How to organize Copic Markers can be a challenge, even if you are experienced at keeping track of your fine art supplies. Whether you are able to indulge your desire for beautiful pencils and marking pens, or whether you must make do with the kinds of materials often issued to school children, you probably already know the cost of good art supplies and are taking steps to preserve them. Copic is a forerunner in the refillable marker business – an attribute that makes their cost actually affordable.
How to organize Copic Markers will challenge even the most experienced artists because there are not only 358 premixed colors, but there are also different sorts of tips, blenders and thinners, and it is possible to expand the original color number by mixing your own. Fortunately, there are physical options, as well as an app for managing your Copic Markers. Here are four best practices for taking care of your excellent markers.
Summarizing Your Copic Marker Storage Needs
- Organize your Markers: Copic Marker box or a Roll up Marker organizer to keep colors in order and the markers stored in a way that they are unlikely to leak.
- Organize your colors/collection: Use swatch cards and/or the Copic Collection App.
- Organize your ancillary supplies: a makeup box, sewing box, or rugged fishing tackle box.
- Organize at home: Plastic or wooden drawers that allow materials to be arranged neatly, with small bottles stored in an upright position.
Overview:
Copic Markers have several parts. There is, of course, the markers themselves – which come in eight different styles. But there are also fluid, the blender, replacement inks, and correction white. In addition, there are replacement nibs as well as a handy set of tweezers for working with the nibs. You will probably also want color swatch cards, erasers, some regular drawing pencils, thinner, and a mixing palette. On top of that, you might want some plastic bottles for holding refills of your custom mixed colors. Keeping your markers and supplies stored and organized for use can require some specialized equipment.
- Organizing your Markers. Copic Marker should be stored horizontally with the caps applied tightly. It is a good idea to sort them in ways that will match your various color swatches. Copic sells cases made specifically for their markers, but if you need to opt for a less expensive resource, a rollup container with individual slots to keep the markers in place will do.
While you could store your markers loose in a case, placing them in a container that will hold them individually makes it easier to sort the colors and to assess the condition of your color collection.
- A Color Swatch Chart. There are several color swatch options. Probably one of the easiest is to purchase the genuine Copic color swatch cards. There are 14 cards which gives you options for designating a card for a particular range of colors or color types.
- The Color Labeling System
Each commercially mixed Copic marker has a color designation on it end, indicating first its general color class, such as red, green, or yellow. Copic recognizes 16 “mother” or base colors. You can find a list of them here. (https://markernovice.com/copic/copic-numbering) Two letter names are things like RY (red/yellow). Next is a number 0-9 that indicates the color type within mother color’s family, the finally, the number indicates the brightness or saturation of the color. In theory. More or less. The reality is a little murkier. All those values are relative. The good news is that if you mark your swatch chart with the genuine copic colors that you have purchased, you will know which original markers you have on hand before you start working on a picture.
- Mixing your own: If you have mixed your own custom colors, you will still need to keep record of them because they will give you a recipe for recreating that color if you need more. And it will help you keep track of your custom colors.
- A master swatch chart that you can carry with you will be helpful when planning a project or purchasing new colors.
- The Copic Collection App: If working with cards is just too much of a headache, or if you want to have something in your pocket that is less unwieldy than a folded swatch chart to help you with buying markers that are missing out of your Copic collection, this app is a big help. While, obviously, it cannot help you with your personal mixtures, it can help track the colors that you have purchased, or that you would like to purchase. The app is a free download from Google Play.
- Storage for Blenders, refill inks, thinning solution, and more. While a roll up pen holder will do a great job of keeping track of your pens, it will not do much for all the added materials that you need to store and keep sorted. If you are just beginning, a Kinsorcai plastic storage box for art supplies or makeup will do the job. For larger collections, you might want a Twintop Portable Art supply box. When working at home, you might enjoy a charming wooden home office desk organizer to give your personal workspace that vintage look. But, if you are simply going for space for bottles, extra nibs, and similar items, nothing beats out a three-tray fishing tackle box.
Check out more on Copic Markers HERE.
Good Storage Helps Preserve Your Investment
Copic markers are expensive, running as much as $2.00 per pen for some colors. Copic brand organizers are not precisely cheap, either. The saving grace for Copic is that the markers are refillable. While it is possible to refill most markers, Copic is a leader in creating the refillable marking pen, along with the replacement nibs, the ability to mix your own colors, and other ancillary supplies.
Regardless of whether you select genuine Copic storage containers or instead opt for a more homemade system, it makes excellent sense to keep track of your colors and to store your supplies in a way that will keep them safe from pets, small children, and well-meaning adults who have only a moderate understanding of your investment in your art supplies.
Related Questions
Where is a good place to buy Copic markers and supplies?
The Copic website (https://copic.jp/en/product/) lists sellers who stock their products. They can frequently be found at specialty art stores, Michaels, Amazon.com, and on the Blick online art store.
Are there other refillable art markers?
Yes, there are several other brands of refillable art markers. After all, it just makes sense to reuse the plastic holding tubes. Those companies will vary in their offerings and in their quality, but Copic is not the only reusable marker resource.
Do the refilled markers work as well as the ones prepared in the factory?
If the markers are from Copic, yes they do – within limits. As you probably already know, the felt tips will wear. If they are allowed to dry out between uses, they can harden. However, this is one of the reasons why Copic provides replacement tips as well as refill inks.
How important is it to sort your markers or any other coloring medium by color type?
Only as important as it is to you. If you prefer to use your colors randomly, according to whim, then sorting is not particularly essential. However, if you frequently create pictures that include graduated colors, such as you might use when working on a picture of an ocean or a forest, or even a complex abstract, then sorting your colors and keeping track of the selection you are using can be extremely important.
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