If you’re just starting out with Copic Markers, the choices can be overwhelming! At first, you focus on which colors to purchase first, until you realize…
“Uh oh… there’s more than one kind of Copic to choose from!”
I teach artistic Copic Marker classes and work with a lot of beginners. A common question I hear from new students is:
“I’m new to Copic Markers. Is it okay to start with Ciao style markers or should I purchase the Copic Sketch?”
Many people say Ciao and Sketch markers are interchangeable. But as an art instructor, I disagree.
Let’s look at why.
Copic Ciao Markers are often described as an inexpensive version of the Copic Sketch but the two markers are very different. If your budget allows, purchase Sketch style only. Sketch are more economical to maintain, ergonomically designed, and it’s easier to learn good technique with Sketch Copics.
Let’s look at why Sketch Markers are a better investment for beginners.
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Copic Ciao vs. Copic Sketch: What’s the difference?
Copic Ciao Markers and Copic Sketch Markers look totally different. One is thin and one is fat. One is round with large colorful caps and the other is flat and mostly gray.
“Basic Apple” colored by the author, Amy Shulke. Copic Markers plus Prismacolor Premier Pencil details.
But when you take the caps off, you’ll see Sketch and Ciao have the same marker nibs: the medium broad chisel and the Copic Super Brush nib.
They have the same nibs, so it’s no surprise when you ask a room full of Copic fans:
“Which style of Copic is best for beginners”
… most of them say it doesn’t matter because the only difference is the price.
I totally disagree.
The ”all the same” myth seems to be reinforced by Copic coloring videos on YouTube where it’s common to see mixed collections of Ciao and Sketch being used together.
But just because people do it, doesn’t make it smart.
I’ve drawn and colored both professionally and for fun with illustration markers since 1989. I bought my first Copic in 1992. I know Copic Markers very well and that’s why I teach with them.
As an experienced art instructor, I highly recommend Sketch style Copic Markers for beginners
Actually, I recommend Sketch markers for everyone— beginners, intermediates, advanced colorers, and professional artists too.
This runs completely counter to what the online world says, so let me explain why.
Ciao Markers are not as budget-friendly as you assume
The first thing shoppers notice when comparing Copic Ciao markers to Copic Sketch markers is the price tag.
Ciao markers are about $2 cheaper than a Sketch.
I understand why many beginners choose Ciao markers over Sketches. Colorers want to create blending effects and to do so, you need several related colors. If money is tight or you’re frugal, Ciao seem to be a better deal— it’s hard to say no to a 25% savings!
Ahhhh grasshopper, but that’s just the initial cost.
Over the long term, you’ll spend more money maintaining Ciao markers. There are Ciao performance issues as well. You’ll also end up buying more than a few Sketch markers anyway, so you’re only saving on some colors, not all colors.
Let me emphasize this one more time because it’s really hard to convince people who are already reeling from Copic Marker sticker shock:
Copic Ciao Markers cost more in the long run.
Ciao Markers will save you a few dollars in the beginning but you’ll pay far more than $2 in extra maintenance costs and upgrades over the next decade.
Truly budget-conscious people will skip the Ciao and purchase Copic Sketch Markers.
What are the hidden costs of Copic Ciao Markers? Let’s look closer.
Copic Ciao Caps have serious design flaws
Copic Ciao Markers look like fun.
They’re pretty darned cute, with big bright colorful caps. You can even buy special editions printed with Mickey Mouse or characters from The Little Mermaid. They also sell a sparkle version of Ciao.
Copic Ciao were designed for children and can be purchased in bulk for schools and art programs. They’re even child-safe. The caps are designed with soft plastic and air holes so as not to block a child’s airway if swallowed.
But child friendliness and budget pricing make for a less durable cap.
The plastic cap stretches over time making for a marker which no longer seals properly. Copic talks about this problem here (though they offer no solution other than to buy a new marker, grrr).
Frequent forceful capping and uncapping can lead to stress cracks called “crazing” along the sides.
There’s also some of Murphy’s Law at play: If you drop your cap it will roll away. If someone steps on it, the cap will crack. Don’t laugh, this has happened 3 times in my classes.
Speaking of rolling caps, the only people who have mysteriously lost a cap in one of my classes have been Ciao users. The roll is a problem. Copic knows this so they added a small nub to the side of the cap. It doesn’t really help.
And honestly, for all the cap problems, I’ve never seen replacement Copic caps for sale. If you lose your cap or if it stops clicking tightly, you’re forced to purchase a new marker.
There’s another hidden problem with Ciao caps, one you’ll only notice after it’s too late:
If you look deep inside a Ciao cap, you’ll see a secondary cap inside the main cap. The nib fits into this smaller cap when you recap the marker.
But woe to those who fail to line the marker up correctly.
That interior cap has a sharp edge. I’ve personally hacked pieces off the edge of a chisel nib when I didn’t have the cap exactly centered. If you’re off center, just a wee bit to the left or right, the inner cap slices into your nib. I’ve cut a vicious notch into the center of a chisel nib; the marker now draws 2 stripes instead of one. I’ve also bent the heck out of a Super Brush nib; the nib was beyond repair.
Compare that to the inside a Sketch cap where you’ll see a gentle, rounded, can’t-screw-it-up sanctuary for nibs. The Sketch’s cap is designed to safely guide your nib into the center of the cap; you’d have to work pretty darned hard to damage your nib with a Sketch cap.
I’ve also seen far fewer seal failures, cracks, and accidentally dried-out nibs with Sketch markers— both with students and in my own marker collection where I have several markers over 20 years old.
Ciao caps are vicious to your nibs and they wear out faster than Sketch caps.
If economy and longevity are your goal, stick with Copic Sketch Markers.
Copic Ciao have a limited color range which forces you into a mixed collection
Copic Ciao come in 180 colors but Copic makes 358 colors. That’s 178 colors you’ll have to purchase in Sketch style.
You can’t build a full Copic collection with only Ciao markers.
I do not think it is possible to do artistic coloring with only Ciao style markers. There are too many important gaps in the Ciao color palette.
If you’re doing casual card making or coloring books, you might get by with just a Ciao collection. I’m skeptical but okay, maybe. But as soon as you take a class or try to color with realism, you’ll need colors not available in the Ciao style.
I tried to create a series of beginner classes which used nothing but Ciao. I couldn’t do it. Ciao is missing many important colors. You can see the full Ciao palette at the official Copic website here. It looks pretty good at first glance, but experienced Copic users soon start to notice missing colors and holes:
Ciao has no grays darker than a level 7 (I typically teach with 8 and 9)
No neutral N grays (which I recommend as a beginner’s first gray purchase)
Most of the pale Ciao markers come in the form of 00 or 000 (as opposed to colors with only one 0, like E30 or G40). Sub-zero markers often blow-out a blending combination because there’s a lot of solvent in the ink formula.
The Ciao palette focuses heavily on colors which start with 0. The “zero” families are unnaturally bright. Many look like highlighters with noticeable florescence.
Ciao markers all lean towards the lighter end of a color family with very few markers which end in 7, 8, or 9. This makes it hard to shade with realism.
Several Ciao have no natural blending partners
Ciao is missing my most used cast-shadow marker (BV20)
The purples selection is just weird, they either lean pink or look dusty.
Ciao is heavy on pinks yet missing any organic looking blending combinations
No Ciao R24 which is essential to the natural blending combination for Copic’s top selling red, R29
Ciao has only one organic yellow (Y21) but gives you nothing to blend it with
WE ASKED! 100% of Vanilla Arts students who prefer Ciao markers also own several Sketch markers.
But also, Ciao is simply missing many of the colors I see instructors calling for on a regular basis.
So as I said above, purchasing Ciao dooms you to a mixed collection of some Ciao and some Sketch markers. I’m not saying an assorted collection is fatal, you see people using mixed collections with great skill on YouTube all the time.
As an instructor, here are the issues I see with mixed collections:
There are no organized storage containers for a mixed collection. If you want to keep your markers in numeric order, you’ll always be tucking Ciaos lopsidedly into holes meant for Sketches.
The best storage systems for a mixed collection work on the bucket system where you chuck 10 to 20 similar markers into large divided areas. This lack of numeric order storage is bad for beginners. It encourages duplicate purchases and doesn’t alert you to lost markers or improperly capped markers.
My mixed collection students take longer to find their markers because they have to remember “is that color a Ciao or a Sketch?”
The ID number on a Ciao is on the side of the marker and poorly marked. It’s a kinda-dark mid-tone gray number printed on a kinda-light mid-tone gray body. It’s hard enough to grab the right marker when you’re working fast. Ciao encourage mistakes.
Ciao markers run out of ink faster than Sketches. When I see students with dead markers, it’s usually a mixed collection and it’s the Ciao which ran out of ink because they expected it to last as long as the Sketch.
Students with mixed collections often have issues learning good marker technique. More on that below.
Students with Ciao markers tend to replace the Super Brush Nib more frequently. More on that below, too.
Now let’s talk money.
People who start with Ciao markers frequently spend more money on their ideal marker collection than those who start with Sketch.
And I don’t mean the cost of maintaining the markers.
I mean spending more on actual markers.
Starting with Ciao makes superficial sense if you’re not sure about markers. If you’re just testing the waters or if you’re one of those people who has ninety other hobbies and no intention of coloring more than once in a while.
WE ASKED! 80% of Vanilla Arts students prefer the Sketch over other Copic styles.
But what I see with students who get serious about artistic marker coloring is they sell off their Ciao and replace them with Sketch. In your hand, there’s a world of difference between the two styles of markers.
Nobody sells off their Sketches to buy Ciao markers. The upgrade is always from Ciao to Sketch.
When you resell a marker, you don’t sell it at cost. You sell them deeply discounted. Maybe $3 per Ciao?
Add that loss to the cost of the replacement Sketch and you just spent far too much to end up with a Sketch anyway.
Copic Sketch Markers encourage good coloring technique
I’ve had several students tell me they like Ciao markers because they’re thinner. They feel more like a pencil or a regular marker.
And that’s precisely the problem.
The way to hold a pencil is very different than how to properly hold a marker!
Writing position is not the same as coloring position.
Read part one of my article on the difference between writing and coloring here. The article focuses on coloring position for colored pencil but it’s even more important for marker coloring.
In writing position, you choke up on the marker. In writing position, you have lots of control over little tiny micro-movements— the whole act of writing is a series of micro-movements using the muscles in your fingers and wrist.
Coloring on the other hand requires broader, more sweeping motions. We color from the elbow and shoulder— bigger joints for bigger movements. If you’re all choked up on a marker, you’re blocking your ability to blend and color smoothly.
Here’s the other problem, remember how I said choking up on a marker puts you up on the point?
The Copic brush nib was not designed to be used on the point.
Brush nibs are springy and soft. If you’re choke up on the marker, it puts a lot of downward pressure on the least stable part of the marker.
Beginner colorers have difficulty controlling brush nibs when they try to color on the point. If you’re up on the point, the brush nib flops around and releases ink in unpredictable spurts.
Come down onto the side of the nib by moving your hand into coloring position. Now you can control the brush nib and it’ll release a controlled level of ink.
Bad hand position causes a several other problems beyond control:
First, if you’re up on the point of the brush nib, you’re using the wrong muscle group— finger and wrist instead of elbow and shoulder. Little muscles have little ranges of motion, With just your fingers and a little wrist, you can’t cover the paper well.
Second, you can’t blend properly from the point of a marker. The point is the smallest and driest part of the nib.
Last, coloring from writing position exerts excessive downward pressure on the nib. You’re bending the nib in a way it doesn’t want to go. This wears out your brush nib extremely fast!
Worn brush nibs lose their point which makes precision coloring harder.
Worn brush nibs lose their springiness making for sloppy lines and inconsistent ink flow.
The larger, flattened barrel of a Sketch marker encourages a better coloring grip. You have to work hard to hold a Sketch from writing position for very long.
Sketch Markers encourage good coloring technique by forcing your hand into a proper grip.
What I notice with beginners is that the people using Sketch markers learn pretty quickly. It’s a little harder on the Ciao users but they eventually catch on and move their hands into coloring position.
But after all these years and tons of students, I strongly suspect that my slowest students are the people with a mixed Copic collection.
They use their Sketches from coloring position, they use their Ciao from writing position— that’s what feels natural with each marker.
So they’re constantly bouncing between good technique and bad technique. While everyone else is practicing and developing great automatic instinct, the poor mixed-collection people confuse their brains and muscles.
You can’t build good technique into a habit if your hand can’t feel the difference between good technique and bad technique.
I honestly think it’s harder to learn to color well with Ciao markers and it’s even worse when you add random Sketch markers to the mix.
Ciao markers have a high fatality rate due to user error
If there’s one thing that drives me nuts, it’s watching students try to color with dry markers.
Many people buy Copic Markers because they’re refillable but then stubbornly refuse to refill them.
Blending can’t happen with a marker that’s low on ink. Read more about how to instantly improve your blends by simply refilling your marker in my article here.
It doesn’t help that there are hundreds of people online bragging about how they’ve never, ever, no-never had to refill their Copics.
I call shenanigans on that! If we weighed their markers right now, I guarantee they’re all on the low side and silently causing this person blending issues.
What I notice is that the Ciao bargain price attracts people who can afford the marker but not the refill. Because the Ciao doesn’t hold much ink, they blow through their meager ink supply really fast. Then they’re online asking about why their nib is suddenly hard, dark, sticky, or all three.
High performance alcohol markers simply do not last as long as beginners expect.
It feels like an expensive marker should last forever.
Dry and dry-ish markers are a universal problem for Copic beginners and even intermediates. They simply don’t have the experience to pick up on the silent signs of a marker which needs to be refilled.
The warning signs come faster and with less grace time with Ciao.
I run a refill service for local students, refilling and replacing nibs before class. I get more Ciao markers than Sketch and it’s rare for the Ciao not to be dangerously low.
THE HARD TRUTH: If you let your Copic Markers get too dry, you can’t rescue them. I don’t care what you’ve heard online about soaking nibs in alcohol, soaking a nib will not help the core inside the marker. Copics contain resin which will not rehydrate after it cures. When a Copic core starts to harden, there’s no amount of refilling or solvent soaking that’ll bring back a crunch core.
In my decades of classes, I’ve seen hundreds of dead Ciao markers and only a handful of dead Sketch.
Ciao owners neglect their markers more than Sketch owners.
Copic Sketch Markers are easier for people with arthritis and/or dexterity issues
Last thing and I’ll be quick.
I mentioned a minute ago that Copic Sketch Markers are ergonomically designed. They simply feel good in the hand.
The fatter, flat barrel has a nice side effect, one that I appreciate more after celebrating my 50th birthday.
I can’t use my colored pencils all day and all night, doing marathon art sessions like I used to. After a while, my hand simply protests. My fingers get sore and I develop the oopsies, so much that I had to move a carpet under my desk because I drop my pencils frequently at the end of a long day.
But I can color with a Sketch marker for a long, long time with no issues.
If you’re an older colorer, and I say this delicately because “older” is different for everyone…
If you have arthritis or dexterity issues with your hands, switch from Ciao to Sketch markers.
Your hands will thank you.
Who Can benefit from buying Ciao Markers?
Ciao markers are excellent for children— smaller hands need smaller barrels.
If you want to test five or six Copics to see if you like coloring with markers, buy some Ciao. But keep in mind, Ciao are not a true indication of how Sketch Markers feel. If you like the few Ciao, start buying Sketch.
If you’re a hobby colorer, coloring mainly stamps for cards or coloring in coloring books, especially if you only color a few times a month, a Ciao collection might work fine for you.
If you sketch in journals or you travel with markers, like urban sketching, en plein air drawing, if you travel a lot, or if you’re headed out on vacation, a secondary set of Ciao is definitely more portable.
If you’re taking a class and the only way to get the right color is to choose Ciao. I’d rather students have the right color Ciao than to try to substitute a different color Sketch.
Notice I didn’t recommend Ciao to people strapped for cash?
That’s because Ciao are not really a bargain. You’ll pay more over the long run, spending more on refills, replacement nibs, replacement markers, and marker upgrades.
Instead, save your money and invest in Sketch. It’ll take longer to build a large collection but for artists and serious colorers, Sketch markers are totally worth the wait.
Pssstttt… This is exactly what I did! I ate a lot of ramen noodles and budgeted like crazy to afford quality art supplies. I don’t regret it.
In summary:
Copic Sketch markers are cheaper to maintain for a lifetime
This is why I recommend Copic Sketch Markers over Ciao style Copics.
To be clear, a Ciao Copic is better than no Copic…
But I really do think if you’re serious about making coloring your only hobby or if you’re interested in artistic level coloring, you ought to be using Sketch markers.
The primary reason most people choose Ciao markers is financial, but that’s a poor excuse when you look at the cost of a Ciao over its lifetime of use.
Ciao Markers are not as budget-friendly as the price tag indicates
Ciao caps have a higher failure rate, forcing you to buy a completely new replacement marker.
Ciao caps damage nibs more frequently forcing extra nib replacements.
Ciao need to be refilled more often and easily dry-out beyond repair.
Ciao have a limited color range which means you’ll end up buying at least a few Sketch markers.
Mixed collections are hard to store efficiently leading to the purchase of duplicates or losing markers without knowing it. You also can’t easily spot when a marker cap has been left slightly off leading to nib damage or totally dried-out markers.
Ciao markers encourage writing position grips which wear down nibs faster but also lead to difficulty learning and practicing good blending and precise coloring.
Ultimately many people end up selling their Ciao markers, replacing them with Sketch— the upgrade process destroys the initial cost benefit of a Ciao.
If you are torn between starting a collection of Ciao or Sketch Copics, I recommend Sketch markers. They’re a much better bargain in the long run.
Amy Shulke is a professional illustrator who has used Copic Markers since 1990. She teaches artistic coloring classes online at VanillaArts.com and locally in south-eastern Michigan.
Marker Novice is Amy’s completely free resource devoted to beginner marker education. For intermediate/advanced artistic coloring articles, see her Studio Journal here.
