Today’s quick little video will show how to deal with replenishing inks in markers – at least the 2 brands I have here in the studio. There are some pros and cons I’ll list out later in the post.

Ever wonder what the inside of an alcohol marker looks like? Olo sent me this “demonstrator marker” with my set of replacement inks (I kinda used up all my ink in all my coloring for months now!)….see the video to see that pretty purple ink slosh around!  I have some clear fountain pens and have often wondered why nobody makes clear markers. I’d love to know how much ink is still in there.

Tutorial: Replenishing inks in alcohol markers

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Olo replenishing: pros and cons

Pros: 

1. Super easy to do – take off the cap of the replacement body, move the nib, done.
2. Much less expensive per ounce.
3. Not in the least messy as long as you use tweezers. They can be regular ones not my grippy ones with teeth, but the teeth work great.

Cons:

1. Pens run out of color without warning; no bottle of ink means I can’t finish a project unless I keep a replacement on hand.
2. Numbers are listed on the cap and the body but there’s no color indication to grab one fast.
3. I need to work out a storage system to figure out which replacements I have and which I need.

Copic replenishing: pros and cons

Pros:

1. Bottles kept on hand make refilling mid-project a breeze.
2. Caps have the color so you know what you’ve got.
3. For those who use the weight method, the pens can be “perfectly” filled vs my crazy guessing method.

Cons:

1. More expensive per ounce.
2. New bottles are hard to squeeze.
3. Bigger items to store, unlike Olo.

Demo drawing

While I was DYING to get out other colors to do some color adjusting, I stuck with a BG blending group for a quick sketch. You can hardly tell the difference. Color match is near perfect; Olo is just a little more pigmented so watching how much is used can make both matches work well. 

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The two newest courses

Though demonstrated in Olo, it’s very easy to follow in other brands; I didn’t use any color numbers as I said which marker to choose, just “select the midtone bluegreen” so you can just adapt that to your own brand! Tap on either class for more info.

Upcoming events

This Saturday, we’re having a zoom call – and its free! Bring some summer themed artwork to work on, get out your Hawaiian shirt finery, a drink with an umbrella….let’s cheer me up!

And through September I’ll be working on alcohol marker pieces throughout the month at Artventure. A little on YouTube but more in the background, answering questions, demonstrating things. Let’s color together!

Supplies

1. Copic Tweezers Blick – AMZ 
2. My Olo marker set