YG99 is a murky warm green Copic Marker which mimics Chromium Green watercolor. Excellent for landscapes, realistic botanicals, and it makes a charming alternative Christmas Green. YG99 is only available in Copic Sketch and Classic marker styles.
Every Copic Marker has unique characteristics based on its unique ink formula.
Knowing how a color behaves will help you blend effectively and make art with confidence.
YG99 Marine green
Let’s take a closer look at this Copic Marker and its ink characteristics.
Temperature: A murky warm green.
Resemblance: Chromium Green watercolor.
Actual Value: N8
All Copics are measured on a Neutral Gray value scale. The last number on the cap is supposed to indicate value but we’ve found discrepancies where the actual ink value is different than cap designation.
Cap Accuracy: No. The colored plastic on the Sketch cap is much darker than the ink. It’s closer to 4-5 coats of YG99 ink.
Buildup: YG99 does not layer well. The ink develops a strong oily look at just two layers. Exercise caution when reblending with YG99. Reaches maximum value at 4 layers.
Shattering: Shatters into dark green with strong dark gold seeping out at the margins.
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: YG99 is strongly staining.
Lift: This color really makes a mess when you try to lift it. The ink gets pushed aside leaving dark dry-lines and the paper stains an odd blue green. To make matters worse, the gold leaks out into the white, uncolored margins around the lifting area as it drys. We do not recommend trying to correct this marker at all!
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: Shockingly, we saw very little change to the swatch, less than 5% fading. We do think the swatch would behave very much like YG97 or YG95 if the testing time was extended (fading to an odd yellow).
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 Copic art under these conditions.
Natural Ink Family: YG99 is the darker end of the YG-ninety family with YG91 on the light end.
Family Members: YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97, YG99
We include this information because many Copic users never think deeper than the letter groupings (R, BV, G, etc.). Every ink has its own temperature variations and underlying flavors. Understanding what an ink looks like in its different dilutions helps when creating your own blending combinations.
Complement: BV34 or BV04 is a good periwinkle style blue-violet.
Underpaint: We suggest BV25
This is simply one suggestion. Many possible colors exist. Test to find a color that pleases you.
Pushing Pencil: Try Prismacolor 1078 Black Cherry but use a light pressure.
VanillaArts.com (our sister site) teaches a Push & Pull technique for dimensional coloring. This is simply one suggestion. Many possible colors exist. Test to find a color that pleases you.
Vanilla Arts Classes using YG99:
Ink Frog: A lesson on alternative blending methods & creating warm characters. Find more info here.
Sleigh Bell: explore the difference between highlights and reflections, a process that’s essential to capturing the look of shiny metal objects which look touchably real. Find more info here.
Vanilla Arts Digi Stamps using YG99:
Color palettes and swatches using YG99:
We are building our palette and swatch collection a little more each week and will update here as more become available.
Visit the color resource page at our sister site VanillaArts.com for a wide variety of Copic palettes and swatches.
Looking for beautiful color palettes?
We absolutely love The Color Catalog 1 & 2 from Sarah Renae Clark. It puts hundreds of Copic friendly color palettes at your fingertips.
(note: affiliate link)
