Copic maintenance - how & why

 

Hey everyone! I've wanted to make a post on Copic maintenance - aka Copic Spa day - for a long time, and I'm finally doing it. This is a long one, so grab a cuppa. 

Please keep in mind that this is the way I do things and my own personal preferences and opinions. There are many ways of getting around it. If what you do works for you, that's fine too!

First things first - WHY should you spend time cleaning your markers?

So you've bought your markers. They were expensive in my humble opinion, and now you just want to color. Right?

Cleaning takes a bit of time when your collection is as big as mine. Don't get me wrong I totally understand that it seems tedious and a waste of time. But what if I tell you that keeping your markers clean will prolong and improve the use of your markers? Cleaning is essential for all users of Copic markers, no matter how much or how often you use them.

The main issue is pigment. 

You know how with some markers it's like they leave a gooey residue when you color? It's thick, shiny and absolutely impossible to blend. It can ruin your project.

You will especially notice this with your darker tones, since these have higher amounts of pigment in them.

I learned the hard way and have had to buy a new black marker and as you can see, one is ok while the other leaves behind that sticky, glossy, unblendable residue.

When you cap and uncap your markers, you will inevidently touch the nibs to the inside of the cap. The alcohol evaporates, but the pigment does not. It sits inside the cap. Builds up in layers.

The more you use that marker, the more pigment build-up that cap will have.

This does 2 things. 

1 - A cap with a pigment build-up does NOT seal your marker. Even if you hear a click. This means the ink (or rather alcohol) in your marker evaporates. 

2 - Once you have a gooey residue inside your cap, you will transfer this to your nib every time you cap/uncap. So now it's building up in the nib, and even worse inside the marker. Since you can't clean the core inside the marker, this will slowly build up and eventually lead to marker death. 

This leads to the next question. 

How often should you clean your markers?

Sadly, there's no exact answer to this.

Obviously the more you use them, the more cleaning they'll need. 

But if you think you won't have to clean your markers because you don't use them that much? 

Think again. 

The gooe inside the caps somehow generate more gooe. The pigment sticks to the clogs. This is often why you'll find markers have "suddenly" dried out. 

Since I use my markers almost daily I have a pretty good feel of their overall state. 

If you don't use them much you tend to loose track of that. So you'll at least have to check the once in a while. Sorry to burst that bubble. 

Personally I'm annoyed when my caps are so gooey that they become hard to cap and uncap. That's usually a sign that I've already waited way too long.

For me - a little bit of pigment in the caps is ok, but once it turns sticky, it's definately time.

I probably should do mine every 6 months, but it's usually a bit longer than that 🙈

I always do all of mine at the same time, and I refill those that need it at that time too. I find it's easier that way. 

This means not all of them need it, and I just skip those. Better to check since I plan to keep my markers healthy for as long as possible.

Since cleaning involves alcohol fumes, I suggest you do it while temperatures allow you to keep an open window. Maybe you can eve sit outside. Alcohol fumes can make you dizzy, nauseated and give you migraines. So I've heard 😏

Hopefully I've convinced at least one person to clean their markers by now. Let me know in the comments 🙏 

How do you know if your marker needs reinking?

There are a couple of tell tale signs to look for. 

Nibs loosing color or having light spots, streaky coloring or a squeaking sound when coloring are all signs that your marker needs more ink.

A totally dry and hard nib sadly means your marker is unsalvageable and needs replacement. 

What you need

The first photo at the top shows you my setup. 

Obviously you need your markers and reinkers

Isopropyl alcohol - the higher percentage the better

A small bowl

Cotton swabs

Small scale - must have 2 decimals 

Copic tweezer - the Copic one is designed to not ruin your nibs and is the only one I ever used

Paper towels

Alcohol wipes

Bag or bowl for trash - I use a bag to prevent my whole house reeks of alcohol

I always start by weighing the markers by color group. Then I reink the ones that need it before cleaning. This is just easier since reinking the markers can be a bit messy. 

I don't wear gloves though. I find it washes of after a few times. But you may want to wear them if you paid for your nails.  

These photos show new markers.

The weight of a new marker can variate. A new Copic Sketch marker will weigh 14.00-14.80 grams, and a Ciao marker 10.50-11.00 grams.

HOWEVER! When I refill my markers I try to land them around 13.80 for Sketch and 10.60 for Ciao.

Why? you may ask. 

Because I find that my markers work better at this weight. Lower than 13 / 10 grams, blending becomes harder. Higher than 14.00/ 10.80 grams I find they're more prone to bleeding - and noone wants that.

Generelly speaking the markers can both be too low and too high on ink, but you may find other levels suit you better. So find what levels work better for you. 

What to do if you overfill a marker

If you accidentally overfill your marker, remove both caps while coloring. This takes off the pressure inside the marker and helps prevent bleeding. 

Types of reinker

A few years ago Copic lauched new reinkers that are a bit different from the old ones. Other than containing a lot less ink - only 12 ml compaired to 24 ml - the nozzle is longer and more slim. They designed them like this - I believe - to contain the mess when reinking.

Reinking the marker

First, remove the chisel nib. 

With your Copic tweezer grab the "bottom" of the nib, as close to the markercase as possible, and pull. 

When you reinsert the nib make sure you feel it "click" into plate. Otherwise in won't be airtight. 

The marker is designed with an ink carthridge to hold the ink and won't bleed because of the missing nib. 

WARNING! It is NOT recommended to remove your brush nib unless it's for replacement, since the tweezer may ruin it.

Next, before adding ink, double check that the number on the marker matches the number on your reinker. If you accidentally add a different color ink to a marker you'll need to replace the marker.  Of course you can use the marker, but it will never be 100% the original color. 

With the old reinkers you carefully place the nozzle over the markercase and gently squeeze the reinker.

This can take a little practice, but once you get the hang of things you won't spill too much. If I get a drop of ink running down the barrel I wipe it off with an alcohol wet wipe or a paper towel with a bit of isopropyl alcohol on it. 

With the new reinkers you're meant to insert the nozzle into the markercase. Since the smaller reinkers are somehow harder you need to squeeze quite firmly to get even a small amount of ink out.

Maybe you can already tell from that - I don't like the new reinker much.

Reinking my markers takes longer because I want my marker at a certain weight. So I squeeze, weigh, squeeze, weigh, squeeze.... until I reach the wanted weight. That to me is tedious.

With the old reinkers I had learned to control the squeezing, so when I knew how much ink was needed I just squeezed and weighed and most of the time that was it.

Note! All weights listed above are for the whole marker. That means you must put both caps, chisel nib and markercase onto the scale. 

Can you add ink without removing the nib?

Yes, you can. You simply drip drops of ink into either nib. However, I find this method takes way too long. Especially if a marker is very low on ink. 

Can you reink your markers without a scale?

Of course you can. If you find weighing each marker is too tedious and you don't have issues with drying out or bleeding, go for it. You do you! 

For me, this method works. 

I have markers that I use more in periods, like very low number B's, BG's and BV's during winter. Or markers that I use all the time, like for skin, which are constantly low - like this E21. Critical, honestly 😬 

But if you don't know if your marker is 13.50 grams low-ish or 12.74 grams VERY dry, how will you know how much ink to add? The likelihood of landing at the weight where the marker will perform best is very small, in my opinion. 

And more importantly, if you reink marker by marker, how will you keep track of how much ink a specific marker is actually using? 

My guess is you'll probably loose that overall state of the markers and which ones need taking care of. I know I would 😬

Keeping up to date can mean the difference of noticing a problem that can be dealt with or being too late to fix it. 

Even so, you won't be able so save them all, sometimes it happens so fast and there's just nothing you can do. 

When a marker is this low on ink, typically that will make me think about how much I've actually used the specific marker since I last had a Copic spa day. 

Is it probable that this marker is so low simply due to use? 

Either way I'll check the cap for cracks. Because let's be honest, if there's a crack there's no point in refilling it. This new ink will only evaporate too and be a waste of money.

In the case of my E21 I didn't find cracks, nor was I particularly worried. 

I was however worried about this one. My E40. This marker was even more critically dry, and it's not a marker that I use a lot. First sign of a problem.

Second sign was the chisel nib. I forgot to take a photo of it, but this is a different marker that previously had similar signs (read: it was DEAD!). My E40 wasn't quite this bad, but it was sticky and had some gooe stuck to it. At this point I was expecting to find a crack in the cap, but even after cleaning and looking it over a couple of times, I didn't find one. The brush nib looked fine too, so I felt lucky to have caught it in time.

Since the nib was all gooey I desided to clean it. I do this by adding a bit of Copic Colorless blending solution in a small resealable bag and dump the nib in there for a while.

For this you MUST use the Copic blending solution, since this is basically the same alcohol solution that's inside your marker + the added pigment. The cheaper store bought isopropyl alcohol will ruin the ink and therefore your marker, so DO NOT use that for this.

This is how it looked after a bath and I didn't like it. See those white spots. They tell me the nib was not clean. I once again checked the cap but still found no crack, so I desided to put in a new nib.

This is the new nib filling up with ink on the left and all filled up on the right. It takes a minute or 2, give it time. The pressure inside the marker barrel fills up your nib faster if you leave one of the caps on.

Remember that black marker with gooe on it. This is from a previous cleaning session. Back then I desided to clean both nibs, and even changed the brush nib. However, the problem quickly re-emerged, telling me that the problem had already settled inside my marker, and that this marker was no longer salvageble.  

This tells us that fighting the gooey pigment early on is key to a continuously working marker. 

Should you have to change the brush nib? 

I've once heard a Copic instructor say "if you need to change your brush nib, it's because you're using your marker wrongly".

She could be right, I don't know. But I've had to change a few. 

If your brush nib is all crooked when uncapped or is too soft when touched to the paper, then it's not functioning properly. 

You can also have tears or flossing on the nib, that would make me change it too. 

If the nib is completely hard, unfortunately you'll need to replace the marker. 

The process of changing the brush nib is the same as for the chisel nib. However, I insert it using my fingers rather than the tweezers. Make sure to push it all the way in for a tight seal. 

Cleaning your marker

There are many ways to do this, and since it's an important step in maintaining your markers you need to find a way that fits you 🙏

Here's how I do it - sorry no photo, but check out the video.

I pour a small amount of isopropyl alcohol in my bowl. The higher alcohol percentage, the faster and better it will gnaw away at the sticky residue.

However, it is crutial that you don't accidentally touch the isopropyl alcohol to your nibs, so be careful.

If you're worried about it, use Copic colorless bleeding solution instead. 

And don't forget to open a window.

I dip a cotton swab in the alcohol and run it over the markercase and inside the caps until all the sticky residue is gone. 

And that's it. Simple and easy.

Cracks

So the E40 cap kept haunting me and after a couple of days I took another look. Maybe it got worse, maybe it was the lighting, I don't know. But I finally did find a crack 😞

Yes, they really can be hard to spot. 

This goes to show how cracks can be ever so small but do great damage. I know now that my marker is dying. I did just reink it and the brush nib seems ok for now. But it's definately a matter of time. Had I found the crack earlier I wouldn't have reinked it or put in a new nib. Better so save that for a new marker.

By the way, cracks can come from many things, from being too low on ink or being placed in the sun for too long to drops to the floor or even during transport, especially if you bought them online. So check your markers when you buy new ones.

Here are 2 cracks in clean caps. Even then they can be hard to spot.

Here's a comparison of a cap with a little bit of ink residue seen from directly above and at an angle. This again shows how easily you can miss those tiny cracks.

Newbie? 

If you're a Copic newbie here are a couple of things to consider. I kindly remind you that these are my own opinions. 

Which Copic marker is better? 

Copic markers come in 4 different varieties: Classic, Sketch, Ciao and Wide.

Their appearance is different, and where Sketch and Ciao has a brush nib, Classic has a bullet nib and Wide a rather wide chisel. 

But the ink is the same and as such can be used together. For coloring purposes they have the same abilities. Sketch and Ciao are most often used by colorists, Sketch come in 358 colors and Ciao in 180.

Back when I started collecting my markers I chose primarily Sketch. People said they preferred these while coloring, that they lay better in your hand. I suppose that's a matter of preference. 

Today however, I choose Ciao when I can. The reason is a bit sad, honestly.

Over the years I've experienced that the Sketch caps are more and more prone to cracking 😮

And I've heard the same thing from 2-3 other Copic users, which to me is enough "proof" that there's at least some truth to that.

Furthermore I have never had a Ciao cap crack.

This is 100% my opinion, you take from it what you want. But that's worth somehing in my book. And wallet.

Which "set" is better? 

People often ask which Copic set they should buy. In my opinion those sets are only a good deal if you know for sure you'll be buying them all. And you don't need them all. Remember - these are my opinions.

The thing is, they've packed them so they're not the easiest to get a good blend. This means you may be able to blend properly if you're experinced, but if you're just starting out your Copic adventure, you'll probably need to buy more markers to get proper blends. 

So in my opinion you'll be far better off buying a few markers that blend from the color groups that you're most likely to use. 

I recommend you do what I did. Do your own research. Check out videos of others coloring to get an idea of which markers you'll want to buy. Buy a light, medium and dark tone of a few colors you want, to try them out. 

I haven't regretted doing it this way, and I'm sure this will save you money. 

Do you need to buy Copic paper? 

I believe the most common mistake for newbies is use of the wrong paper. Copic markers will not blend on copy paper or regular cardstock. 

You'll need to buy paper that's meant for alcohol markers. It's more expensive, yes. But your new expensive markers will dry up in no time if you use the wrong paper. Plus, they won't blend either. 

The reason being, paper meant for alcohol coloring has a surface that allows to alcohol to sit on top for a short while. This is when you do your blending of the different colors and tones. 

But you don't have to buy Copics own paper, there are others out there that work well. There are of course the more branded ones but a lot of stamp brands now have their own alcohol marker paper too. I suggest you try out different ones because it's really a matter of preference which paper people like better 

Here's a few of the branded ones. 

X-press it blending card

Neenah Solar White Classis Crest

And this one I tried a few years ago and it's been my favorite since. 

Make 'it' color Blending cardstock

Final words

Phew, that was a lot. I hope it's what you needed and not too much you didn't 🙈

Please let me know in the comments if you read all the way to the end - THANK YOU ❤️, let me know if you have any questions, and especially if I've convinced you to make time for a Copic spa day 🙏

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy spring cleaning.

Tina