Well, I haven't used copics exactly, mostly trias and prismas, but I find something that helps if you don't apply the markers directly to the paper. Try this: Take a piece of hard plastic, preferably white or clear, and rub a circle of the color you want to use on the plastic, like you were putting paint on a palette. Then, take a colorless blender marker, and use it to pick up some of the color off the plastic and apply that to the paper. This is great because it lets you blend colors on the plastic, it gives you more control over bleeding, and it lets you get more subtle gradations of color. Just for an example, on this pic I didn't put a colored marker to the page at all, except maybe the one or two spots of pure black.

It's also possible that your scrap paper is actually much more suited to markers than your drawing paper! Paper that's not so textured and porous is better for markers, and most drawing paper isn't. You might take a trip to the art store and see if you can find a pad of marker-specific paper that resists bleeding and shows brighter color. However, usually such paper is thinner than normal drawing paper so you'll want to be careful not to rip it if you use other media on it. ~:3

Holy crap that's good! It worked well for you but it sounds awfully time consuming. I'm not quite as patient, nor do I have a colorless marker.

I could probably try different paper. I'm not too sure what I'd be looking for though.

It sounds a lot more time-intensive than it really is. ~;3 If you ever get a colorless marker you should give it a try.

As for paper, the type I used was just advertised as specifically for markers, so it was an easy choice. ~;3 It was thinner than regular paper and smoother, so that the marker didn't leak into the paper texture. Pretty nice.

I did later find that one of my sketchbooks from before was a much better paper type for the markers. I'll just need to buy another one. The paper you're talking about sounds a whole lot nicer though.

well, that's not fair! I don't use markers. Hell, my CPU is acting like a 286/8 right now (and that's uber old for most who don't even know what that is). *cries* I wanna see Rocky nude.

Dude! That's old school, my mac just crapped out on me to... I think we need to have furaffinity combed for phishing or malious code, this isn't my first compy to putt out after I started coming here.

If all else fails, I'll have no choice but to use colored pencils. I really want it to look more professional than the pencils though. -_-

What? I'm not too familiar with that fancy shmancy computer talk! Righ now, I don't see the connection between your computer and markers. O_o;

Oops, sorry, replied to the wrong comment. ^_^;

Y'know what, nevermind. I think I need sleep.

Was it tracing paper you were practicing on? I know they make special paper for copics that keep the color and minimizes bleeding. Normal printer paper or copy paper will bleed horribly you need thicker grittier paper for copic... art stores are the best place to ask for that kind of advice. If you could tell me more about what you were using I could have the art students at my school look the situation over

I used a plain old garden variety sketchbook I bought at Walgreens. As for the scrap paper, I have absolutely no clue.

Just now though, I tested a page of one of my older skechbooks, a higher quality one, and I think I've found a brand much more suited for these markers...

paper quality can make all the difference in the world huh? i love gritty paper funner to shade on.

i hope i helped with the problem at least

Yeah the paper seems good for the markers but not eraser marks! XP

oh dont get me started on eraser merks. im left handed everything i touch auto smears! try gummy erasers they're a nasty brown and used for drafting but they seem to leave minimal marks

I do that alot too, especially if there's a certain part of the drawing I have trouble with. My zombie drawing got smudged up because of all the shading I did in the bloody parts. It also has a ton of eraser marks around the leg area because I couldn't seem to get them right. You won't see the marks though because I edited them out after I scanned it. ^_^

I've never been a marker fan, so I do't know brands. BUT, I do know if you tilt the marker back or farword, and leave it that way for a while, it can cause it to bleed, or seem not to give alot of ink that way.

That's way weird. I keep my copics tossed into a bamboo basket with all my prismas and stuff, and they've never bled -- not even after shampoo exploded on them in my suitcase during a trip. >_>;;;;;;

A couple of other problems you might be having after reading through all of this -- I use Strathmore brand paper, bristol or sketchbooks or whatever, at least for my good projects.

Erasers I use are (I think) Saedtler? Probably misspelled that, but they're the nice smooth, white, rectangular erasers. They're nice because they're relatively good at cleaning up lines, not tearing the paper and not leaving eraser marks. AND they're cheap. I bought I think a 4 or 6 pack of them from Staples for a dollar.

Hope that all helps!

You definitely know what you're talking about!

I think it was just simply the paper problem. Too many pores. I'll be on the lookout for the ones you mentioned though.

yea bristol board is what we have to put all of our art projects on, feels like card stock stays pretty clean if you dont press to hard. you might want to try a outliner pencil to. its light blue uber hard lead that alot of artists use for rough drawing poses, when you ink over it it disappears and the rest comes off with alight eraser pass. it helped clean up my lines in a snap!

I really need to consider getting an outliner pencil! It would make life loads easier. Well not life, but drawing anyway.

Life indeed! It's that powerful of a tool LOL, jk but it did make life easier for me. Oie I made my character look like a baffoon today :(

I gotta get me one of those for sure!
Buffoon? Who?

I'd post his character sheet if I could but I'm still with out a computer :( I had to make a macette of him the other day and he came out looking flamboyantly retarded.

I'd like to see your character. That'd be cool.
What's a macette? Call me retarded but I really don't know.

It's a small sculpture made of sculpy modeling clay. Mines about 8 inches tAll. Took about 12 hours to mold 40 to cook and cool and another 2 to paint. But he still looks pretty retarded I didn't think the pose through very well is all. They actually gave me enough clay to model another, if I ever get rockets sheets I might have to make one for your birthday

Nah, I appreciate it but that's okay. Besides, my birthday's pretty far off in December. I'd love to make a model of Rocky out of clay. I've made a couple of models of Axel but everytime I finish one, a couple weeks later I'm left with an unsatisfied feeling that I could've done better.

*sigh* OK. here's the deal. this could be the same for my Prismacolors since i don't have Copics, but i don't care! you're going to listen. *sits you down in a chair*

first off: if you copied your picture onto PLAIN 8.5 X 11 PAPER of course it's going to be different. now. what kind of paper have you been using? proper drawing paper like Bristol Board, 80 lb. drawing paper, what? the problem could be the paper you're using.

second: did the ink stay dark after it dried? it couldbe because of how much ink you used, or, once again, the paper.

that's all i can think of. i hope it helps.

---Kayden

I was careful not to ink it too much but It stayed dark even after it dried. I do know the problem is paper related though. I figured out a better type of sketchbook to use.

Are you saying I've gotta use bigger paper? Sorry, I'll stick to normal size paper. The bigger the paper, the more I'll screw up. Guaranteed. Besides, bigger paper won't fit on an ordinary scanner.

oh no no no, i was only desacribing normal printer paper which is 8.5 X 11. and no, the problem is never the size of the paper. thatis unless you want to do a majorly huge drawing or painting.

Oh, heh, my bad. ^_^;

lol, it's ok ^^

I use Copics all the time. Mostly grayscale, not so much with color.

Get yourself some bleedproof marker paper. From my experience the best brand is Letraset, (made by Tria but it'll work with any markers). Once you start using it you'll never use anything else with markers.

And also your markers probably bled more because they were brand new, and therefore extra juicy. Once they dry out a little bit they probably won't bleed as much.

I don't think I've ever heard of that brand. Do they make sketchbooks? I prefer to keep my work together.

Not sure if they make sketchbooks, but it comes in 11x17 or 8.5x11 pads with tear-out pages. I guess if you don't tear the pages out it could work like a sketchbook.

Letra-set makes Tria markers, or at least sells em.

Don't buy a whole lot of special paper though unless you try it out first. I bought paper 'designed' for markers and it sucked.. or I sucked at using it. (*shrugs* 7 bucks for 50 sheets waisted.)

Try using cheap ass copier/printer paper, the kind you can by at walmart. If you use something like a pigma or micron to lay down real ink over the trace, it usually acts like a barrier. Try coloring not quite up to the line and letting the colored ink bleed to that line.. the black inked line should keep it confined since it already saturated that area. Also if ya do try it, using the cheep paper I mean, put a couple of pieces under it in a stack before hand, that way it bleeds mostly down instead of to the sides. Least I find it does and most of the colored stuff I've done is on copier paper.

Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks! this should really help out. I appreciate your help.

No problem, enjoy the new copics, try erasing some of the ink for a cool look tooo.

Copic ink is eraseable? Is that Really what you meant 'cuz I don't believe it!

*shrugs* I haven't bothered to try it with mine since I generally layer them over a base color of prisma, but that's what a girl I saw using em at Con said when I asked her how she was getting that effect. It didn't take up all the color, just lightened it alot. *shrugs* Maybe she meant a colorless blender. Dunno like I said I haven't tried it and my markers are an hour and a half south of me right now so I can't verify it right now.

She probably meant a colorless blender. I tried and it really doesn't work. XP