So I had won an auction from Ebay for 72 pcs of Copic "Comic" Markers. While I'd never heard of comic markers, I was definitely interested since it looked like sketch. The oval shape and the super fine brush - it was definitely a steal! Apparently, nobody had ever heard of them either, so I won it for pretty cheap *cheer*

The following pictures illustrate just how similar these markers are to sketch. The only real difference is the medium broad square nib on sketch - comic markers have a medium round nib (which I thought was pretty cool!) The other difference, however, is in the color tags: these comic markers start with CM** (where the asterisk go from 1 to 72), regardless of the color family. The other copics and their refills use different color tags: blues start with B, violets with V, etc.







According to Marianne, the Copic representative from the official website of the US copic distributor, these colors use the same Various Ink refills, though they have to be converted to the appropriate color the other copics use. She was nice enough to let me know that when it is time for me to refill, she will find a conversion chart for the comic markers.

Yeay!!

So there is it, guys: that's comic markers. Before I finish, I should also note that Marianne said these markers are not sold in the US. The ones I bought from Ebay were probably from Japan. Except it shipped from San Francisco - lol! The seller had probably made a trip to Japan and came back with dozens of copic sets to sell on Ebay. Last time I was browsing, he had Sketch sets A to D in 72 pcs and some in 36.

<3

Well, I can't figure out how to override Adobe Contribute's preset image settings (It keeps converting all my images to this standard 200ish x 300ish size. I even tried to tinker with the .csi file but to no avail.) (Psssst. Click the images for a bigger size, kthnx.) So this is what I had started to work on yesterday. It's kind of different from my usual drawing. It's a smaller figure, for sure, and I've added some swirly line thingies that I hope will turn out well. Unfortunately, I couldn't ...<< MORE >>

May 11th:

Can't sleep so I started working on this. Insomnia gets so bad sometimes. I did the sketch for this on my sketch pad, then I scanned it and printed it on marker paper. Came out alright so I copic-ed away.

Anyway, this was fun to work on, since I didn't care if I stayed within the lines (remember kindergarten and your teacher telling you, "Color within the line, children!" Well, I chucked that) and I kind if just experimented.

Half an hour of continuously blending circles with the colorless blender and I started feeling claustrophobic -_- I'm sure the dancing ...<< MORE >>

It's kind of huge: sorry about that. After the failed attempt at inking last time, I decided to stick with some color. I call this "The Gatekeeper." I started at about noon today, thinking hard about a subject matter and then sketching it with a pencil (finished about 7pm, after copious breaks, procrastinating, and erasing). I'm surprised the parchment paper held up so well since I was erasing like crazy (one would think I would have been smart enough to use a different paper to transfer my original sketch for the final illustration, but in this case,  laziness > intelligence ...<< MORE >>

I LOVE these shoes. I can't stress that enough. LOVE LOVE LOVE EM! I just ordered a pair from Victoria's Secret but they are backordered till mid June. Since I have some time to kill, I think I'll make a list of what I love about these shoes: * Their unique wedge ziggy zagginess * Gold (I mean, seriously, need I say more about gold) * Rhinestone-y thingies that make it spahhhhkle * It's skanky and flashy, and will definitely cause a stir. Yet QUITE tasteful ^_^ Oh the dichotomy! * 4 inch heels that make your calves and your butt pop (lol!)<< MORE >>

Today I decided to try just inking. Well, that didn't go too well. I used Copic multi-liners on marker paper and I'm not done yet, but I figured I'll post it here to show how it may change in the future. Suffice to say that I am not very fond of it at the moment. I also used sharpie to fill in the big blacks and I wasn't fond of that either. I call this Womb:



...<< MORE >>

After realizing that I really, really am not too great with coloring, I
decided to FINALLY give it a go. Face my own fear. So this morning,
this is what I came up with: ...<< MORE >>

And when I say "eve" I mean the woman with a capital E. I can't sleep and it's almost 4am. I'd written 2 essays today and one cover page talking about why I deserve an A-. Not an A, mind you, an A-. So I figured I'd give myself a break and try to do something fun. I just got my 72 pc 144B copics originals today, but for this drawing, I stuck with my copic sketch. This is the initial stage of something, but I'm not sure what yet. But we'll call her Eve. Don't mind my evil scanner's pink vertical line. It's evil and I don't know how to fix it -_-<< MORE >>

Inspired by Utenya and Nakatsu, I went back to my trusty old portfolio in search of drawings I had made "back in the day." So here's the tattered remains of my earlier works and I wish I knew how to make them bigger instead of this quasi-thumbnail size.   ...<< MORE >>

Copics are super expensive! So with that out of the way *breathe* I surfed online for about 2 days figuring out which online stores stock them t he cheapest. Imagine my surprise when I came across Carpediem and realized they have a year-long sale going on. According to their site and the subsequent email they sent me after I inquired about their discount, they are hosting a super low price for Copic markers for the year, and returning Copic customers can enjoy another 10% discount on top of their order. A Copic sketch ...<< MORE >>