WARNING: This is a hugely long review, since I also go over some techniques for using these. I’m sorry…you’re welcome?
If you’ve read my other reviews, you probably know that I’ve been very satisfied with my Bic Mark-It markers. They color smoothly across the paper and only leave overlapping (minimally) in some books. However, I have been itching for something to expand my color range and also give me slightly fatter tips. I find so many pretty color schemes using natural greens, blues, and pinks that just don’t exist in the Bic line. So…I set out to find my perfect marker.
I will start by saying that I have never tried a Copic marker. Not even once. All of this review is based upon my previous experiences with Bic and Sharpie as well as the Blick Studio Brush markers and Faber-Castell PITT Pens (both of which I bought to test with Spectrum Noir). While I cannot say that Spectrum Noir are the best, marker on the market, I can say they are the perfect marker! Hopefully, I’ll be able to convince you of this, too.
Once upon a time… Okay, my story began with my choice to purchase a set of test markers from a few brands (mentioned already). I bought the 6 pack of Blues from the Spectrum Noir line, since it looked like they’d be coordinated enough to test some blending. I ordered them from Dick Blick, using a 25% off coupon, and they arrived along with a few red Blick Studio Brush markers and a few green Faber-Castell PITT Pens. The Blick Studio Brush markers are also alcohol-based, so they were the primary ones I wanted to compare with Spectrum Noir.
I started out my comparison by making color swatches, playing with blending, and finally put the markers to the test of coloring some pages. I’m really into Angie Grace books right now, so that’s where I ended up coloring. In the picture below, you can see that there’s not a lot of difference between the Blick and the Spectrum Noir. Both performed well enough, though a couple of the Blick markers felt a little drier and didn’t color quite as smoothly.
I went back and forth for a couple days debating which I wanted to order. There are pros and cons both ways. The Spectrum Noir are difficult to purchase individually, which meant I had to make a larger investment up front. They also do not come with a brush nib, which is something I had been hoping to get in an alcohol marker. However, they had some things going in their favor, too. With a 25% off coupon, I ended up only paying around $1.17 per marker for the 24 packs, and $1.12 per marker for the 6 packs. This is a really, really inviting price!
Spectrum Noir also come in 168 colors. This is a huge plus compared to the Blick Studio Brush, which only come in 96. It looked even better once I discovered that 26 of the Blick Studio Brush markers are greys/black. While I like having a few greys, I, personally, have no need for 26 of them. Yes, the Spectrum Noirs come in a wide range of grey, too. BUT, the way they are packaged, I could simply not buy the extra packs of greys I didn’t need. Blicks are only sold in a pack of 48 (or smaller), 96, or individually. There was no easy way to avoid greys without purchasing indvidual markers.
I had also seen some reviews that said you can buy replacement brush nibs for the Spectrum Noir. To be honest, I was not that impressed with Blick’s brush nibs. They felt soft and spongy, and I’d rather have something a little more solid to work with. I frequently felt like if I pressed even slightly too hard, they would lay down a much wider swath of color than I wanted, which caused me to go outside the lines a few times.
The brush nibs for Spectrum Noir come in packs of 3 and can cost up to around $9-10 a package. This was originally offputting, since I really did not want to invest an additional $3 per marker just to get a brush nib on one end. However, after doing some searching, I found them for only $4.19 a pack at Carpe Diem Markers. This made the nibs only $1.40 each. Added to the discounted cost of the markers at $1.17 each, this made the grand total for each marker only $2.57! I’m always looking for good deals and rarely pay full price for anything. The fact that I loved the way the bullet nibs on these worked AND could add a brush nib (which replaces the chisel nib) for a total that is still less than half the cost of a Copic… I’m sold!
Before I go any further, I should mention a couple other benefits of the Spectrum Noir markers. First, you can easily find color charts and tutorials online. These resources are nice if you’re new to alcohol markers or are unsure what colors you want. Second, they are refillable. The Blick markers (and most other alcohol markers) are not marketed as refillable. I suspect there are ways to refill the Blick markers, but I really like that the Spectrum Noir markers are intended to be reused. Not only is this more cost-efficient, it is less wasteful. (I’m an environmental geography person…so I like to conserve resources wherever possible.) The refill ink costs $4.46 per bottle at Dick Blick and will refill markers “8-15 times”. (Also eligible for 25% off coupons, so could be as cheap as $3.35.) I’m not sure why the range is so wide, since all the markers are the same size, but it probably depends on just how dry the marker is when you refill it. I also ran into some other issues with the Blick markers, which I’ll go into more detail in my review on them.
Finally, and this is a big one for me, I had a very positive experience with Crafter’s Companion customer service. That first pack of blues I bought from Blick came with two copies of TB2 and was missing the TB1. This was frustrating, especially after Blick replied that the best they could do was offer me 10% off buying the pack again. Since the markers are refillable, I had absolutely no need for duplicates of 5 of the markers. However, I decided to contact Crafter’s Companion to see if they could help me out. They responded to my inquiry in less than 24 hours and were VERY friendly about the situation! They said “of course” they would be happy to replace the individual marker, even though I hadn’t purchased them directly from them. They asked for my address and are mailing me a new marker completely free of charge. They could have easily brushed off my problem and said it wasn’t their issue since I’d purchased the markers somewhere else, but they didn’t. This alone makes me happy to support this company. To be fair, I realize that it’s a difficult situation for Blick, since they don’t sell the markers individually. I don’t really hold this against Blick, though I think they could have at least suggested I contact the manufacturer.
Anyway, moving on! I am quickly running out of space to store things and wanted a more organized way of storing markers than piled in a desk drawer or tossed into a ziploc bag, and there are too many of them to easily fit into the Global Canvas pencil cases I like. Plus, markers need to be stored horizontally to keep ink flowing to both tips. If you store them vertically, whichever end is pointed up is more prone to drying out. It turns out they make their own line of storage trays. The black set costs $19.99 and holds 72 markers. With a coupon (yep, you know me), it was only around $15. I only ordered one, just to see how I liked it, but I will definitely be getting another.
It comes with 6 individual trays, which you can stack however you’d like. They can be stacked directly on top of each other or slightly offset, so that each row is a little farther back from the one below it. They fit really well on my desk without taking up too much space, and once I get another set I’ll just keep building my tower upward. They also fit my Winsor & Newton Watercolor markers. They’d hold Bics/Sharpies, too, though there would be lots of empty space around them since they are thinner markers.
The little boxes on top are the plastic containers the sets of 24 come in. I really like these too! They’re sturdy enough that you can keep them around as permanent storage for the markers, and they’re easy ways to pack the markers if you want to take a smaller set of them on the go. I have the lids folded back under them, but they will still close securely again.
As you can see, I purchased quite a few new markers. I got the Lights and Pastels sets, colors I definitely don’t have in my Bic or Sharpies, as well as the Pinks, Purples, Greens, Browns, and Turquoises. (In addition to the Blues I already had.) All of these sets came in just fine – no duplicate or missing markers! I tested out every single marker, using both ends, as soon as I opened them. Not a single one felt even remotely dry on either end, which I know is something I’ve sometimes seen complaints about with markers. I’m really happy with the quality and so glad I ended up purchasing them!
Next, I decided to make a color chart to see what all I had. I found a blank color chart online, but I wasn’t satisfied with it. I like having my colors arranged in a spectrum order, and the one I found was more randomly arranged than I’d like. Spectrum Noir’s website has a full (digital) color chart arranged with hexagonal shapes in a better order, so I decided to make one similar to that which I could color in myself. I made a few changes to group the colors the way I liked best, and I’m pretty satisfied with how it came out. If you’re interested in a color chart for yours, you can download the one I made, here: Word Doc or PDF. To conserve space, I did NOT tell what pack each color is from. You can find that on the digital chart here. (Will also try to update this once I get more colors.)
I literally said “BE STILL MY HEART” as I was finishing this up. These colors make me so happy and look even better than the only “true color” samples I found online. The range of greens and browns are especially fabulous, as someone who colors a lot in books like Secret Garden/Enchanted Forest where natural colors are a necessity. I’m also pleased to see that there are some MUCH better purples than I’ve found in any Bic, Sharpie, Staedtler, or even Stabilo markers/pens. (Note: The lower half of this chart appears darker than they really are. PL4 and PL5 are more of a grape/berry color and BT7 is a bright turquoisey blue.) I have only two complaints. One – those pinks. The pinks are all more similar than I’d like. I could have done without the pack of Pinks since the colors in the Purple and Pastel/Light packs had sufficient colors. Two – Where are my orange and reds?! More on that in a minute…
My next task was to pick out some of my favorite colors (the ones I assumed I would use the most) to try some brush nibs in. Lucky for me, my brush nibs had arrived in the mail the same day, so I didn’t have to wait around to do this. They came in little packages that are slightly difficult (but not impossible) to open and are all in great condition. No complaints on these, even though I was slightly wary of ordering from a random marker store who had them priced so cheap.
Installing these nibs is easy! I used a folded up paper towel, grabbed the chisel nib, and pulled it out. Some of them took a little more effort than others, but it was not too bad at all. My fingers did still get a bit messy, but it cleaned off. Tweezers do NOT work to remove them. It just resulted in splattering ink everywhere while the chisel didn’t budge. (Just a word of caution so you don’t make that mistake.) Once you have the chisel nib removed, insert the darker and firmer end of the brush nib into the marker. Try to hold it on or near that part so you don’t damage the brush end. Some markers felt a little snugger than others, so you have to put a little force into getting them in sometimes.
There is not a definitive “click” or anything when they are fully in. I pressed them in until the line between the dark/light part of the nib was just barely past the lip of the black plastic. By just barely, I mean almost even. I pushed one a little further and ended up pulling it slightly back out, though I don’t think it would hurt anything if it was in further. Once they’re in, lay the marker horizontally and leave the cap off. Some markers will refill faster than others, but it should take anywhere from 30 seconds to maybe 5 minutes for the ink to fill all the way to the tip of the new nib. Once it does, you can test it on a piece of paper and then put your cap on and put it away. (You technically don’t have to wait, but I like to make sure it does refill so I don’t randomly open it and find a dry nib someday.)
So, how did I like these brush nibs? Not like. LOVE. Again, I have never used a Copic, so I cannot tell how they compare to those. However, I like them much better than the Blick brush nibs. They will make a finer line and feel slightly sturdier. I feel like I can press a little more without getting too fat of a line and they feel like they will retain a point better long-term. Since they are replaceable, unlike the Blick, I can always change one out if it goes bad down the road. They color smoothly, too. I noticed mine felt sightly drier to color with than the bullet nib, but this could be because they hadn’t absorbed as much ink yet. Even slightly “dry”, they still colored evenly without streaking and actually felt quite controlled for detail work.
Here’s a comparison of all 3 nibs. Top-down: chisel, brush, and bullet. I think the bullet and brush could make a slightly finer line than I did there, even.
You might notice that the bullet end of the marker has grey plastic instead of black. This corresponds to the thin grey line you can see even with the cap on. I really like this because it makes it super easy to see which end is which. My only wish is that there was an easier way to remember which markers I had brush nibs on. I might end up coming up with a label or sticker, but for now I just put a mark on my color chart.
I have one minor complaint about the design of these markers. The color number is very clearly marked on the caps (big enough to read!), but it is not marked anywhere on the actual marker. If you took both caps off several markers at once, for whatever reason, you’d better have a color chart to match it back up to or you could end up putting the wrong caps back on. I doubt this will ever be an issue for me, but I still think it would be nice to have a small label on the marker itself.
Now, I’ll wrap this up with a discussion of my experience using them. I immediately started a new coloring page to use some of the lovely green, gold, and brown colors. I am using the bullet nibs on these, since they do color a bit faster for larger areas than the brush nibs. (And I don’t like chisels.) I plan on saving the brush nibs for intricate pieces such as Angie Grace’s mandalas or more complex pattern pages. The page below is from Angie Grace’s Whimsy. It’s not done yet, but I’m enjoying these markers so much! They definitely color faster than Bics, and I’m glad to finally have more color options.
Now, you may be wondering how these will work for other coloring or crafts. Do they blend well? Yes! I have played with a few different ways to blend and have come up with the method I feel is best, which I’ll try to explain. This works best if your colors are fairly coordinated. I haven’t tried it with different colors much.
Step 1: Lay in your darkest shadow. The edge on it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Step 2: Lay in your middle tone, coloring back over top of the shadow. Coloring back over it will help blend the two colors together and prevents it from getting and odd line between colors.
Step 3: Color in your highlight, this time only going just onto the edge of the middle color. (Don’t color over entirely.) The light color will actually blend into and absorb some of the darker one, so if you scribble at the edge between the two it usually blends nicely.
Your result should look something like the pictures below. I wrote in the colors I used just so you could see them individually. These were done on 110lb cardstock. Notice that the first is a range of 3 golden colors, while the second utilizes a warm brown to shadow the pink. BOTH methods work well, though using a neutral adds more contrast.
I also tested this on a basic sheet of printer paper, which is shown below. It blends okay on this paper, too, though I had to outline it with a black pen since the edges bleed more and didn’t look crisp. In the second photo, I used the “colorless blender” to try to make it look even smoother. As you can tell, this doesn’t work well. The colorless blender would be better described as an eraser, because it basically just lifts/pushes pigment back out. It works REALLY well if you make a mistake and need to remove color, but just looks…uhh…interesting…when you try to use it to blend. The second photo shows what the blender does with one swipe (just barely lightening the color) versus “scrubbing” the paper with several swipes, as well as what it did to the original circle.
Finally, I’d like to note that these markers “mix” really well. In other words, you can layer two colors together to create a new color. If you don’t have the exact shade you want, you can probably make use of this method. The colors do seem to get darker, so it might work best with lighter colors in the range.
As you can see, I’m a big fan of these markers. While my Bic Mark-Its will still have their place on my coloring shelf, they will mostly be replaced by these. The range of colors is good, the price is hard (if not impossible) to beat, and the quality is superb. If you want an alcohol marker that is affordable, comes in good colors, is blendable, and has low odor, I highly recommend these.
I promised I’d also tell you more about my “no reds or oranges” predicament. When I originally bought these I was trying to limit the amount of packs I bought, knowing I could expand later. Well…I didn’t order any reds since I have 6 Blick Studio Brush marker reds I got for testing. I figured I could keep using those…wrong! I like these so much better, the more I use them, that the Blick just can’t compare. The lack of oranges was an oversight on my part, since I intentionally didn’t get the Brights pack (which apparently is where the oranges are). Guess I know what’s next on my shopping list!
I will leave you with one last creative suggestion. If you can’t find the exact shade you want, you can create your own. I’ve heard of people doing this with Copic, and there is no reason it can’t be done with these markers too. Simply buy a colorless blender or wait until a marker dries out, and then create your own mix of color using the refill inks. Doing this, the possibilities of colors are endless. You can customize the markers to whatever your specific needs are. You could probably do something similar by simply adding a few drops of “new” color to a working marker. (Ex: Add some blue into a purple if you want to make it more blue-violet.) The challenge with this would be that you can’t regulate a specific “recipe” for the color, which you could do if you measure out how many drops you put into a dry marker.
