COPIC MARKERS FOR BEGINNERS | 5 Mistakes You're Probably Making

Hey guys so todays video is about copic markers, whether you're using copic ciao, copic sketch, copic classic or even other types of alcohol markers, whethere you're a beginner or advanced. I'm listing 5 mistakes that you're probably making! If you like my videos, make sure to subscribe and hit the notificaiton bell so you don't miss any future videos.

There's always room to improveyour skills and copic markers are one of those expensive art supplies that you'll want to make the most out of.

The first mistake that you're probably making when using copic markers is that you're not using the right paper or cardstock, DON'T use printer paper with your markers. Printer paper is not designed to take the amount of ink you will use when blending, it bleeds through to the other side and out the edges of your art.

Secondly you can use some bristol board which is also great.

The second mistake you're probably making is that you're trying to use the colorless blender to blend and get smooth transitions. The best method in my opinion is to use varying shades of the same color to create a smooth transition. the colorless blender tends to desaturate colors and generally doesn't work that well for blending.
The colorless blender is good for fading out areas where you've gone outside the lines, lightening areas and creating certain effects but it's not great for blending copic markers.

The third mistake you're making is not leaving adequate time for your lineart or inking to dry properly. if you don't leave a sufficient enough time then when you start applying your copic markers, the alcohol will cause the black ink from your lineart to start running into your color and effectively ruin your artwork.
Depending on what brand of fineliners you use, I'd recommend leaving at least an hour for them to dry, if not, overnight.

The fourth mistake you are making is not creating color swatches for the markers or artwork that you are currently working on. Ideally you should color swatch every marker you own so that you can see exactly how they look on paper and can reference back to it at any point.
It's also advised to make a color swatch whilst working on any particular piece of artwork. I find this particularly useful as my drawings often span multiple days or even weeks and it gives me a history of which markers I've used for each part.

The 5th and final mistake you are making is that you are not combining your copic marker art with color pencils. color pencils and alcohol markers are an amazing combination. lay your alcohol markers down first and then overlay your color pencils to create extra depth.

I hope you found these tips and tricks for copic markers useful, if you did then make sure to click the like button and subscribe if you're new.

Music credits:
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Track: Calmness — JayJen [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus
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[FarrellArtist]

I forgot to mention the other use for the colourless blender. It’s useful for blending light tones into nothing for a smooth gradient. Did you enjoy these tips?

[anleal]

Perfect timing aha I just got my markers today

[elizabetheddy]

I’m so glad I found your channel Farrell! I bought my markers about two years ago and have been too intimidated to try them out! I’ve painted with acrylic for years, I’m also playing around with Watercolor. I find myself stuck in organizing my craft room, swatching out colors. I’m just trying to make sense of everything I’ve collected in the last four years!😱 I’ve bought tons of stamps, so I could get into card making with Copic markers. But just haven’t gotten around to it because I’m so nervous about getting the perfect blends. I even bought a color swatch chart from Sandy Allnock! She seems to be the queen of coloring with Copics! Especially with card making. You should definitely check out this chart because she’s put it together in a way that all the colors are grouped into good blending sections. I just subscribed to your channel because I love the videos U’ve been posting, you remind me of my 25-year-old son a lot! Thank you so much, Liz Cape Cod Massachusetts 😊💗👍🏼

[robertlacombe]

Hi from Montreal, I just bought today my first 6 blue tones Copic package. A lady who do video about adult coloring book showed us how Coper markers are the best to use with watercolour pencils. Your video is my first about Copic and now I need your skills to used them

[cinziagirelli]

Thanks, yes it was very helpful. I don’t use my alcohol markers as much as I should these tips will help me start using them again. 🙂

[Troublemaker]

Love the tips thank you, what is the general wait time for liners to dry before coloring?

[cornettomsc]

I absolutely agree with you on the Winsor & Newton paper. It was the first marker paper I bought and I was in shock 😳
Then I found some Copic paper (that was sold on a platform like ebay) and was pleasantly surprised. However even with this paper you have to be careful on what side your drawing - because there’s a right and a wrong side and the wrong one behaves pretty much like the Winsor & Newton paper ... 🤦🏻‍♀️

[paulapeterson-warnock]

Sandy Allnock has affordable and wonderful hex charts for Copic and colored pencils for color swatching

[paparon]

I know for certain that I’m using the wrong paper, but I’m also deeply invested into using my current sketch book so I just layer another paper underneath whatever page I’m coloring on.

[etherealdreamerart]

Thanks for these tips to improve on using copic markers better. Will keep this in mind when I eventually purchase my first set. 😃

[sherrywoods]

Check out Sandy Allnock’s COPIC Hex chart - you swatch the colors arranged by color rather than by number.

[WifeyArts]

you did a great work here! probably the most straightforward and most helpful tips about copics i've seen in a while! I personally struggle with tip #1! I knew that too but I just can't help myself to stop using copics until I get the tone and even color details with just the markers lol! I know its strange! 👍👊🏼💯great upload!!

[LenzDaddy]

For Swatching, I used Avery Hole Reinforcement labels and swatched each color and stuck it on the chisel tip cap of my markers. I went back and laid clear tape over it bc they're not very tacky. I have all my markers displayed chisel tip out and I can clearly see what the color will be on paper. Just another option. I don't keep a swatch paper on hand; I don't need to look through 276 colors to find what I'm looking for. I simply look at the little swatch label on my marker cap and I know. Also, I'm picky about the order of my colors so if I get a new color in a family, I'd have to redo my entire swatch paper (if not using a premade one from Copic). I do have the little swatch book from Copic, but again, I'm not going to refer to it each time I'm finding the proper color. Nice video!

[jodiwright]

How do you protect your alcohol ink art?

[Capnharland]

Please respond!

What should you use to sketch with before the outliner? Will pencil smudge into the marker? What do I use to avoid this?

[renren_]

not me looking at my xpress it blending card proudly haha. i actually used printing paper a couple of times, only because i printed out some of my drawings to colour and try different ways of colouring, and it wasn't terrible, it didn't really bleed through lines (at least it wasn't terribly noticable), and it was from the cheapest shop. but i assume it takes a lot more of your ink than using paper like the xpress it blending card so definitely wouldn't recommend copy paper to be used regularly with alcohol markers.

[itzweez]

Had no idea there was marker paper thanks bro

[TextTalesINC]

Thanks for telling me mistakes on what I’m doing (a lot, however I did know you don’t blend with the blender)

[Cat_Sterling]

Are you using color pencils on X-Press It paper? I thought they would not lay nicely on it.

[MegaBreez]

Using the colored pencils with Copic was a game changer. Thanks for the tip. Genuinely. Great content. I subbed just because of that lol. Thanks again.