I've been finding that too, I have NO idea whats up.

Aww, that sucks! I'm sorry to hear that! I don't use Microns myself, even though everyone tells me OMG RETARD YOU NEED TO USE MICRONS! I tested them out with Staedtler and COPIC inking pens and the Staedtler pens made smoother lines.. for me anyway. It all comes down to preference really.

I hope you can salvage your picture though. *hugs*

*sighs* I guess I'll have to go looking for Staedtlers now when I go replenish my markers...

The Staedtler and COPIC pens are very nice. The COPIC .5 that I have has lasted me like 5 years.

I have to agree. The Städtler pens are very nice, produce some pretty good quality.

Not just you. The newer ones are awful, then again I've never really liked them. I personally use pilot precision pens.

Woo! I'm not the only one, then! ^_^ I was just going to mention that's what I use. I can ink an image and erase the pencil lines near immediatly without smudging. I love my Pilot pens. ^_^ Pilot Precise V5 extra fine is what I currently have.

Hehe. Those are the same ones I use, exactly the same. *Grins* and they are inexpensive and very clean. They don't spit ink across the paper like Staedtler do if you're not careful, I miss my Staedtler, but they don't carry them where I live... Sooo... I use Pilot Precise V5 extra fine myself. ^__^

-Moon

Staedtler FTW.

Awr, I'm sorry Ksharra, art should never suffer from crappy inking pens. But hopefully, you will be able to resurrect it, cuz I really like your artness.

Go to DAISO, the Japanese $1.50 store on the east side. You'll find WONDERFUL waterproof/smudgeproof brush pens of different sizes for $1.50 each. I bought one of every pen type they had and found some I liked best. They are cheap, plentiful, and the same exact pens tend to sell for $15 at the Japanese brand name store down the road.

I already have an awesome brush pen, I need good technical pens for getting consistent thin lines.

you want the simple answer. here it is.
micron has discovered a way to make cheaper ink for there product, at the same time keeping there allready set price, the new ink is much more smugeable then before, Ive noticed it aswell.
Sadly one of my new sets of copics done the same thing, but i think it was just because my marker had a insane amount of alcohol in it, (copic marker)

:

Ive found the same thing recently.

Agh, not the pirate piece! I hope it's salvageable!

*sighs* We'll see. The worst part is, the smudging is most severe (a) ON THE FACE, and (b) on the LIGHTEST parts of the fur. I may just have to finish the piece and just hope it's not noticeable from a distance. Believe you me, I will never buy another Micron for as long as I live.

Lightbox time to trace onto new material?

It's already half-colored. The only thing left for it now is shading and striping.

Eggggh. >__< Man, do I ever feel your pain.

I don't blame you for dropping Micron. I would be SO pissed...

I've always hated microns..
I too am a staedtler lover <3

lets just say they found a cheaper substitue for their products and is now a corrupt company like all the rest...

i still <3 Staedtler!

maybe the manufacturer gave them a bad ink load.

You too? D: It drives me nuts when that happens. So I switched to regular BIC pens to write my notes.

dang...has'nt happened to me before...though I suppose from now on, you could have a scrap sheet of paper to see how the pens are and check if they smudge or anything before going ahead to ink anything

The thing is, I've used Microns for years, I thought they were trustworthy, so I went ahead and inked the whole picture with them. >.< Apparently it's just the NEW ones that are lower quality.

KUDOS FOR KNOWING WHAT FUBAR IS!

Farked Up Beyond All Reason/Recognition!

(The kinder, gentler translation.)

Snafubar!
Situation Normal, Fucked Up Beyond All Recovery!

Situation Normal ALL Fucked Up... You forgot the "A" XD

*Hands her a cookie.* You've passed our little test, welcome Sister.

I've always wound up smudging my Microns, but then.. I use the 05 and 03 almost exclusively, and constantly go over the lines again and again...

Are you using a different paper too by chance? Justa thought.

I've tried the Staedlers, but I find that they dry out WHILE using them.. I don't get good solid lines. Then again, the Microns tend to leak a lot more for me... and if I don't notice, I get fingerprints on things.

Then again, I haven't inked a damn thing in a year... so I don't know if anything I have to say has any relevance--if it ever did.

Good luck, tiger.

No, I used my old Microns on my otter piece, which was on the same type of paper as the pirate piece, and had no problems. It seems to be the new pens I just bought.

Sorry I haven't read the rest of the posts, however, it is probably due to your marker. Something about whether if its alcohol based or not. Copic outliners are good for using markers. At least copic wise that is. :[

So yeah...I think that's the issue. @@

great now i got to make my Microns last forever..

I'll sell ya my new ones at AC... ;D LOL

With Your line quantities? That's a good one, I LoL'd

The new microns fucking blow. Don't bother with 'em.

Stuff isnt made like it used to be. Simple as that.

Maybe it was just a bad batch? You could try checking their website for a recall notice before doing anything drastic.

I already checked their website and emailed their customer service.

{shoulda known) Any luck yet?

They told me to send the pens back and they'll replace them. Judging by others' responses, though, I probably won't have luck with the replacements.

I use Copic and Prismacolor markers whenever i find myself doing marker work...x.x

Yes, I use Prismacolor markers too. But I used Micron PENS for the inking, as in the outlines.

ah righto, the pens i use to ink on real media are called Hi-Tech Pilot, they are japanese and haven't smudged a bit with me and i'm having trouble finding them online, they are probably like 2-3 dollars each, so ack...when i'm not using those, because sometimes i dont have them with me I like copic multiliner pens alot, they've lasted a long time with me...

i buy them from here.
http://www.dickblick.com/zz213/96/

i dont have problems with the ones i baught butmaybe i got lucky and got an old batch, i use copics mostly anyways.

that sucks royally. and in the middle of colouring? that's enough to go postal.

as for trying to correct it, i use china white from those tiny lil' tubes cheap watercolour sets for school have, and a no.2 brush, and a drop of water. at least i can use colour pencils afterwards without it being noticable. never tried it with markers, but maybe it helps you.

personally i use a 0.35 Rotring Rapidograbh (a technical pen) with Rotring ink. a little bottle last several years for me. :) broader lines are made with Faber PITT ink pens. they come in 0.5 and up, alas no finer pens there. but they have brush pens, too, and a couple of colours.
here in germany microns are found only in large online shops, so i have no experience with them. staedler might be an alternative, though. the fine metal tip of the rapidograph tends to be caught in rougher paper, making inking a bit exhausting.

Holy shit... I'm sure glad I only buy Staedtler and Itoya then.
Still, it's sad to see yet another trusted name join the race to the bottom

If you can salvage it ti wasn't FUBAR... :P

try useing a hair dryer I tend to keep one on stand by when I am painting, reason being I use a lot of inks and i am also to impatient to wait for the paint to dry!!

I use Staedtler Mars 500 series stylographs.. , and same smudging ( less than 2 minutes to let it dry )
and woah, I was wanting to try these markers o_O

I've tested all sorts of technical pens and they all behave the same. I know that different kinds of paper make a huge difference. There is one method for coloring inks that is sure never to smudge. I discovered this myself, but later I found out that other artists do this. I even read about it in a book. They photocopy their ink work onto a fresh sheet of paper. I have loaded the copiers at kinko's with my own bristol or cardstock. I can have multiple copies, too, so I have backup if I mess up my coloring the first time.

Otherwise, maybe the smudging will go away over time. The new pens might be a little loaded right now.

I'll probably be breaking them in at AC on sketchbooks, for people who decide to go with just inked pics. ^^ We'll see how they do after having their ink drained a bit.

hm I have some micron pens I think. o.O but i don't really consider them to be good anyways.
So, I think to use the Copic Multiliner pens would be the best solution. They're quite good, don't smudge, and smooth to use. o.o At least for me. I use them with whatever medium i might have at hand. Watercolors, markers, airbrush. o.o no problem.

Stay the hell away from Rapidograph.

Hey, go with a brush and India ink! ;)

BondoFox is right about Rapidograph: great results, but give the piece at least 2 weeks to dry, or the markers'll rip the ink off the page!

Personally, I use either Staedtler, or the Edding 1800 range. Not much to pick between them, although I do find the Edding pens have more durable tips.

I'll stick with my Bics


(writer)

Sanford Fine-Point uni-ball. I steal them from work. :P They're a good happy medium between the cheap Bic Stick and the expensive rollerballs - I don't like rollerballs because they're too smooth, I don't get good feedback from the paper, and they run out too fast.

yeah, but when you lose pens as often as i do, the bic stick is the way to go

Which is why I steal them from work ;)

could be the paper you're using. I've had a problem with some paper where I had to wait over night for the inks to dry before I could put ink to the paper

Pilot Precise Ball Pens all the way for me. Never have any problem with them and you can get a consistent line with them. As well as you can vary the line thickness a bit if you angle the pen.

I use Sharpie for my random stuff, and Copics for planned things/things for other people. Staedtlers are good pens for a good price, but the thinner ones can have flow issues.

I've been using microns for ages now, and I've never run across a problem like this. Though I tend to color my work digitaly because I don't have an undo button IRL...

Yeah, if you don't use markers then it's not even an issue. I may be trying to pawn mine off at AC, depending on how these Staedtlers of mine work.

...So I'm not the only one that's having this problem! I was working on a commissioned piece tonight and I'll be damned if the ink didn't start smearing all over the place in one of the most detailed sections. I'm left to salvage what I can... hopefully.

*hugs* Well, just follow my creed for marker coloring:

If it doesn't look good, it's just not done yet.

Alas, I didn't even get that far! After waiting 30 minutes or so to let the ink dry (usually an excessively long time for those quick-drying Microns... I'm just cautious!) I started to erase my sketch lines and the ArtGum eraser, which I've always used, made HUGE black streaks through the ink! I could have SCREAMED at that point because there's no way that ink'll stand up to a watercolor wash if it can't even handle an eraser. :(

While microns are nice, when I DO ink, I usually use a rapid-o-sketch ink pen. Though I'm pretty sure Rapid-o-graph pens have a wider nib.. or whatever. Anyway, for twenty bucks you can get a good pen which will last a good amount of time AND you can get x-amount of refills for it for about three bucks or so each bottle of ink. It may not be the same as the microns, but I've had a good experience with Rapid-o-graph/sketch.

I'd be soooo pissed if a faulty ink pen ruined a drawing I had worked my arse off on DX ... That's one of the reasons I work digital >.>

What brand of micron do you use, if you don't mind me asking?

Oh, P.S. You're marker stuffs is incredible. @.@ I had trouble believing it was marker at first lol

Uhhh... I thought Micron was the brand. Specifically, Sakura Pigma Micron pens, though.

And thanks. ^^