if you can't afford copic markers?

I also was going to say Spectrum Noir. I just bought some recently and love them. Copics are just too pricey considering I don't usually color but they were at Winners and I couldn't help myself.

I don't have watercolour pencils but do use watercolour paints and I use waterbased markers. But there is an intensity with the alcohol ink pens that I really like. I wouldn't use them for everything but some images just call for that kind of colour. And I like how they appear to blend. Yes, you can get the same sort of look with coloured pencils and gamosol, not sure about the difference in the learning curve between the two.

I may add coloured pencils to my wish list. It never ends that list, it just doesn't

Did Copics go up again in price? I seem to recall seeing them for $8 a marker. I got them a couple of years ago and got them for a lot less!

I love my Letraset Flexmarkers.

I sold my Copics (I had the Ciaos).

I got mine at carpe diem markers dot com.

They are big and hold a lot of ink and cost $2.79.

These are more popular in the UK as they are made there...

I use colored pencils and gamsol for most my coloring. I like that I can get a fairly deep hue & shading. I sometimes use watercolor pencils with a blender pen, but it is difficult to get as much depth of color with those. Here are a couple of colored & gamsol samples from my gallery:

www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2478523?&cat=500&ppuser=122120

www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2479460?&cat=500&ppuser=122120

My scanner does tend to really lighten up colors, so they doesn't show up as intense as they are.

Great tutorial. I think when I get back from vacation I will order some stuff to give it a try.

Yes, I did catch the proper spelling of Gamsol.

Unfortunately they are not refillable nor can you replace the nibs. That means every time a colour runs dry you have to buy a new set of three.

I would rather leave a smaller footprint.

Are they refillable?

When I started, I thought copics were way overpriced and got into watercolor brush markers (Tombows) instead. They were much cheaper individually and overall because you can mix colors easily and use a single marker for a whole range of tones. They're also really quick. OTOH, for copic-like coloring with Tombows, I pretty much have to emboss all of my images or they bleed once I get my water brush in there. That can be annoying! You could basically do the same thing with watercolor pencils or any watercolors, really, but Tombows keep the mess down and I have an easier time buying Tombows open stock than I do the really nice watercolor pencils.

I did try Spectrum Noir markers and was very disappointed. I even bought the upgraded generation and the separate brush tips (which brings the price per marker up over ciaos), and they are nowhere near as nice as copics. The barrels were uncomfortable, and the brushes and colors just flat out don't blend as well. I was also disappointed that I couldn't buy the colors open stock; you're pretty much stuck with the color ranges they sell in bundles. To be fair, if you don't upgrade them with brush tips and you dutifully use your coupons at Joann's, they're very inexpensive and they are probably "good enough" and are certainly a good buy for their price compared to other non-brush alcohol markers.

One thing I wanted to try was the Mepxy Alpha brush markers, which I understand to be the South Korean answer to Japan's copics. Blick has had them permanently on clearance for $1.69 for months now, and they apparently have brushes and blend nicely: www.dickblick.com/products/mepxy-brush-markers/

Colored pencils are a pretty cheap alternative that give good results with more effort. I recently bought into a 48-pencil prismacolor set plus the stock gamsol/nibs kit and a kit with a blender and pencil extender for under $50 (I just watched Ebay for deals. I wanted polychromos pencils, but they were almost twice as much!). They're going to last a really long time, but I will say that they take a lot more time and skill than tombows and copics, so there is a tradeoff. (Other ladies above me say they're faster, though, so maybe it's all in what you're good at, and maybe I'm just bad at these. )

In the end, I figured out that you can get copic sketches online for not much more than $5 (ciaos for even less!), and I just started saving up and buying them slowly. They really are so nice to work with and make coloring a snap even if you're not all that good at coloring. The first thing I ever colored with my couple of test markers just sort of blew me away since I had no idea what I was doing and it still came out really nice. I also realized that you really, really do not need hundreds of copics to color stamps. I just sat down and planned it out and got a few colors in each of the color ranges, just enough to blend. Buying a huge set would just be a waste.

I've yet to pay full price for any Copics. Michaels at one point had buy one get one, I've used 40% off coupons also. I don't have a lot but really need to use what I have.  I see Stampin Up just came out with some Blendabilities ones...

I like Letraset Pro Maker. I buy them on Amazon and well as a Crafts Direct here in Minnesota.

I like my pencils with Gamsol as well. But I did just invest in some ShinHan markers - don't have them yet, and not sure they are much cheaper than copics but I never got on that train.