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Tutorial: How to get Copic like results with your Bic (or Sharpie) Permanent Markers
New tutorial up, and I hope you like this technique! I get so frustrated at not having all the right colors with my copics (have a small set, and a small set of the Prisma ones too), that I was determined to see if any other permanent markers could give results that might be close (the cost of the Bics and Sharpies is SOooooooooooooo much cheaper and I can afford to get them : ) Both the Bics and Sharpies come in sets and are very inexpensive (though there is not the color selection of the Copics)
To my surprise the Bic markers gave me EXCELLENT results (and I have a post for you to guess which is copic colored and which is bic marker).
Anyhow, the technique is basically the same as when you use copics, and I have done a step by step tutorial to show you how I achieved my results. Hope the tutorial is helpful!
I have attached a picture of the finished image colored with the Bic markers to show you the results of the tutorial.
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Please let me know if you try this method, or if you find anything lacking in the directions on the technique.
I also didn't mention that I just used regular card stock, nothing special, just the Office Depot brand.
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I am definitelly going to try this ,I don't have the BIC markers, but got bunch of sharpies and prismacolor premier artist markers.
Thank you!
I just bought some sharpies today to play with, and a prisma blender to see if that helps blend the colors better, will post on that experiment later tonight.
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Very interesting - Thanks for sharing the link to your great tutorial! I was just thinking about trying these markers the other day... and here I find your tutorial! How cool!
I'll have to try this out - thanks for the push!
Jessica
I just bought some sharpies today to play with, and a prisma blender to see if that helps blend the colors better, will post on that experiment later tonight.
It was interesting. I am still playing around with the best techniques, so far I have tried putting the blender on the paper, then the sharpies, somewhat ok results. Then I colored with one color (light) and added the blender to the whole area, then just added the darker color, that worked ok.
The blender tends to remove color, but it will also blend if used the right way, will post pictures in the near future.
Oh....and you can also use the blender to pick up the dark color and then apply the blender with the dark color to your light color..that worked pretty good : )
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I just got the BIC markers tonight from Target, they were like $5.89 for 12. supper price, but like I needed more permanent markers. I have like 100 of them (sharpies and prismacolor)
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I just got the BIC markers tonight from Target, they were like $5.89 for 12. supper price, but like I needed more permanent markers. I have like 100 of them (sharpies and prismacolor)
oh you are going to have fun! I find the prisma and copics have better "lighter" colors, but they can be used with the bics. Let me know how it goes : )
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Hi SanJoseLady! I watched your video tutorial and *thought* you looked very tan and wondered where you were from...now it makes sense ;) Anyway, I have some questions for you. I tried this technique for the 1st time last night with Sharpies (not Bics) and this is what I did: I had 3 shades of pink, orange & green that I thought would work. The pink rose was done on watercolor paper with Brilliance ink and clear ep done first. The orange rose was done on GP paper with Stazon--now I found out Stazon bleeds a little with the alcohol markers so that's why I stopped that one. But here are the other difficulties I had:
* After a bit of time coloring, the ep actually came off and dirtied up the colors in some spots (just a little, not like the Stazon)
* I could never get the watercolor paper to saturate through the back (although I do think it blended anyway)
* The clear EP left some spots that wouldn't take color real close to the image lines (and I did prep the paper before stamping & embossing it)
* My hand hurt (from circling over and over and over, trying to saturate the paper)!
* I can see the benefit of being able to refill because I think this one image drained most of my light pink!
* I actually don't have that many stamps that this technique would work with! ie SOME space for seeing the color but not so much that you have huge white areas. I guess most of my stamps are pretty detailed or have small areas...something I hadn't thought about before
* On the GP paper it was pilling before I could get it very well blended (and I thought that was supposed to be one of the benefits of the alcohol markers, no pilling?)
Some people have said not to use the watercolor paper with these markers, as it will soak up tons of ink, so that would solve part of my problem. However, my GP 110 lb cardstock pilled. Any ideas of what I did wrong? TIA!
__________________ Lynn
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right�--Lincoln
Hi SanJoseLady! I watched your video tutorial and *thought* you looked very tan and wondered where you were from...now it makes sense ;) Anyway, I have some questions for you. I tried this technique for the 1st time last night with Sharpies (not Bics) and this is what I did: I had 3 shades of pink, orange & green that I thought would work. The pink rose was done on watercolor paper with Brilliance ink and clear ep done first. The orange rose was done on GP paper with Stazon--now I found out Stazon bleeds a little with the alcohol markers so that's why I stopped that one. But here are the other difficulties I had:
* After a bit of time coloring, the ep actually came off and dirtied up the colors in some spots (just a little, not like the Stazon)
* I could never get the watercolor paper to saturate through the back (although I do think it blended anyway)
* The clear EP left some spots that wouldn't take color real close to the image lines (and I did prep the paper before stamping & embossing it)
* My hand hurt (from circling over and over and over, trying to saturate the paper)!
* I can see the benefit of being able to refill because I think this one image drained most of my light pink!
* I actually don't have that many stamps that this technique would work with! ie SOME space for seeing the color but not so much that you have huge white areas. I guess most of my stamps are pretty detailed or have small areas...something I hadn't thought about before
* On the GP paper it was pilling before I could get it very well blended (and I thought that was supposed to be one of the benefits of the alcohol markers, no pilling?)
Some people have said not to use the watercolor paper with these markers, as it will soak up tons of ink, so that would solve part of my problem. However, my GP 110 lb cardstock pilled. Any ideas of what I did wrong? TIA!
mmmmmmm, lets try this one at a time.
The EP should stay on, you just want to make sure that you aren't continually going over it, rather go up to the lin.
Also, I make sure to just give the stamped image a light coat of powder (so I won't get any "white" spots), if you see a white spot you can try to lift the EP with the end of a paper clip (which I have done before, sometimes with good results, sometimes not).
You should not have to color that hard to get the color to soak through. Were you using newer markers? Also, I try to use a "light" hand, ie, let the color flow from the pen rather then pressing down on the paper.
You can try card stock as well (I had good results with the card stock, but liked the blending better on the water color paper).
My suggestions is to stamp a bunch of images, all the same, ep them, and then play with the coloring. Try it on card stock, try it on water color paper.
There are inks out there that don't require you to have to ep, I just have not had luck with them yet (if any one has a better ink to use I am all ears).
I actually have used this method on detailed stamps as well, but I tend to not blend the markers, I add a bit of micra paint (h20's or niji paints) to give some depth.
Hope this helps a bit. I fooled around with this technique to get the feel of it all before I did the video, so you might want to practice a bit more. Also, try just coloring on paper and laying color over color, no image, to see how the ink flows.
Let me know if you get any better results.
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Oh thanks for your quick reply! I think those idea will help (like using a light hand and not going over the ep with the marker--although in this particular image that's hard to do because it is "shaded" with little dots IN the image). Like you, I have to use the ep for it to work (tried more things last night). My Sharpies aren't new, but I didn't think they had been used much--but I am thinking my light pink either got drained by the watercolor paper or was used more than I was aware of ; 0
Talking to dh last night about this (he's a decent artist), I think part of the difference could be the TIPS also...the Sharpies are much more of a fine point than the Copics, so it would make sense that the ink wouldn't flow quite as fast with them (hence it took a LOT of circling to get the saturation), and they may be a little stiffer also (hence the pilling where others say they don't get pilling with the Copics).
SO I will keep trying...thanks again and have a great day!
__________________ Lynn
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right�--Lincoln
I'm so excited, bought 36 colors of Bics at Target for $19 tonight...haven't tried coloring an image with them yet but I did do a color comparison and here is what I found on GP paper:
SU color / Bic Markit color
Yoyo yellow / Yellow Blaze
River Rock / Tiki Hut Tan (close, a little less green)
Groovy Guava / Peach Parfait
Pixie Pink / Pink Flamingo
Lavender Lace / Polynesian Purple
Glorious Green / Forest Green
Garden Green / Meadow Green
Night of Navy / Midnight Navy
Basic Brown / Woodsy Brown (close)
Only Orange / Harvest Orange
Basic Gray / Stone Gray
Purely Pomegranite / Prairie Berry (close, a little browner)
Bravo Burgundy / Desert Rose
Tempting Turquoise / Hot Aqua
Wild Wasabi / Key Lime is closest but it's quite a bit "brighter"
Really Rust / Adobe Orange (if you color it a lot -- it's more like More Mustard or Pumpkin Pie if it's very light)
HTH someone : )
__________________ Lynn
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right�--Lincoln
Last edited by nottoocreative; 07-14-2008 at 04:55 PM..
Reason: misspelling
I got to play tonight, and I did find the new Bic markers to be a LOT wetter than the Sharpies I was using, so that solved several of the issues...it didn't pill as easily, and my hand didn't hurt because it went a lot faster. I used the GP instead of watercolor paper, so that may have been part of it also.
One thing I found, though, was that the Bic markers blurred my ink worse than the Sharpies did, so embossing would be a must for them I think. I tried Palette, and it was fine with the Sharpies but not with the Bics.
Sooo, I guess there is a difference in the formulation of all these markers and you just have to play, like everyone keeps recommending : )
__________________ Lynn
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right�--Lincoln
Target has 25 count Sharpies & 36+4 Bic Mark It's on sale this week for $11.
Yeah!!! I'll be in town tomorrow...I'll need to stop by and get some and try this technique.
oh wow. i saw these on sale, due to back-to-school time. i'm going to try to pick these up tomorrow and try this. i just can't see spending the money on copics!
San Jose Lady...thanks for the tutorial! I never thought to try this! Also, have you tried STAZON ink?? That should work without the bleeding, but I could be wrong. Just a thought. Thanks again!
San Jose Lady...thanks for the tutorial! I never thought to try this! Also, have you tried STAZON ink?? That should work without the bleeding, but I could be wrong. Just a thought. Thanks again!
Staz on bleeds...sigh, but someone up thread said memories might work, so I will try that now : )
Also, I have used the prisma blender pen with these, I don't really notice much of a difference, so most of the time I just use the bics to blend it all.
Now that back to school is so soon, the pens are on sale everywhere, you should be able to pick them up for less then 14 for a pack of 36.
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I wonder if you would have better luck if you heat set the ink? I know it seems to be one more step - but sometimes it will prevent the Memories from bleeding. Otherwise I guess it's back to embossing. . .
I read somewhere, and can't remember where, that you cannot use stazon with the prisma markers or permanent markers, but should use it for watercoloring. It had something to do with the alcohol in the markers and alcohol in the stazon. I use a pigment ink pad by stampabilites. I bought it for $3.00 at Michaels or some such store. It's a nice crisp black too.
I've tried using both with my Bic's and the few Prismas I own - stazon bleeds, but any other black that is not permanent does not bleed.
I read somewhere, and can't remember where, that you cannot use stazon with the prisma markers or permanent markers, but should use it for watercoloring. It had something to do with the alcohol in the markers and alcohol in the stazon. I use a pigment ink pad by stampabilites. I bought it for $3.00 at Michaels or some such store. It's a nice crisp black too.
I've tried using both with my Bic's and the few Prismas I own - stazon bleeds, but any other black that is not permanent does not bleed.
Hope this helps.
Hmm, every black I've tried either blurs or bleeds, unless I emboss it. I even tried heat setting (assuming that means you just heat it until it dries, right?). The Bics and the Sharpies behaved differently for me (different effect on the ink) though. Haven't tried the Prisma markers or Copics yet.
__________________ Lynn
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right�--Lincoln
How do you color things like fur , in which you can see the individual hairs. Whenever I color those it just covers it all, and looks like a blob. If I try to just do a stroke on each hair , then there are white spots in between. Is there something more see through , or what am I doing wrong?
How do you color things like fur , in which you can see the individual hairs. Whenever I color those it just covers it all, and looks like a blob. If I try to just do a stroke on each hair , then there are white spots in between. Is there something more see through , or what am I doing wrong?
Can you post a picture of what you are trying to do? you can color with your markers, then dip a fan paint brush into some dark paint (watercolor, or other) and then brush some "hair" onto your image. Hope that helps some : )
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Can't post a pic right now. An example: it's a Stampabilities mouse stamp. When you stamp the image each little hair shows up , but then when you color it in it covers up that pretty detail. On the front of the stamp ( the picture of the stamp) it looks colored in , but with something transparent , so that the detail shows through.
I lucked out. I got a set of 36 Mark It for $11 at Target last week. They were on sale and I had a $3 coupon from the Bic Mark it website. Sorry I don't have a link. I am anxious to try this but I got a set of 137 of Prisma Pencils. I have been very busy sharpening!
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I recently tried this Bic marker technique with a twist. I laid colours down on acetate, then picked them up with a fine tip waterbrush that was filled with Ranger's Alcohol Blending Solution and "painted" the image in. I used Brilliance ink that I heat set, no EP. I had tried Archival ink and Memento, even heat setting them, and they bled, but Brilliance stayed put. I used a Super Smooth Cardstock from my LSS. I think there are lots of possibilities for blending with this method. You can see the card here: 3 Chairs For You by tweedcurtain at Splitcoaststampers
Tutorial: How to get Copic like results with your Bic (or Sharpie) Permanent Markers
