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A few weeks ago (in one of my videos) I mentioned I don’t have a lot of colors of Copic markers and I usually stick to the same color combos for reds, greens, yellows and so on when I do my coloring. A few of you asked me to share my combos and while at first I was going to say no (as I am really no pro when it comes to Copics), I remembered myself when I was just starting out and was looking for suggestions on what colors of markers to get. There are so many different colors, the markers are expensive and when you are on a tight crafting budget you want to make sure you make the most of your purchases.
I am not a certified Copic instructor, I simply enjoy using these markers to color my stamped images. I don’t have a lot of experience and I still have a lot to learn. I just want to mention this as I am by far not a pro when it comes to Copics. But I do have favorite color combos that work for me and I’m happy to share them with you. If you have favorite Copic color combos – feel free to share them in the comments.
I bought my first Copic markers on Ebay a few years ago, those were used markers and there were about 50 different colors; not all colors worked well together; many I ended up not using at all. Over the years I bought a few additional colors to grow my collection. I have 73 markers today. Do I feel I have enough to color? Yes. Do I want to get more colors – absolutely, but I’m sticking to those I have for now. Maybe I’ll get a few additional colors for Christmas or my Birthday. Point is, you don’t have to have a lot of colors. Just pick what works for you and get those.
How do you know if you’ll like the colors before you get them? There are two ways:
- If a friend of yours has Copics, have a play-date. See what colors you like, write them down. I’m lucky as I have access to all Copic colors at work, so whenever I have some free time I try and see what color combos might work for me. If I find something I absolutely need, I write the number down and buy it.
- If you don’t have a friend with Copics, look for Copic Color Combos online. I love to search for those on Pinterest. You’ll be surprised – there are so many different suggestions and images to choose from. Not all of them will work for you, but at least it’s a place to start. You can also look for color combos on various crafting blogs. I like to watch Laura Bassen color and I often jot down numbers of markers she used.
COPIC MARKERS COLOR COMBOS
Okay, enough talk, let’s get down to business. Here are my favorite Copic Marker Color Combos (I’m linking all of these to Simon Says Stamp as this is where I am now getting my markers from, and my refills and Copic paper). Click image to enlarge it. Feel free to pin it/save it.
I really hope you’ll find this information useful! And remember, if you have favorite color combos – comment below and let me and everyone else know!
I’m including coloring examples if I have such on my blog. Since I just got a few new colors, I don’t have examples to share for those yet. But I have tried all of these combos and they work well for me.
- PINKS: RV14, RV13, RV11 (you can also add RV10 to go even lighter).
- REDS: R39, RV29 (but better to use R29), R24, R22 (also get R20 to go lighter). I often skip R39 and RV29 and go with R24, R22, R20 for a lighter red color. Examples: one, two, three, four, five.
- GREENS: YG67, YG17, YG03 (grass green). For evergreen green I go with YG99, YG95, YG93 (I just got those 3 colors). I also like YG67 and YG63. Examples: one, two, three.
- SKIN COLORS: I am never good at coloring skin, so not much help here. I do have and love using E000, E00, E02, E11 for light skin tones. Examples: one.
- WARM & COOL GRAYS: W1, W3, W5 (warm grays); C7, C5, C3 (cool grays). I also want to get W7 and W9 as well as a refill for my C1 as its dry. There are also other grays, N and T. I don’t feel I need those, I’m happy with the warm and cool grays I already have. Examples: one, two, three, four.
- OTHER COLORS: O colorless blender to lighten the color, if I want to remove color on white paper I use a white gel pen; B000 and B00 for light blue sky or blue halo, R20 to add blush.
MORE INFO
I would also recommend getting Copic Marker Hex Chart from Sandy Allnock. I recently got mine and I love it. Very useful, I always use it when I do my coloring. I have it on my desk at all times.
If you’d like to take a Copic marker class, I can suggest taking Copic Markers for Cardmakers from OnlineCardClasses. Great class, loads of useful information and you’ll have lifetime access.
I hope you’ll find information in this post useful. I plan to update this as I learn more about Copics, find new color combos that work for me.
SUPPLIES
I’m listing the products I used below. Click on the link to go directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
 Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Hero Arts Ink Pad Intense Black Shop at: SSS | SC | HA | AZ |
 Copic Blending Card X-press It Paper Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Clorless Blender Marker Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker Y11 Pale Yellow Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker Y13 Lemon Yellow Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker Y15 Cadmium Yellow Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker Y17 Golden Yellow Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker Y35 Maize Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YR04 Chrome Orange Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YR07 Cadmium Orange Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker RV10 Pale Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker RV11 Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker RV13 Tender Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker RV14 Begonia Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker R20 Blush Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker R22 Light Prawn Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker RV29 Crimson Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker R29 Lipstick Red Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker R24 Prawn Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker R39 Garnet Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BV08 Blue Violet Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BV04 Blueberry Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BV02 Prune Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BV00 Mauve Shadow Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B000 Pale Porcelain Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B00 Frost Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B02 Robin’s Egg Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B05 Process Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B21 Baby Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B32 Pale Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker B34 Manganese Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BG32 Aqua Mint Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BG15 Aqua Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker BG18 Teal Blue Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG93 Grayish Yellow Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG95 Pale Olive Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG99 Marine Green Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG03 Yellow Green Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG17 Grass Green Bold Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG63 Pea Green Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker YG67 Moss Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker W1 Warm Gray Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker W3 Warm Gray Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker W5 Warm Gray Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker W7 Warm Gray Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker C3 Cool Gray Grey Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker C5 Cool Gray Grey Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker C7 Cool Gray Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E000 Pale Fruit Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E00 Skin White Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E02 Fruit Pink Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E11 Barley Beige Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E13 Light Suntan Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E15 Dark Suntan Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E31 Brick Beige Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E33 Sand Beige Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E37 Sepia Brown Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker E79 Cashew Dark Brown Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker V12 Pale Lilac Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker V15 Mallow Violet Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Copic Sketch Marker V17 Amethyst Violet Shop at: SSS | AZ |
This is a great tutorial, Yana. Thank you so much for doing it. I did get the Hex Chart at your suggestioin earlier and I have found that to be extremely helpful.
This is a great chart, Yana! I like how you simplified this – a great range of colors whittled down to a reasonable number of markers you actually use.
Thank you for the chart. You’re right there are so many, making it so hard to choose. Happy New Year.
Happy New Year, Yana. Thank you so much for sharing your Copic information. You have a great eye for color and color combinations, and this article is very helpful to me ☺
Great blog. The hex chart is invaluable and Sandy’s class taught me so much. I, too, recommend both very highly. Thanks for sharing your favorites. Happy 2017.
Great post!! Soo mich useful, honest information. Thank you soo much for sharing this! Hugs!
Thank you! I’ve got a total of 5 Copics so far. I decided to go with the Ciaos not only because they are cheaper but so I don’t have as many to choose from!
Thanks for this. I’ve been putting together a collection mostly based on Jennifer McGuire colors but like the fish combos you show. Went through all my markers and sadly only have 12 of your colors. Ugh.
Thank you so much for doing this Yana. I just recently signed up for that Copic OCC. I have about 40-ish Copics at the moment but I find some of them don’t work well together. Therefore I need to learn more about them before I purchase any more. They are too expensive to buy “willy nilly” if you don’t know what works best together.
Yana-
Thank you so much for this information. I am just starting to develop my use of copics – I have about 12 pens and would like to expand my collection. It is hard to know what colors go best together or where to start. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
Aloha,
Suzanne Hull
Very useful information, Yana! And with SSS having a 25% off comic sale,this might just be the time to start my collection!! Thanks so much and happy 2017!
Thank you Yana for the information — I know it’s going to come in handy!
Great post! And very useful!
Before I wanted to have all markers with time. By buying them in batches when some sale is being run. But now I completely changed my mind. I’m not a coloring artist and I don’t color very often (and don’t think I will never do). COPICs at first are markers for professionals, we should be aware of it. A regular cardmaker don’t need all of those.
After taking OCC you mentioned I learned how to stretch those I have and even more stuck to my decision not to go for the whole collection.
I still need to buy some, as I’m short on some grays and browns. And maybe will get them one day. But even without them now I feel I have quite enough to work comfortably.
But of course I have to check markers you suggest 😉
Thank you for sharing!
This is so helpful, thank you!
Thanks for taking the time to share this!
Thank you for sharing. You have given me ideas on how to use the ones I already have and on ones that will be the most useful to add to my supply.
Thank you for sharing this information in an easy to use and understand format. I’m hoping to get a good base of pens that will offer multitudes of color possibilities and blends, but at the same time, keeping my collection rather small because of space, budget and limited talent!! I’m hoping to learn fun techniques and get better with practice! I appreciate your examples and videos.
Thank you for this post. I am slowly building my collection, but am realizing that it’s important to go slow and choose carefully. It’s possible to get great results with a few great combinations.
I love the Copic Marker Hex Chart, too! I saw lots of people recommend it for beginner Copic coloring and it has helped me out sooooo much 🙂 It is 100% worth every little penny! Thanks for sharing your Copic color combos 🙂
Wonderful post! Thanks for sharing!
This is so greatly appreciated. I don’t have much money to start my Copic collection with so this is very helpful.
It’s always nice to see the combo’s others like and use – thank you.
Thanks for sharing your favourite colour combos, Yana. Really helpful. I recently bought my first set of
Copic Ciao markeres as well as Sandy’s hex chart. I’m trying to figure out which colour combos I can make and like. Knowing other people’s favourites can help me decide which markers I really need to add for optimal results.
Yana, thanks for sharing the color combo’s. I’d like to take my markers with me when I go to a crop week-end, but not sure what to take. You fishy chart will be a great help! I, too, bought Sandy’s hex chart, and have printed it one several different kinds and colors of cardstock so I have a better idea of what they will look like on those cardstock. This has been really helpful.
This was super helpful! Thanks so much!!
Thank you so much for this post. I wanted to buy my first Copic markers and wasn’t sure where to start. This was so helpful.
I love this Thank u so much for helping us on Copics. It has been hard thing for me. You just sent me a life Raft and I am sure a a lot more readers.
This is amazing thank you so much for putting this together. I am always so intimidated when purchasing these markers because I don’t want to make a mistake and waste money on ones that don’t really work together.
Stumbled across your stuff on Pinterest! You are wonderful artist. Fun thank you for always sharing.
Thank you for this very helpful information.
Thank you for all the work that went into providing all this helpful information! You rock!
HI there. I love your combos. I am just starting out with Copics, so this is so helpful. Where did you get the hexagon chart?
The chart is from Sandy Allnock http://sandyallnock.com/hexchart/