Wednesday 27 July 2011

spectrum noir versus copics

I decided in the fairness of testing the spectrum noirs against the copics I'd weight things in favour of the spectrum noirs just in case my dislike of crafters companion was influencing me. To weight things I restricted myself to bg01, bg05 and bg09, all in the same blending family but the 3 most extreme to blend together. I already know that bg01 is going to be a lot darker than the spectrum noir 171 or 178 and I'll get less of a highlight. In normal usage (and if I had them all lol) I'd have used a bg000, bg02, bg05, bg07 & bg09 to get maximum shading.

This time I'm using stampinups whisper white paper and because I coloured side by side it allowed the ink to totally dry between shades. Not a single bit of bloom so I'm a lot happier with the results.

Technique wise I went with more of a flick motion and along the lines of the flick hair video on colour me copic blog.

On the left is the spectrum noir in 178 and the right is the copic bg01








The pic hasnt shown it very well but I added some 171 to get a more graduated effect before adding some 68 midtones then some 65 for the darkest shadow. I've used bg05 for the copic midtone and bg09 for the darkest. I havent attempted any blending, just laying down the colour.






I've used the midtones to blend the darker shades, both images show just how large a difference there is between the mid & lighter colours.







This time I've gone back over with the lighter colours to blend mid to light.

In real life there is still more blending to do and it needs more dark on both images.




The spectrum image has been gone over twice more with dark, medium & light and I had to use a lot more ink/blending strokes whereas the copic only needed a few more light touches.

It could be my imagination but the lighter spectrum colours seem to bleach out the darker colours more than copics do.

I'd probably use either image if I'd paid more attention to proper highlight placements.

Will I buy more spectrum noirs? Nope, not unless I've had a chance to play with other colours and find the colours blend more naturally.

10 comments:

Judith said...

Sue, thank you for showing theses pens and for your very valued opinion. I was very tempted to buy them especially as they came in colour families, but am so glad that I didn't, I'm not very good at colouring anyway and gullibly thought that these pens would be magic!

Amanda said...

Hi Sue, I was tempted by these pens and you know how much I love my copics lol, so pleased you tried them out I think my money is safe at the moment. I d have more of the colours you mentioned you would like to try so will bring them to the next playday

Teresa said...

Hi Sue, You know I always value your opinion on anything, you are my fountain of knowledge.
Thanks for testing these for us. hugs Teresa xx

kay said...

think i shall be sticking with my beloved promarkers,x

Naomi Johnson said...

really interesting reading, i will totally be sticking to my promarkers, especially as they now have the fine nib caps to help colour those fiddly thin areas.

Sarah said...

Thanks so much for this Sue, you may have cost your Hubby £6 but saved the rest of the crafting world a fortune lol.

I agree with Teresa, you are the fountain of knowledge and what says goes!

Hugs Sarah x

Marjo said...

Thanks for your review on these new pens. Will stick to my Copics a while longer.

xoxo Marjo

mikki said...

Hi, Sue.
I got 24 of the Spectrum Noir.
I agree, the lighter colors do wash out the darker. Have not done a lot of blending but will keep trying and will get more of
them. One thing I don't like is the
harder, fine line nib. Less blending control.

Playing with paper said...

I took them to playday today Mikki and none of the girls that tried them were impressed. If you can run to it I'd be adding copics or the new flexmarkers to your stash rather than adding more sns to your collection.

Glynda and Kelli said...

I am really glad you posted this. I am always trying to look for the best results. Though right now I have decided to go with the spectrum just to get me started. I will be saving some money to invest in the copic markers later. You have made some great points about the amount of overlaying. I will play around with them and hope to get a system down to get the most out of them. Thank you