Have you seen the price for a set of Copic markers? I’d already earmarked the Copic collection for my Christmas list thinking the set of 72 would be a splurge. I had no idea there were FIVE sets of 72! Thousands of dollars on markers is quite the investment and an unrealistic one for me. The alternative? Go for the long game. Buy singles. Slowly. Over time. Eventually build up your collection. But with so many choices, where do you start?

If you are interested in portraits and faces, there is an excellent list of basic skin tones from artist Jane Davenport. I have been collecting these colours for a while now. Since I like a good discount I’ve been using coupons for added savings. It’s slower this way, but a good way to stretch your art supply budget. Here is Jane’s list:

Fans of Copic know that aside from the amazing range of colours, it’s the blending of the colour ranges that make them so unique. Not to mention that colour preferences can be so individual depending on the artist. So how do we build a broader collection in a way to take advantage of these blending sets? I discovered a really helpful post by Michelle Houghton, an instructor for Copic America, with sensible recommendations on colours to building your Copic starter set. And here’s the best part: we can aim for as little as 36 colours to have some of the most common colours used in crafting and Copic tutorials! Here’s Michelle’s list:

• B00, B02, B04 (beautiful sky blues)
• BG11, BG13, BG18 (mint greens) OR BG72, BG75, BG78 (sea greens)
• BV00, BV02, BV04 OR BV11, BV13, BV17 (both fairly similar blue violet series)
• V12, V15, V17 (pretty purples)
• G21, G24, G28 (nice rich greens)
• YG11, YG13, YG17 (grass greens)
• Y11, Y15, Y19 (bright yellows)
• YR04, YR07, YR09 (oranges)
• R22, R24, R29 (the must have set of reds)
• RV63, RV66, RV69 (raspberry pinks–this is a total preference ) OR RV21, RV23, RV25 (if your prefer bubble gum pinks)
• E33, E35, E37 (this is a great starter set of Earth tones or browns)
• E25, E27, E29, E00, E02 (the standard for skin tones–but there are TONS of options)

So there you have it. Concise recommendations for skin tones and basic color ranges. I am definitely using these as my shopping checklists. Check out Joann’s, Michaels, Dick Blick or Curry’s for a wide range of Copic selection, and for further savings see if they offer a coupon or loyalty card offer (Dick Blick) for a deeper discount! Happy copic-ing my friends!

Here is Michelle Houghton’s original post on building your copic set.

Click HERE for a list of the supplies I used.

xo, seena