blending is to use markers that have the same letter(s) and first number, and be within 2-3 digits of each other in the last number. I came up with 53 pens, which comes to $209.35 before S/H.

This set includes the colorless blender, but it does not include any grey or black markers. After revisiting the list I think I would add one cool grey (starts with C), one warm grey (starts with W), and their black (100, not 110 which is not a true black). About those greys... the cool greys have a bluish tint to them. In my mind, they would work well for shadows along or beside images as well as for coloring. The warm (W) greys have a brownish tint to them, and seem like they would work well for coloring as well. The toner (T) greys are neutral with no tint to them, and to me just seem kind of blah, which is why I am avoiding them.

The letters in each marker number refer to the color family. E=Earth, B=Blue, BG=Blue Green, BV=Blue Violet, R=Red, RV=Red Violet, V=Violet, Y=Yellow, YR=Yellow Red, G=Green, and YG=Yellow Green.

Note: I already own 2 Copic markers, and both are flesh tones so there are no flesh tones in this set. I also chose not to include any of the flourescent colored markers as I don't think I would get much use out of them.

Edited to add: This set could easily be broken down into smaller sets bought at certain intervals. Just make sure to keep similar colors together. For instance, BV00 Mauve Shadow is what I would call a "stand alone" color, meaning that no other colors in the set would necessarily blend with it. There are more colors like that - colors that just stood out to me, despite the fact that they were "loners" as it were. A person could start with just the colors that blend, and then get the stand alone colors later, or come up with some other system. Personally, I'm all about instant gratification ;o) so I'll be buying all at once (can you say Economic Stimulus Check? LOL)

Here is my self-made set:

1. E55 Light Camel
2. E57 Light Walnut
3. B02 Robin's Egg Blue
4. B05 Process Blue

5. B18 Lapis
6. B21 Baby Blue
7. B24 Sky
8. BG15 Aqua
9. BG18 Teal Blue
10. BV00 Mauve Shadow
11. BV08 Blue Violet
12. R05 Salmon Red
13. R08 Vermillion
14. R24 Prawn
15. R27 Cadmium Red
16. R29 Lipstick Red
17. RV14 Begonia Pink
18. RV17 Deep Magenta
19. RV29 Crimson
20. RV32 Shadow Pink
21. RV34 Dark Pink
22. V04 Lilac
23. V06 Lavendar
24. V09 Violet
25. V12 Pale Lilac
26. Y06 Yellow
27. Y08 Acid Yellow
28. Y13 Lemon Yellow
29. Y15 Cadmium Yellow
30. Y17 Golden Yellow
31. Y19 Napoi Yellow
32. Y26 Mustard
33. Y38 Honey
34. YR04 Chrome Orange
35. YR07 Cadmium Orange
36. YR09 Chinese Orange
37. YR14 Caramel
38. YR16 Apricot
39. YR18 Sanguine
40. YR24 Pale Sepia
41. G05 Emerald Green
42. G07 Nile Green
43. G09 Veronese Green
44. G14 Apple Green
45. G16 Malachite
46. G19 Bright Parrot Green
47. G24 Willow
48. G28 Ocean Green
49. G29 Pine Tree Green
50. G99 Olive
51. YG07 Acid Green
52. YG17 Grass Green
53. 00 Colorless Blender

Click HERE to view a (easier to see) .pdf chart of all colors Copic offers. You can use the chart to see the shade of the colors I have selected, or to select your own.

Edited (again) to add: The Carpe Diem Store also sells storage containers for a very reasonable price. For instance, a 72 piece storage container is only $7.96. I was going to get one with my order, but then I saw this post on my friend Lorie's blog and decided I will wait and find a cute little container to stash them in instead. :o) Thanks Lorie!

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions (via a comment) and I will do my best to answer them.

Edit #3: I did get a question on SCS via PM and thought I'd answer it here as well to add to the info.

Q: What are the flesh tone colored markers that you have?

A: I have E00 Skin White and E02 Fruit Pink. I bought them this weekend at Hobby Lobby when they were 25% off (Reg. $5.99, sale $4.49). They blend together well (I tried on scrap paper at the store ;o)). Hobby Lobby is another retailer to watch. They do not sell the sets in any of their stores (per store manager) and don't have a huge selection (maybe 30? colors?) but they do have sales, and occasionally a percentage off coupon on their website as well. I have a link to their weekly ad and coupon in my Favorite Links on the right.

And in response to Mary Dawn's comment:

Hey Mary Dawn! I just checked Eclectic Paperie, and it looks like their prices are up there with Ellen and everyone else at $174.99 for the 36 pen set. Hannastamps, on the other hand has even lower prices than Carpe Diem!! Yikes! Hurray for a close out, eh?! When I go to order tonight I might get what I can off my list from her and then get the rest at CDS. Thanks for the tip!

Edit #4: The sale markers at Hanna Stamps are all Ciao markers, not the Sketch markers. I just got an email from Kristi Ferro confirming this. ;o)

Edit #5: Lisa, it looks like the info you can get an idea of which SU colors match which Copic colors on this SCS thread. HTH!

Happy Stamping!