I love art supplies.

I have a tendency to collect them in droves.

Keyword here: collect.

Although I try to use them whenever I can, I've turned into a digital world kinda gal. ^^;

Like most kids, it started off with a set of Crayola Colored Pencils we needed to buy for school. (You know, those super hard, waxy, inexpensive ones? The ones you had to scrub and scrub to get color out and would more likely dent the paper you're coloring than make a mark?) I had my small collection of wooden pencils from Sanrio with matching mini erasers like most other girls my age.

(I actually remember playing Uno and betting with those erasers... I can't say I was a great player back then. ^^;)

Then when I started getting into art, my mom bought a Strathmore sketchbook and big metal box of Prismacolors from a small art shop downtown for what I think was either my birthday or Christmas present.

Well, in short, I got a taste for the better stuff... and it sort of went downhill from there.

I started collecting erasers, pencil sharpeners, mechanical pencils and a variety of leads, blue Col-erase pencils, sketchbooks, paper... the list goes on and on.

Recently, I started my small collection of disposable brush pens and fountain pens, mostly from my favorite online pen shop, JetPens. ^^;

But the one thing I've been aspiring to all these years?

A full collection of Copic markers.

(This is my collection + Scott's pens as of today...)

I first learned about them from artist friends I used to game with in my high school and early college years. I was doing all my artwork in colored pencils and they suggest I try using the colorless blender to get a more smooth, painterly effect.

Then I started picking up the colors and it was like Fritos: You can't just get one.

For a while, Copics used to be my main art tool... and in order to get those nice gradients, I needed to buy more and more colors. I bought them in singles at first, mostly earth/skin tones for hair and skin -- coloring everything else with colored pencils... then when I got my first decent job, I bought one of the 72 color Sketch marker sets. Then purchased the rest in singles. In Japan, I bought all of the Ciao sets available and a few coveted Comic Marker styles (limited colors, but they have a brush point and a rounded point -- not available outside Japan).

Then when Scott and I got married, I inherited his 2 sets that he bought in HIGH SCHOOL... Yes, most of those markers have lasted well over 20 years.

A good investment? I think so. :D