New Copic Marker Refill
New Copic Marker Refill
This review or recap, is really only aimed toward those of you who use Copic Markers and if you have been using Copic Markers for at least a few moths at the time of writing this article, I am sure you will already know a little bit about the New Copic Marker Refill.
For those of you new to Copic Markers or interested in become an Copic Marker artist, there is no doubt that the Copic Marker range is the industry standard fo illustrators world wide. Despite the amazing alternatives on the market now and most of them being much less expensive than Copics, I think it will be some time before Copic are completely knocked from their perch.
One of the largest complaints artists have about the Copic Marker system is the huge expense, in the UK one Copic Sketch Marker can cost you approximately £6, in the US they can cost between $6 and $8. With a color system of 358 individual colors, you can bee looking at approximately £2,100 for the full set and roughly the same in the US. You can of course buy the markers in sets which can reduce the overall cost if this is your goal to collect the entire palette.
If you would like to know more about the entire Copic range and the Color Coding system they use, I have a review showcasing all of this in detail which you can either read about or watch my YouTube Video on the markers.
the one saving grace, if it can be referred to in these terms, was the refill system Copic sold for their markers, and it is this issue that I would like to highlight in this article.
Copic 25ml Refills
It used to be the case that when you purchased say a Copic Sketch marker, once the ink ran dry, you could purchase a refill and the refill was a full 25ml. To purchase a 25ml refill would cost you slightly more than the one Copic Sketch Marker itself, however, one 25ml refill would last even the most avid Copic Marker artist quite a considerable length of time.
So although the individual markers are expensive, Copic really made up for it with the refills and it was this combination that made the entire Copic Marker experience so attractive, as well as the gorgeous alternative brush and chisel nibs available.
When you purchased a Copic Refill, it came with a short nozzle already built onto the bottle which allowed the artist accuracy when filling up a Copic Marker. some Copic Marker Artists would completely remove the chisel nib, exposing a void leading to the inner barrel and this is where you would place the nozzle of the refill, placing several drops of ink into the barrel. Other artists such as myself, rather than completely removing a nib every time you wanted to refill ink, would simply add a few drops of ink from the Copic Refill Nozzle to the chisel nib surface and allow the ink to seep into the barrel.
Copic 12ml Refill
Copic however have for whatever reason changed the goal posts and have now introduced their new 12ml refill, a massive reduction of 13ml. Perhaps the biggest tragedy surrounding this new Copic Refill is that the cost is pretty much the same as the 25ml Refill depending on where you actually purchase the refills.
The positives with the new Copic Refill are there but insignificant in comparison to the negatives such as the cost and quantity reduction.
There is no doubt that the design of the new Copic 12ml Refill is much more appealing. Most Copic Marker artists will have their markers proudly displayed somewhere in their studio and why not, a rainbow of happiness on display, however, the boxy nature of the 25ml refills meant that they had to be stored elsewhere. With the new Copic Refills, they will now display on almost all of the displays that currently hold the markers.
Copic Refill Characteristics
the most obvious difference with both refills is of course the huge 13ml lost, although the cost is still pretty much the same depending upon where you buy them, you are in fact losing quite a bit of money given the 13ml discrepancy.
The old Copic Refill is a more boxy design whereas the new refill looks more like a Copic Ciao with the round body. Both refills have the pigment name and color coded system displayed on the caps, meaning when placed in a display case easy access to the refills is appreciated.
the new Copic 12ml Refill has a much longer and accurate nozzle, which is only really relevant to those Copic Marker artists who remove the nib to refill a marker, for those of us who simply allow the ink to seep in through the chisel nib, the length of nozzle on the new refill is probably more of a hindrance than a blessing.
Copic Marker Refill Conclusion
This is quite a short review in comparison to most other reviews I have completed, however I think my conclusion will tell you all you need to know. Lots of Copic Marker stockists still have huge amounts of the old 25ml Copic Refills, however, once they are gone they are gone and only the new 12ml refills will be sold. So, to save yourself money, it would be beneficial for you as a Copic Marker artist to purchase as many of the 25ml refills as you can afford before they are gone.
I purchased a 12ml Copic Refill to simply have one and demonstrate it to you and show you just how much ink we are losing with this new design. Aesthetically speaking the new refill definitely looks better and more professional, however, as almost all artists will tell you, we are only interested in the results from using the product and saving as much money as we can. Unless you are a very successful artist, chances are you are quite poor, at least that is certainly my experience.
I have not seen an official statement from Copic as to why they have made this change, however I can only but speculate, something I really try to refrain from doing on my reviews. I am well aware that companies have to make money, it is for the most part the primary reason for being. That being said, I fell in this case Copic are perhaps getting a bit greedy, realised that artists are not purchasing refills as much as Copic would like and so they have forced our hands to purchase more.
As I mentioned at the very begging of this review, Copic are currently the Industry standard when it comes to illustrators, but this is not ten years ago when Copic were really the only marker in town. More and more companies are producing outstanding alternatives to Copic, companies such as Art-N-Fly, Stylefile, Arrtx, the new Illustrator and Graphic Markers from Spectrum Noir, Ohuhu, Winsor And Newton Pro and Brush Markers and others. .
Again, Copic used to have the upper hand over these companies in so much as the refill ability and palette sizes, but almost all of them above companies now produce refill systems and they all have excellent palette sizes. Sometimes greed can consume us completely and I just hope that Copic don’t continue down this path because there are wonderful alternatives out there now, the competition is ramping up and if anything Copic should be competing and not metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot.
As always I have completed a YouTube video review of this article so you will be able to see the difference between the two refills. Also, if you are new to Copic Markers or are considering getting into marker art, I have completed an incredibly detailed review and demonstration of how to use Copic markers, the various markers within the brand and perhaps most importantly how to use the Copic Number System, which you are more than welcome to check out either the written review or the YouTube video review..
