Before you get all excited to open that package, go spend $7 dollars more on a colorless blender and refills. Oh, and get a pack of skin tones, too. Additionally, you might want to buy a couple of refills for those and the colors that you use most. Since these markers are so expensive, why don't you buy some special marker paper to go with that? And maybe with those special pens and paper, you should go buy some multi-liners that are totally not expensive. You know what? Buy the whole company.
Tip: When buying markers, don't buy the sets. Instead, individually buy the markers that you're actually going to use. This way, you don't waste money on each marker you don't use.
If you bought your markers in a pack, chances are you're probably not going to use all of them, especially for those who bought the 72-pack (me). However, those untouched markers can be of some use: practice. Go take your ugliest color and slowly drain its life as you experiment with different types of ways to color.
The first thing to know is that you have to color in circles, or else your coloring will look like this:
...which isn't very desirable... unless you purposely want it to look that way...
Additionally, coloring too fast or running out of ink can lead to unwanted streaks.
Tip: If you're in a need for a color but the refill takes a while to ship, then refill using 90% isopropyl alcohol. The color fades after a few refills, but it will last until your refill arrives.
On the other hand, if you color over too much, the color will darken, which leads me into another point: always keep a scrap piece of paper under the paper you are working on because the ink easily seeps through thin paper.
If you ever accidentally color outside the lines, you can use the colorless blender to push the color back in, or if you're cheap like me, just thicken the outline with a black ink pen.
For blending, take two similar colors according to the Copic Color Theory. Start from the edge of the outline and flick towards the center. Do the same thing with the other color. Then, use the lighter color to smooth it out.
Tip: For more even blending, go over the area you are coloring with a colorless blender. This makes the paper wet so that the color can spread more easily.
However, even if you read every single article on how to use Copics, the most important thing every artist values is practice. You're not going to get better if you don't try, even if your drawings end up living in the trash can when you first start (like mine).
