A grey cat for a grey day (at least where I live.) Lately I’ve been trying to get better at working with Copics, so here’s a post in which I geek out about markers.
I received an important tip, courtesy of a local artist, that solved an issue that had been bugging me for some time. I bought some markers that I thought functioned the same as Copics — Faber-Castell artist pens. I kept trying to get a blending effect as seen above, but instead kept getting this:
The lines wouldn’t blend, but would create transparent but visible layers. Turns out not all artist markers are the same! Faber-Castell pens are made with India ink; lovely to draw with, but they do not blend. You need alcohol-based markers (which Copics are) in order to get the colours to blend. Copics kind of behave like watercolours and it takes a lot of practice to manipulate them well.
A small revelation, but you have no idea how exciting it was to finally discover the right tool for the job. And if drawing really fluffy cats isn’t the best way to practice with Copics, I don’t know what is.