Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I have Bics and Sharpies and a few Copics. In my opinion, you can't really 'blend" the Bics and Sharpies. I think I would use the term "layer". I frequently use a lighter shade for the main part of what I'm coloring, and then use a darker shade around the edges and for shadows. The effect is not really "blended", but I think it looks appealing enough to use on most of my cards.
Ditto to bugga about not really blending. I use the lighter shade in the highlight areas and color around it in medium...doing a little overlap of the light. Then I use a darker shade over the medium IF I am lucky to have 3 coordinating colors.
I use my Bic Mark Its and Sharpies interchangeably with my Copics. I find they work pretty much the same and use them to fill in some holes in my Copic collection (which has been growing by leaps and bounds). I did this card a while ago using all 3 brand markers together: Wind in my hair
catwoman your card is very impressive. I was hoping to use Bic and Sharpie markers to learn coloring and blending before I invest in Copics or Promarkers. Thanks for your example and reply.
I use my Bic Mark Its and Sharpies interchangeably with my Copics. I find they work pretty much the same and use them to fill in some holes in my Copic collection (which has been growing by leaps and bounds). I did this card a while ago using all 3 brand markers together: Wind in my hair
I use both bic & sharpie (purchased at CostCo for a almost nothing) to color bright areas. I shade pretty much the same why all those who commented previously do. I do, however, use ciao copic markers in flesh tones for human faces and appendages. They blend so beautifully and I'm willing to pay the price to get that quality.
__________________ Louise Bergmann DuMontAuthor, Speaker, Serious About Her Coffee, Lover of all that is Chocolate...Worshiper of El Shaddai (The All Sufficient One)
I have read that you can use the Copic Blender pen with Bic's. It does not work as well with Sharpie's. I have tried it and the results were pretty good. If that helps any for learning how to blend.
I do agree using Sharpies & Copics you more layer than blend. I think they are a great way to learn alcohol ink markers before you get into the big crafting investment of Copics.
I usually tell everyone to buy Bic's, Copic Blender Pen, One Cool Gray Copic & a couple of flesh tones. This is how I started my Copic collection. I went on too add Copic hair colors in the mix.
GinaK has a tutorial on using Bic Mark It's and she does a great job. So I spent the money and have Bic's and Sharpies. I use them as others have said, using darker colors around the edges, but sometimes I use the same color and just go over it a second or third time...go to StampTV and watch GinaK's tutorial. She really does have some good stuff over there.
__________________ Kathy FS852 SCS Member #241,587
I haven't jumped on the Copic bandwagon yet, but I use Bics all the time! I've found that is I lay down the lightest color first, then add the medium and/or darker shadings, then go over the whole area with the lighest color again, the result looks much more blended. I just wish that Bic would make some true pastels - all of the colors are a bit bright in their "pastel" range. I have a few Prismacolor markers that I use with them, as well - a flesh tone, a 10% cool gray, a pale blue, and a colorless blender. So far I'm fairly content, but I'm sure I'll be getting either ShinHan Touch Twin markers or Copics sometime this year...
I have Bics and Sharpies - but my best investment was the Dick Blick branded set of 48 markers. Comparatively speaking they are dirt cheap compared to Prisma Markers and Copics. They can be bought in sets or individually. Since I use different coloring mediums (pencils, watercolor, chalks and markers) I didn't want to go the super expensive route, but I also wanted a nice color palette of markers. The Dick Blick sets are very very nice, and they blend nicely too. I found the Bic colors to be wayyyyyy darker than the color indicated on the caps. They're fine, but I think the color caps are very misleading.
ditto what gregzgurl (Sue) said. That is basically the technique I used when I bought my Bics. I was too cheap to buy the Copics myself but I have some now. My DH bought some for me for my birthday back in July. I think the Copics color smoother with less lines than the Bics but coloring over with the lightest color Bic seemed to reduce that for the most part. Hope that makes sense.