Can You Use Copic Markers For Calligraphy

So you heard that you can do calligraphy with brush pens and your Copic markers are brush pens.

So can you do calligraphy with it?

In this article, I am going to be giving a guide and the answer to this question.

Here is just the simplest answer to our question.

Can you use Copic markers for calligraphy

You can totally use Copic markers for calligraphy. Not necessarily can you use the brush tip but you can use the chisel tipped side to do modern calligraphy.

Now we are just going to dive deeper into this simple explanation.

Here is a summary of what we are going to be learning about today:

• Can You Do Calligraphy With Copic Markers (More In-depth answer)
• Is it considered calligraphy
• How To Do It Exactly
• Cool Ideas

More In-Depth

So let us dive deeper into the explanation that I gave above.

So yes you can do calligraphy with your Copic markers, or any type of alcohol marker in that case.

There are just some things you need to know.

You probably know that you can do calligraphy with brush pens but you can’t really do the same thing with Copic markers.

I have noticed that a lto of people have talked about how these markers are designed differently, more for illustrating and coloring, than doing brush lettering.

So for brush lettering, I recommend staying with water-based brush pens.

Now you may be wondering how are we supposed to do hand lettering then?

Well, you could do it with the chisel tipped side.

If your alcohol-based marker doesn’t have a chisel tip but a bullet nib you can also do calligraphy that way to.

So now let us talk about a common question a lot of people have after learning this.

So Is This Even Considered Calligraphy?

Yes and no.

Let me explain.

First off it would not be considered a traditional form of calligraphy since we are not using traditional utensils for calligraphy.

But then again a lot of people do use chisel tipped markers specifically for traditional calligraphy.

Opinions vary from person to person almost.

Then if we are talking about hand lettering or modern calligraphy yes it is a form of these types of calligraphy.

The reason is that hand lettering is using any writing utensil to draw/illustrate letters.

So this includes a lto of other forms of lettering like brush lettering, dip pen calligraphy, etc.

This is considered calligraphy if we are talking about modern calligraphy/hand lettering.

Then again you don’t need these markers to do any form of lettering.

How To Do It Exactly

So I am just going to be starting off with one of the easiest ways to do calligraphy with almost any writing utensil that you have at home, including alcohol markers.

It is called Faux Calligraphy.

WHAT IS FAUX CALLIGRAPHY

Faux calligraphy is just a simple technique that is used to make something look that it was done with a brush pen or dip pen.

HOW TO DO FAUX CALLIGRAPHY

I have already done a detailed article all about this technique if you are wanting some more information feel free to check it out here.

STEP 1

You are going to write out your word how you could in calligraphy, except without the line variation.

STEP 2

You are now going to add a different line to all of your downstrokes.

This may sound confusing so let me show you what I mean.

STEP 3

Now you can either leave it like this or fill in the space.

You can also create nice little designs inside the space.

It is all your preference.

HOW TO DO CALLIGRAPHY WITH CHISEL TIP MARKER

Now I am going to be talking about how to do calligraphy with a chisel tip of your alcohol marker.

I have actually done another post on exactly how to do this.

So if you want something more detailed on how exactly to do this check out my tutorial all about it here.

This is just going to a brief through of what I tackled about in that tutorial.

I first recommend before starting this tutorial is to get yourself some nice marker paper.

Since alcohol markers are known to bleed through.

Or just used some thick mixed media paper would also be fine.

Now let us get started.

You need to learn how to hold the chisel tip marker in two different ways.

First, you need to hold it in a way that can get you thin upstrokes.

Here you are just going to have the very tip of the marker touch the paper.

Now for your downstrokes, you have to make sure that the whole entire marker is touching the paper.

 It makes take you a few tries to make your downstroke come out the same width.

But perfect practice makes perfect.

After a while of just practicing these two strokes now, you are going to want to learn how to transition between these two different strokes.

Let me show you what I mean.

SOME COOL IDEAS

Any way a cool way to create some cool designs with your alcohol markers is by blending your different colors to create your letters.

So let me show you an example.

So you are just going to do the faux calligraphy technique.

Then we are going to add your base colors and start blending how you would do regularly with your alcohol markers.

Now let me show you some of my designs so that you can get some inspiration.

Final Thoughts

So you just learn that it is very possible to be able to learn calligraphy with your Copic markers, or any other alcohol markers.

You have also learned how to od calligraphy with almost any writing utensil that you have at home and that you don need any calligraphy pens to be able to do calligraphy.

I really hope that you found this calligraphy tutorial helpful and if you have any other questions for learning lettering feel free to comment with your questions.