Big Marker, Small Details?

Have you ever tried to color butterfly antennae with a Copic Marker?

Ouch!

Whether you are adding twigs to a tree, dotting a delicate ladybug, or picking out long flowing stray locks of hair, there are many times when a big fat Copic marker is too big and too fat for the job.

Never fear! Grab a fineliner pen.

But it can’t be just any pen, it must be a Copic safe pen!

That’s right, not all technical pens work with Copics. Some pens will damage or even ruin your Copic nibs. Your technical pen should never be the death of your big, fat, EXPENSIVE Copic Marker!

Wait! What’s a technical pen?

Fineliner pens are actually technical pens. Many years back, a few companies started branding select technical pens as “fine-line pens” and “fineliners”. The name has stuck with younger people and beginners. Think of it as the difference between “Kleenex” (brand) and “facial tissues” (product). Not all technical pens are Fineliners but all Fineliners are technical pens. Technical pens come in precise sizes and were once used primarily for technical drawings like building plans, design specs, product illustration, and animation/comics. Size 0.3mm is the most common for crafters but they run all the way from 2mm to .003mm. With a range of pen sizes, you can make thick butterfly antennae or delicate antennae.

Anyway, back to what we were discussing:

Copic safe technical pens can be used under and over Copic inks. They will not damage your Copic Markers.

Unsafe ink is bad.

If you outline a drawing in UNSAFE ink and then color over the lines, an unsafe ink will smear and bleed. It looks bad.

Even worse, many unsafe inks will be picked up by your Copic Marker nib and transferred around the project. A contaminated nib won’t just damage the current project, it can transfer the contaminate color to new projects for several weeks or months.

For a head to head comparison of why I work with SAFE Copic Multiliners versus UNSAFE Microns, see my article here:

Today, let’s look at the Vanilla Team’s favorite Copic safe technical pens.

Beautiful Hair

Kathy, our technology expert and editor here at Vanilla Arts has been practicing hair techniques with Copic Markers, colored pencils, and technical pens!

Realistic hair is a combination of several methods- some blending, a lot of flicking, and many long flowing strokes.

Kathy colored this Brunette Braid as an exercise. She’s practicing her hair skills and it’s gorgeous.

Kathy used a base of watercolor pencils. She layered Chocolate, Black, Light Umber, and Cream Prismacolor over the top. She finished it with select strands of brown and black Triplus Fineliner.

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The label won’t say “safe”

If you are an avid label reader at the grocery store, you might scan pen packaging and the barrel labels for the words “Safe for Copics”.

Unfortunately, there is no labeling law for that.

It’s up to you to test a pen before using it in a project with Copic markers AND to keep track of which paper you’re using them on, because paper can affect the stability of the ink.

Luckily, the team has done a lot of testing over the years and we are sharing the technical pens we love most.

Anddddd… we’re also giving you a short list of the pens which have made some of us cry.

Tip: We’ve learned the hard way. Test any new technical pen BEFORE using it with Copic markers.

Amy recommends swatching the pen on a scrap of the paper you intend to use. Yes, it must be the same kind of paper.

Drip a single drop of colorless blender to the edge of the ink swatch. Amy tests with 3 drops of solvent from a Tim Holtz Waterbrush, waiting about 45 seconds between each, scrubbing with the bristles while the paper is wet . This drip method prevents damage to actual Copic markers. The waterbrush can be cleaned unlike a Copic nib.

Copic SAFE Technical Pens:

Please note: this article was written in April 2020 and reflects technical pens available at this time. We can not guarantee future availability. Nor can we guarantee that the ink formulas haven’t changed over time. All pens were tested on X-Press It Blending Card, Cryogen Curious Metallic White, Holtz Perfect Colouring Paper, and several versions of Bristol Board.

1. TOP PICK! Copic Multiliners (all colors, both standard and SP style pens): Multiliners set the standard for safe line art. Can be used both OVER and UNDER Copic Markers.

Withstands numerous coats of ink and the friction of blending. Multiliners come in black plus a limited range of colors and all seem equally safe.

WARNING: Amy did notice some smearing when using Gina K cardstock about a decade ago. She doesn’t have any Gina K to test this now, it’s all a faint memory… hmmm.

2. TOP PICK, BEST VALUE! Staedtler Triplus Fineliners (all colors): This is the Voice Team’s universal favorite. Can be used both OVER and UNDER Copic inks.

Comes in 60 colors with the most popular colors sold open stock at many art stores (craft and office supply stores prefer to sell the multipacks only).

Withstands numerous coats of ink and the friction of blending.

WARNING: Because Triplus are water-based, layering multiple coats of these pens can damage the paper surface. They’re fine with normal use but if you build up many wet layers OR try to fix something 3 times, you’ll start to see some paper fibers pull up.

Download our handy Triplus Color Chart for the recommended 20pk (and get a free serving of Vanilla Beans!).

3. Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens (black, sepia, and gray colors of the illustration style): If you love the feel of a Micron pen but want Copic safe ink, Amy recommends Pitt illustration pens.

This pen also comes in larger bullet nib coloring styles (58 colors). We have not tested these.

One of the few pen brands to say “India Ink” on the label. Claims to be lightfast. Sadly, Pitt pens are not marked with precise nib measurements. They are labeled S (for small?), F (fine), M (medium), and B (brush).

Can be used both OVER and UNDER Copic inks; stands up to numerous coats of Copic ink and the friction of blending.

4. Uni Pin Fineliner Drawing Pens, BLACK ONLY: If you love the feel of a Micron pen but want Copic safe ink, Amy recommends black Pins.

Unfortunately, the gray and sepia Uni Pin pens are NOT Copic safe.

The black version can be used both OVER and UNDER Copic inks; stands up to numerous coats of Copic ink and the friction of blending.

5. Tombow Fudenosuke (Fude) Pens (hard and soft): We recommend these with reservation.

Amy loves Fude pens for drawing but to be honest, they’re not the blackest black on the market. And while the Fude pens do not smear with repeated layers of Copic, they do feel as if they lighten slightly, and not in a totally even way, either.

So yes, they’re safe and they won’t ruin a Copic nib. They just don’t save you any time if you have to go back and strengthen the line color later.

6. Uniball Signo Black ONLY: We recommend these with reservation.

Many beginners do not realize that Uniball Signos come in several colors.

If you like the feel of a slick ball point pen, Uniball Black is wonderful!

But we haven’t tried this pen on many papers. And there’s just something about the way this ink sits above the surface of the paper that makes Amy think it’s not universally safe.

BTW— Uniball white and metallic versions are NOT Copic safe. The white resists Copic ink a bit but then melts and transfers with a lot of contact. The metallics can’t withstand even a soft pass of Copic. We have not tested the myriad of other Uniball colors, there are just too many versions of art and office style Uniball pens to keep track of them all.

7. Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner: We recommend these with reservation.

Amy would rate these pens as MOSTLY SAFE. A light coat of Copic ink over Stabilo doesn’t seem to budge the ink line BUT this ink does not hold up to scrubbing or very wet applications. Basically, if you work fast, you’re fine but if you like to linger over the blends or make numerous corrections, watch out!

Comes in 47 colors and they all seem to be about the same semi-safe level.

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NOT SAFE for use with Copics:

1. Sakura Pigma Micron: We know people will argue but Amy is standing firm. Microns ARE NOT suitable for use underneath Copic ink.

This is sad because this Microns are the most popular fineliner on the market today. Elena is a big fan of them and uses Microns on most projects. BUT she always uses them as the very last step and never colors over the top of Micron areas.

There are many online references to using Microns safely with Copic. Some sites recommend specific drying or cure times. Some say heat setting. Some claim it’s paper specific.

And yet every single time Amy has tried blending over Micron, she gets smearing. She refuses to recommend them and bans them from beginner classes because so many students forget and then try to color over Micron.

Micron ink will contaminate Copic nibs and spread errant color to other projects. You can not clean Micron ink from a Copic nib. You must replace the nib to prevent further spread.

Microns are also not permanent on many polished marker-style layout papers. They are easily lifted or marred with an eraser.

Add to that, Amy doesn’t like the Micron barrel design. The pens feel cheap and lightweight versus a heavier well-balanced illustration pen. The cap lock ridge falls exactly at the grip point which means Microns are painful for long drawing sessions.

We know they’re everywhere. We know people love them.

We strongly disagree.

Safe for use OVER Copic ink but never UNDER Copic ink. Never safe as a first layer, never as an outline, and you can not make Copic corrections once Micron has been applied.

2. Sharpie (all colors, all sizes): SPECIAL WARNING!

These pens are attractive, inexpensive, and heavily marketed to crafters.

Sharpies are the least Copic safe of all the pens we’ve tried and Amy strongly suspects that they’re not even safe for use after your Copic coloring has been completed.

Yes, you read that correctly. Some colors of Sharpie seem to lift Copic. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND USING THEM AT ALL. Not even for top layer details!

3. Uni Pin Fineliner Drawing Pens - Sepia, Light Gray, Dark Gray: This is a big disappointment.

The Uni Pin BLACK Fineliners are an excellent substitute for Microns. They are Copic safe.

But the Sepia, Light Gray, and Dark Gray Uni Pins all bled or washed out during testing. Sepia faded the most and Dark Gray made weird green smears.

Safe for use OVER Copic ink but never as a first layer, never as an outline, and you can not make Copic corrections once Uni Pin Sepia or Gray has been applied.

4. Marvy Uchida Le Pen: A favorite with crafters, calligraphers, and sketch artists, these pens are in almost every scrapbooker’s room.

Comes in 30 colors, the colors we’ve tested have bled with Copic BUT we have not tested them all.*

Safe for use OVER Copic ink but not as a first layer and you should not make Copic corrections once Le Pen has been applied.

*Based on Lina’s comment below, we will test a full set of current Le Pen in the future, just to make sure we’re not overlooking a few useful colors that are safe or semi-safe. I will update this article at that point.

5. Too. Atyou Spica: We’re including these glitter pens (even though they’re not fineliners) because Kathy had a disaster with a Spica pen. This was frustrating because Too makes both Copic and Spica, Too sells them in cute bundle packs with Copics… so she assumed they would work well together.

The mica glitter in Spica pens easily lifts and transfers to a Copic Marker nib. It almost seems as if Spica are especially prone to damage from Copics.

Safe for use OVER Copic ink but never as a first layer and you can not make corrections.

See more of Amy’s favorite art & coloring supplies, click above.

Thanks to Kathy for sharing her amazing Brunette Braid project!

And thanks to the Vanilla Team for sharing their favorite technical pens.

Our Favorite Technical Pens & Fineliners:

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