Flowers of Spring

Let me start by saying I was just a little upset when Copic decided to raise their prices again in Jan.  I think that was the third time in a year.  So I wanted to see if I would like Spectrum noir by Crafters companion,

The new list price for Copcic is $7.99 but if you shop around you can find them for $5.24

Spectrum noir comes in a set of 6 pens I bought mine at Joann's regular price was $14.99 I used my 50% off coupon so I paid $6.50.

So that is a very Big plus for Spectrum noir.

Copic you have 358 markers.

Spectrum  has  168 markers

Copic wins with the most colors

Both are refillable.  So this is a tie.

Now on my flowers.  The only part that was colored with the spectum noir was the purple petals.

Because I only bought the one set.

can you guess which one is which.

What I tried to do in my test was to match the copic colors with the Spectum

I did not due to bad. I could not find a match for the Spectum LV3.  Which does not mean that copic does not have that color it just means I do not own it.

I used a digital image from Scrapbook Stamp Society called Flower 2 by Karen Sheltrown

Neither pen made my printer ink smear.  so both work well with the Epson ink.

But to me the big difference was the shape of the pens, the Spectrum are a square based pen verses the oval.

And I found with my little kids size hands that this made my hands hurt after a very short time.  My hands were tired by holding the pens.

The other big difference is in the nibs instead of a brush nib the spectrum has a smaller hard nib, that was on fine enough really to get into the small places but it took more work to blend with that style of nib

In conclusion.  The reason I went to the copic pens was to be able to blend the inks the way the professionals were doing. The difference is  like the difference between a BMW and an Kia.  If you have never driven the BMW then you might just be happy with the Kia.  but the move from the BMW to a Kia .. it is just not the same.

So even with the greater price.  in my book Copic wins.  I like the quality of the ink, the color choices and the shape of the barrel.

Thanks

Debbie