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So, I finally brok'd down and bought myself something woth more than ten bucks...

As most people I know will tell me is that judging by my DeviantArt account I haven't "earned" my copics. But in the spirit of my art classes, I'm just going to do what I always have with a brand new media... Buy it, play with it, and learn it the hard way.

Yeah, the friends I was telling you about think that having copics will make you a god among artists... but really, as I learned through education in art... it's all about how well you've learned to use your media that makes you better at art than you were before.

I bought COPIC Sketch Marker 72 color set B, it seemed like a good kit to start off with. Tomorrow I get to pick up my markers, and my free airbrush kit from the UPS Depot and start playing around and taking pictures... (I hope I can get my fiance to let me borrow his camera.)

So does anyone else here have/use copic markers, sketch or otherwise?

If so do you have any kind of advice for a person like me? I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go out and buy different paper as I only have the pencil sketching paper that soaks up a ton of ink and bleeds (I bought some NeoPiko to test out the paper with. lol)

I heard good things about prismacolors, but I can make lcrayola colored pencils do my bidding too lol. In fact... I thing I had a set of Prang colored pencils that got a piece of mine snatched up by scott mcneil.

Oo oo! You're trying out markers too? Thats awesome! They're a bet awkward to use at first ( especially when you come from painting), but they're the fastest and most easy traditional color sketching too to use ( besides watercolor) for those projects that have to get done by a tight deadline @__@.

My art teacher had the entire COPIC set
(he used the school's budget for this).
He let me try it out..
At first I was overwhelmed.
But in truth, after trying it out, I disliked COPIC.
I prefer Photoshop or your simple PRIMA color pencils.
Because mistakes can be easily rubbed out.

I looked at your practice pic on your dev and its coming along fairly nice. My main advice would be: don't be afraid to blend different colors. For example, I think it would be better if you added different colors such as deco peach, oranges, and maybe even a light purple or light brown in the shading of the skin. However, this depends on how you want to color mainly. Just keep experimenting and have fun.
I've never used copic markers...but I'm sure they're somewhat simlair to prismas ^^;; inwhich case, I suggest you blend while the base(layed down color) is still wet.