Copic Beginner’s Kit

Copics, Sketch Card, Tutorial by Chaitali Narla
I enjoy coloring with my Tombow pens and my acrylic paints. But I had heard a WHOLE lot about Copics. Enough to want to try them and see if they really were as good as everyone said they were. Also to see if I would enjoy coloring with them.But Copics are an expensive investment to make. When I searched for something like “Copic beginner’s kit” all I got was suggestions to buy at least 36 markers to begin with. Thats a lot of money for something I don’t know if I’ll like!

What makes things harder is you can’t just buy 1 marker and “try it out” because you need at least 3 shades of a color to do blending and see the full potential of Copics. Apart from this fact, there is also investment in buying Copic-friendly ink and Copic-friendly paper. Given all these reasons, I tried very hard to find some sort of nominal cost beginner’s kit for trying out Copics.

Not finding any, I built my own with help from Laura whom I met on Splitcoaststampers.

I started with selecting an image from my current stash of stamps that I would like to color. I settled on this Spring Tulips set from Taylored Expressions. since I had already colored them yellow once before, I decided to color them red this time. I found this great tutorial for coloring poppies that I felt could apply to coloring tulips as well. That gave me a list of the Copics I wanted. I bought my Copics from Laura. She very generously also sent me A2 sheets of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock and a cat’s eye inkpad of Memento tuxedo black ink to complete my kit.

I can’t wait to show you all the card I made with my first set of Copics!

Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI Kraft for base, Yellow panel from DCWV Josephine box of cards, Patterned paper from Basic Grey Infuse paper pad, Bazzil earthtones green for center strip, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White paper for image
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Walnut stain distress ink
Accessories: Ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon March kit
Stamps: TE Spring Tulips
Now here is how my stamped image with the Memento ink looked like:
After coloring with Copics:

I did use a little bit of my Tombow markers for the water in the vase and the flower stems because I didn’t have those shades of Copics in my kit 🙂 Sometimes you just have to improvise!

For the background, I first stamped the image again and cut it out like below:
Then stuck the cut image on the colored one with a tiny bit of removable adhesive and sponged around it. Also added a few fingerprints to make the background interesting 🙂

Now this was ready to be put on my card! I followed this sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch to make the card.

In a nutshell, here is the kit I put together for myself with help from Laura.

  • Taylored Expressions Spring Tulips set
  • Copic markers R22, R24, R29, YR31, G20, G24, G28 and colorless blender
  • Neenah Classic Crest Solar White #80 paper
  • Memento Tuxedo Black ink for stamping the image

Here is a photo of my kit when it arrived from Laura. So professionally packed!

Hope you enjoyed reading about my Copics adventures! If you have some adventures of your own to tell me about, do leave me a comment!

11 Comments

  2. Carolina Little
    Reply

    I LOVE my Copic markers. There are so many tutorials on YouTube about colouring with them. I learnt all from there. What I did is, I bought the colours I used to have with my SU markers, at least the ones I used the most. I wouldn’t go back. I love the way the stamp looks with Copics. They are very expensive here, but I bought them on line, the difference is really big. I should suggest Oozak. That’s where lots of ladies buy from. Really good prices. I buy the CIAO, for me is the same and cheaper. Good luck!!!.

    Like

  5. Winnie
    Reply

    Very lovely. I really need to learn how to use them. I got about 25 of them.. I just blend as I go, but nothing like it should look like. I am thinking of getting Marianne Walker’s books.. You sure took to it great!

    Like

  6. Laura
    Reply

    Wow, Chaitali! You did a beautiful job! I am so glad I could help you get started, and that you are enjoying the markers! Hope you continue to grow your collection, and can’t wait to see more!! 🙂

    Like

  8. AnnMarie
    Reply

    Wow!! You did a great job!! I am trying desperately to avoid Copics! They do such amazing things, but I know you need several to really get started and they are on the pricey side! Love the idea of your beginner’s kit though…very clever! You really did a beautiful job! 🙂

    Like

  9. Eryn
    Reply

    I am just getting into Copics so to, so I am glad you posted some of your work. It is super hard to figure out what to buy first, but it’s nice you had some help! I have been watching lots of YouTube videos to help me learn. I look forward to seeing more of your colouring!

    Like

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