New Addictions with Copic Sketch Markers

Still waiting on the day that I'll be able to go to Japan as well and gorge myself on food, shopping, culture, and of course, their art materials! Thankfully, one of my best friends had just recently visited Tokyo and was nice enough to buy me the ever ubiquitous Copic Sketch Markers! To the art world, I hardly think this brand needs any more introduction, but if you don't know about Copic, it's actually the leading brand for art materials. Known for their amazing quality, you can be almost completely certain that anything they make will be great! Read on to learn if it really does live up to the hype!

If you're ever in Japan, you can buy almost every sort of art material imaginable at a store called Tokyu Hands which I know is open in so many parts of Japan. Of course, the biggest ones are going to be in the more major cities. According to my friend, the one in Tokyo spans to about EIGHT whole floors, with levels in between floors! Even thinking about it gives me chills. Haha!

Had to take a picture of the markers still in Tokyu Hands packaging for sentimental purposes. LOL

Got an acrylic case to go with my shiny new markers. This one is the case for 12 and it costs 248 yen.

Sadly, with my currently low budget, I only got to buy a few markers. Also unfortunately got 13 markers so now I have this spare piece that I have to keep elsewhere. Haha! #NoRegrets

Each Copic Sketch Marker costs 380 yen but with the tax, it's 410 yen. However, spending 10000 yen in the store grants you a 5% tax rebate, if I'm not mistaken. :)

If you're willing to pay the extra bucks, you can also buy Copics within the Philippines at Artillery. They also sell the cheaper line of Copic which are the Copic Ciaos! (Review of those soon as well!)

So here's the body of a Copic Sketch Marker. The shape is oval and it feels nice when held. Also, I love that there's a dark gray stripe to indicate where the famous Copic Super Brush nib is. This is especially helpful when I'm in a rush and don't want to have to squint to see the nib symbols on the body of the pen.

Broad chisel nib on one end and the Copic Super Brush nib on the other. The Super Brush nib has a ton of good press and this is with good reason. Definitely, *the* softest brush on a marker I've ever gotten to use. Despite it's softness, there's still wonderful control. Ink flow is nice and consistent as well! The only thing you should be wary of is too much ink coming out.

The lines on the topmost part of the notebook are done with the broad tip while the ones below are with the brush tip. Really really easy to do both fine and thick lines with both ends! Also, definitely remember that the ink of Copic Markers really are quite strong so they bleed through the paper like crazy so remember to put something underneath your drawing paper especially if you're drawing on a sketch pad! :)

Did a super quick sketch just to see how these markers fared. (Didn't even use a pencil! Haha!) Used the Copic Sketch Markers except for the black parts; Tombow Dual Brush Pen for black tones and main outline, and lastly, Rotring 0.5 and 0.2 Technical Pen for other details.

This was done on ordinary sketch pad paper which usually doesn't let markers blend well, but the markers are definitely able to work around this. At first, the layering of colors is pretty obvious but they later blend seamlessly together almost as if one solid color! This definitely hasn't been true for any other markers I've tried (e.g. Letraset Tria, ZIG Kurecolor, and Tombow Dual Brush Pens) except the Staedtler Marsgraphics. I can't imagine the possibilities if I actually used the most compatible type of drawing paper for Copics!

Below are more works I did with the markers. :D

It definitely comes as no surprise that these markers performed so well. I'm so excited to collect even more colors and maybe complete them all someday in the future. Using these made me wish I could go to Japan even more! I would probably use up an entire day just in Tokyu Hands. Haha! So grateful to Keena for getting these for me.

If you've had the pleasure of using Copics before, feel free to tell me about it in the comments! :)