You were told “Ohuhu is the Copic slayer! They’re like Copic Markers but better!”
Is it true?
Every Ohuhu Marker has different characteristics based upon its unique ink formula. No matter how great they say the marker is, test results do not lie.
So are Ohuhu markers as great as you’ve heard?
Let’s look at Ohuhu MG100 to find out.
WARNING: Ohuhu markers have numbers on the cap but not on the body of the marker. We do not recommend coloring with both caps off due to the risk of accidentally placing the wrong caps on a marker.
Test results: Ohuhu MG100 Blue Grey 09
IMPORTANT NOTE: To nobody’s suprise, Ohuhu has badly botched their lettering/number system. SEE THE “INK COLOR FAMILY” SECTION BELOW FOR AN IMPORTANT WARNING ABOUT OHUHU MG MARKERS.
REFILL WARNING! At this time, Ohuhu does not sell refills for MG100. To date, you must purchase a new marker when your current MG100 runs dry. See Ohuhu’s current list of refills here.
Temperature: A medium-dark grayed blue-green
Resemblance: this resembles a hand mixed color, possibly Payne’s Gray with a touch of Turquoise
Actual Value: N8
Unlike Copic, Ohuhu does not measure value— this is a glaring deficiency which makes finding blending combinations harder than it has to be!
All Copics are measured on a Neutral Gray value scale. The last number on the Copic cap indicates the value. We’re using the Copic scale to measure Ohuhu until Ohuhu releases a reliable value scale.
Cap Accuracy: The plastic on an Ohuhu Honolulu MG100 marker matches 1 coat of MG100 ink.
I’ve seen numerous Ohuhu review videos where they complain about massive Ohuhu cap color inaccuracies. I’ve also read this mentioned in blogs and websites. To be honest, I’m simply not finding Ohuhu to be any worse than other marker brands. Yes, some caps are wrong but I don’t think cap accuracy is their biggest problem.
Copic Substitution: Ohuhu BG050 does not have a match in the Copic Marker palette. The closest similarity is to Copic’s B97 but otherwise, they are a near match in hue and value. B97 is bluer, MG100 has a bit more gray and green to it. Copic C Greys are not bluish enough to substitute for MG100.
Buildup: MG100 reaches a maximum value at 3-4 coats. Exercise caution when using more than 3 layer of any Ohuhu ink.
Overinking: We do not recommend using more than 3 coats of MG100 and we do not recommend using this in three or four marker Ohuhu blending combinations.
Shattering: MG100 shattered into at least three colors of ink. We believe this ink is a blend of gray, teal, and a very strange lime green or yellowish color. A higher quality ink company would have chosen a greener teal instead of adding yellow to the mix, to keep their inks limited to only two components.
Chromatography testing shows this ink’s behavior when it comes in contact with #0 Colorless Blender (solvent). High shattering colors may leak unexpected color when you make corrections or attempt to blend with any color that has a high solvent to colorant ratio. Shattering is not bad, it’s just something to be aware of.
Staining: MG100 stains the paper considerably
With alcohol markers, a staining ink is generally a sign of a low quality ink. Staining inks bond to the paper fibers and are reluctant to release. Staining inks make blending harder than it has to be!
Lift: MG100 is not an easy lifting color, it also damages the paper quite badly (as do many of the Ohuhu inks we’ve tested. We expect colorless blender to snowplow a stripe of ink to either side of the test zone, but we find the extreme striping to be a big problem for anyone trying to soften the look of mistakes. Exercise caution when trying to correct this marker.
See staining swatch. Sample was given 6 stripes of #0 Colorless Blender, drying between each stripe. Results indicate how much lifting you can expect.
Lightfast: MG100 faded about 30% during the test period. This is more than the average Copic and at least twice the fade of Copic’s C8 which is a similar value gray (but not as blue).
Samples were swatched on X-Press It Blending Card. 1 layer of ink was exposed to windowsill sunlight for 21 days. Approximately 10 hours of sun per day based on weather conditions. Note: we do not recommend displaying original marker art under these conditions.
Ink Color Family: Sit down folks, this is gonna be a long one.
Ohuhu doesn’t care about their ink identification system and this means they really do not care about you!
“MG” in Ohuhu markers means “Blue-Gray”
The problem is that Ohuhu has already named their Cool Greys “BG” and they also named their Blue Greens “BG”. They really can’t lump a third group into their dumb BG group of markers.
I’ve been in art 30 years and I have no idea what the M in MG means. It’s nonsense.
There are many names they could have chosen for this color family other than MG. Steel gray? Slate gray?
Or here’s a crazy idea… call all the cool grays CG and give them a better numbering system.
Cap Numbering: There are 4 MG grays which honestly, look like blue markers next to the other grays. I have no idea why these markers were designated gray but now that they’ve done it, at least they could number them well?
Nope.
Folks, MG100 stands for Blue Gray #09. Not #10. They could have given this the name MG090 if they wanted to, the number isn’t being used.
But they didn’t. Because they don’t care about you.
As stated above, the Ohuhu numbering system makes no sense. The markers are not arranged in chromatic order so you can not trust the numbers to tell you whether this marker is lighter or darker than other Ohuhu markers with similar numbers.
I’m still early in the Ohuhu testing process. I will add more info to this article as I learn more and when I spot behavioral patterns.
From what I’ve learned so far, I will not be working with Ohuhu markers and I will discourage students from using them in my classes. They’re simply not worth the frustration.
