Add Copic Markers to Your Toolkit

(Updated October 2021 to remove broken links and provide a couple of new ones.)

Everyone wants to color their sketches with Copic markers, right?  But they aren’t necessarily cheap, especially if you want to buy the whole set. There has to be a better way!  Certainly, Clip Studio Paint can emulate them, right?

Of course it can!

There are two parts to getting there, though. The first is to create a brush that emulates the Copic Marker.  The second is to duplicate the Copic Marker color choices. Thankfully, all of this work has been done for you already.

Copic Markers

I can offer you some options for your Copic Marker brush needs:

• The Daub Marker set gives you a bunch of brushes which emulate both Copic Markers and Tombow markers.  The set costs 2.50 Euros, which is still less than $3 American.  It includes wet and dry Copic brush tips, and even a brush to emulate dried out markers.
• Jennifer Mack offers a set of three “Copic-style marker brushes” for a dollar that come with wedge, brush, and blender tips.
• Clip Studio Assets has been a real boon for those looking for specific brush types. Here’s one example of a Copic brush you can download to try.
• There’s another brush that comes up from a user named “pi0ip” that tries to emulate the Copic Marker feel. (See image below.) Install that one. It’s not as good as others I’ve used.  It doesn’t feel wet enough somehow, but maybe we’ll find some settings to adjust to fix that in the future…)

Copic Colors

The most popular solution I kept running across in my search, though, comes from a DeviantArt user by the cool name of Scruffy Scribbler. He breaks down Copic’s color selection into a series of color palettes.

Of particular interest, one set is all grays, from warm to cool and everything in-between. Another is one big palette with all 358 Copic colors on it.  The site is worth a visit just to see the official Copic color chart he reproduces there.

His palettes are also freely provided.

Kaylee Fuzzyhat offers a single color palette with all 358 colors. She says it’s similar to Scruffy’s, but uses different color values and doesn’t separate out the different gray families.  It is a free download.

If you want to see bigger examples of all the Copic colors, check out the Copic Markers sales page and prepare to do lots of scrolling.

Copic Installation

To install new color sets, see my tutorial on “How Do I Pick the Right Skin Tone?”.

To install a brush or a group of brushes, click over to “How to Add a Brush (or Pen or Pencil)“.

Copic Cabana

Have you already gone down this road before?  Do you have experience with the Copic Markers in the physical world?  Which sets love work best for you?  Is there another resource I can add to this list that you like?  Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter.