reMARKERble
by Tina Manzer
334 Copic colors – To be successful selling markers,AM retailers need to serve the
needs of a range of customers by offering them a variety of colors.
Our love affair with markers began when we were kids. Oooh, the smoothness. Oooh, those bright colors. Ooooh, that smell. I would venture a guess that if given the choice between creating art with a pencil and creating art with a marker, the average untrained consumer (like me) would happily choose a marker. Our comfort level with them may be one of the reasons their appeal crosses over many markets, ranging from landscape architects to moms who do paper crafting.
And then there are manga artists. “AM retailers need to embrace manga and the culture behind it. It’s represents a new genre of creativity,” said Peter Ouyang of Sakura of America, in San Francisco. Based in Japan, Sakura makes a line of pens that employ pigment instead of dye – called Pigma ink – making them archival, chemically stable, waterproof and fade resistant. Originally introduced as drafting tools in the early 1980s, Pigma pens are used today by writers, anthropologists, diamond cutters, scrapbookers, and manga and anime illustrators.
“If you sell art materials, don’t define art based on what you use, or what you’ve seen used in the past,” he advises. “Instead of picking fruit from old trees, plant seeds with these young artists.”
“Manga artists represent one of three target markets for Copic,” said Marianne Walker of Imagination International, the North and South American distributor of Copic markers. “A lot of comic books today are created in Photoshop, but in Japan they’re still hand drawn. Because their favorite Japanese artists use pen and ink or markers to create their illustrations, Manga artists in the U.S. do, too.”
The newest batch of Copic colors, introduced last year, were pale skin tones to meet Manga artists’ growing needs. “They want a range,” she said. “My personal set of skin-colored markers numbers 36. Out of the 334 Copic marker colors available, one of those skin-tone colors is our second-best seller.
The best seller (behind black and Copic’s colorless blender) is Cool Gray #3 used by fine artists who work in gray scale for their renderings.
Designers
People who use markers for traditional fine art applications represent another target market for Copic. “They’re commercial artists – interior, fashion and product designers, architects and landscape architects,” said Walker.
“The stores that do best with Copic products are the ones that cater to art students, she pointed out. “They’re the ones pushing our products onto the professors for illustration, sequential art, and storyboarding. The professors still use the products they used in art school. When you target the university market the students are educating the faculty. They say, ‘This product that I’ve used for drawing comics is the reason why I get better results than others in this class.”
Generally, though, fine artists haven’t found success with markers – they say the colors don’t blend, the ink or dye makes the paper so wet it pills, and the colors fade.
“Our colors will fade,” said Walker. “Commercial artists don’t mind because the projects they use them for are temporary. Once they’re presented to a client, they’re filed away. Today, people who do altered art use non-archival objects anyway – they expect it all to fade and wither in a couple of years. But to a gallery artist, permanence is vital.”
To prevent a finished marker piece from fading, users can spray it with a UV seal or frame it using UV coated glass. Or they could do what Walker does. “I sketch an idea, then photocopy it onto nice paper and color it with markers,” she explained. “I scan it into my computer then clean it up in Photoshop. There’s no question about permanence with the digitized version.”
Markers have, and continue to, improve. “When solvents like xylene replaced water, users could color with markers without destroying the paper’s surface,” explained Marianne. “But the trouble with a xylene base or similar solvents is you lose brain cells by inhaling them. We’ve probably all used ‘stinky markers.’
“Today’s alcohol-based markers are easy to work with,” she continued. “They take the qualities people loved as kids – smoothness, plus bright and vibrant colors – and fixed the streaking and blending issues. As the quality of markers continues to improve with a smoother texture and a wider range of colors, more and more artists will adopt them as a tool to create art. We can’t begin to guess at the potential.”
Peter Ouyang agrees. “In the 1980s, we could not foresee the numbers of uses of disposable Pigma Micron pens. They were originally designed for accountants, and for architects and engineers who used them all day long to prepare fine-point technical plans for buildings and bridges. Today, artists looking for a really fine line – like those who create miniatures, for instance, or doll artists who need to draw delicate eyelashes, or others who create intricate embellishments – are having success with Pigma Micron pens. Pigma products have proven to be valuable tools for document preservationists and scrapbookers alike. We’re constantly seeing new uses for this ‘old’ pen.”
At the National Art Educators Association 2009 Conference last April, Sakura sponsored a mini version of its “Introduction to Manga for Classroom Instruction” workshop. The company collaborated with Manga Start, an art education resource that provides manga-comic drawing lessons. “The collaboration between Manga Start and Sakura stemmed from a common desire to provide resources for art education,” said Phuong-Mai Bui-Quang, Manga Start founder and creative director of P.M.B.Q. Studios. “We saw the educators’ light bulb go on when we explained how to use manga to teach basic drawing, character development and storytelling techniques.” To see the full version of the original workshop, visit www.teachertube.com and search “Introduction to Manga for Classroom Instruction.”
Crafters embrace fine art tools
General crafters comprise the third target market for markers. “The new generation of paper crafters tends to be college educated,” said Walker. “They’re slightly older but not middle-aged. Maybe they’re stay-at-home moms or maybe the kids are gone and they have a career. When they sit down to make something, money for supplies is no object.”
Today’s paper crafter probably starts with something inexpensive and simple – maybe her kids’ Crayola markers – but when the project doesn’t look like she wants it to, she graduates to mid-range products, Walker explained. But now her curiosity is piqued about what product is “the best” for her purpose, and if she finds something better she buys it.
“With the advent of the Internet and online forums, paper crafters chat and share the tools they’re using for professional results,” explained Walker. “They talk about techniques that I learned in art school, like using mineral spirits to blend their Prismacolor pencils. It’s a traditional fine art practice that paper crafters are taking over. They may have larger collections of Prismacolor pencils than most fine artists.”
Problem is, crafters don’t connect with the vibe of a traditional fine art supply store. “For artists, a supply store is an inspiring place,” noted Walker. “They can spot something and think, I can do 10 or 15 gazillion things with that tool. Crafters, on the other hand, want to go into a store and see the end result. They think, Aha! I can make this! By using this! I can learn how here in their next workshop.
Paper crafters need the education – they’re more likely to attend workshops and classes than fine artists. “Crafters don’t feel worthy of experimenting with a product until they’ve been educated on it,” said Walker. |
Selling markers
Both Walker and Ouyang believe that AM retailers can be successful selling markers instead of eventually relinquishing those sales to other stores. Art supply stores should recognize that they serve a range of marker users, not one single type.
“With the growing popularity of altered art, you’re going to see a lot more fine art/craft crossover,” noted Walker. “AM stores tend to carry more of the Copic collection that craft stores do anyway, and color sells. A retailer shouldn’t limit himself to a display of 72 or 100 Copic colors. He really has to carry all 334 to give his variety of customers what they need. Look at our top two colors – they cover two totally different markets!”
Then, AM stores should constantly show people how to use them, either with a simple in-store demo or by offering a series of workshops.
Another strategy is reaching out to art schools. “When you target universities, it’s important to remember that the students are educating the faculty,” noted Walker.
Ouyang agrees. “Markers are centric to college students. Survival of the art materials industry in general may depend on the success of art in schools.”
To better understand today’s young manga illustrators, he recommends attending comic and anime conventions like Comic Con in San Diego and New York, and WonderCon in San Francisco. “Comic Con dedicates an area of the show floor, called Artist Alley, to display the work of artists and creators within the comic industry,” Ouyang explained. “By seeing what they’re drawing and coloring you’ll better understand what supplies they need from you. ”
He cautions retailers about stocking markers based on their price instead of their quality. “Independent retailers should cherry-pick their marker selection by paying attention to which suppliers offer the best quality, not the lowest price.
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This tutorial, one of many on Marianne Walker’s blog I Like Markers, illustrates the difference between shading and adding cast shadows with Copic markers. Using a granny rubber stamp character from Our Craft Lounge, Marianne shows it coming to life with the addition of shadows, shading and tiny details that suggest a floral pattern in granny’s chair. |
Peter Ouyang from Sakura recommends staying on top of trends, and asked me if I had heard of Zentangle. “There are at least a handful of certified Zentangle teachers at the CHA shows each year,” he told me. He directed me 
