A happy little thank-you card for some hard-working nurses!

I’m back after a hiatus triggered by a family health situation. Now that we’re back to a more normal schedule, I plan to post more regularly.

Have you ever tried alcohol markers? Curious about how they’re different than your average marker? When you look at the price you’ve got to wonder. I was interested but I’m also frugal so it took me a while to decide that I really need to own some. I did some online research and settled on a set of Copic Ciao markers. Buying them by the set doesn’t save much money and some experts recommend getting a few colors to try but this was my Christmas treat, so I went for a full set.

I watched a You Tube demo by Jazza from Australia which was very helpful. The trick is to start with the lightest value of a color you plan to use in an area and then move to the next darker value, then back to the lighter one for blending. You repeat this step-by-step until you get to your darkest value. You’ve got to do this rather quickly while the ink stays wet.

The blending on the bear’s face starts with the lightest color.

You also need to work on a substrate that won’t absorb the color. I’ve worked on photo paper to make cards and on Bristol board. You get different effects with each.

This circle of flowers was done on Bristol board. It absorbs more of the color than slicker papers.

The markers were loads of fun to play with. After using them several times a week for four or five months the lightest shades of each color are drying out. One of the selling points for Copic is that you can refill the markers so I tried to order the refill ink. Unfortunately, that became impossible. The manufacturer’s web site in Japan showed a new style of refilling cartridge to be available in spring 2020 after supplies of the old ones were gone. Most major online retailers seem to have a few odd colors of the old ones, but not the new style. So… my love affair with Copic markers is on hold as are so many other things in this pandemic.