To Copic or not to copic???....which medium to use?

For anyone who is interested, i thought i would do a post about different colouring mediums.
At the moment wherever i look it seems to be copics everywhere! (BTW all you copic lovers..lol..this post isn't to diss copics,as i happen to love them too:)
.....However *Lol* when i was running ff i had plenty of cash to be able to buy whatever craft products that i wanted.If i saw something that i wanted...i simply bought it...the cost didn't matter.
I did buy myself a load of copics...which aren't exactly cheap *If my OH knew how much those things cost he would have a fit..lol* As much as i love my copics...there is always a down side :( and the downside to copics is the cost.I'm now no longer in a position to buy whatever craft products that i want...so iam trying out things from my stash...haha  Staring with different colouring mediums.A couple of years ago i was quite happy using my marvy le plume pens,i used to scribble the colour onto an acrylic block then use a water brush to pick up the colour.I then switched to water colour pencils.I have tried since to go back to watercolour pencils,but for me the colours just aren't bright enough..if ya know what i mean...not since using copics anyways...lol
The 3 images above are all coloured with different mediums *The cute image is two tash from mo's digital pencil btw*

Iam NO expert at colouring, this is just to show the results that you get with the different mediums.
The image above is coloured with copics. Buying yourself copics won't suddenly make you fantastic at colouring images...as with everything it takes practice. Amazing copic colouring can be seen here by Maddy Hill  The problem i have with copics is that they don't last all that long, i definately don't have the cash to buy refils for every colour that i have,which means that as each colour runs out i have to replace the pen:( The only refil that i have is the blender (as my first blender pen ran out within the first 2 weeks of having it)
The copics have a brush nib and i sometimes find it very hard to get into tiny areas with them.
So if you have the cash for copics...plus refils or replacements then go with them...if you don't have the cash then look for other alternatives.
I used to have pro markers...which are great too...they last longer than copics and they have a hard small nib *better for getting into smaller areas*

This image above is coloured with prisma pencils.I've had these for a while now,and haven't really tried them enough to do them justice...until now.
I love these things :) You can use the pencils on their own, or you can use a blender oil such as sansador or zest it...*I use zest it as it has a citrus smell* you use paper stumps to blend the oil over your coloured image.
I love the result that you get using these pencils...so they are most definately worth considering.
The colours are lovely and bright.The pencils are very soft..so you just start off very lightly..then pressing harder where you want the darker areas. I have used only 1 pink shade on the above image *as i only have 1 pink...lol* but by varying the amount of pressure i applied i managed to achieve light and dark shades with the one colour.
You can buy yourself a set of these for about £20 or maybe less..then they will last you a looooong time as they are pencils,plus its easy to get into smaller areas.I think that these are gonna be my main medium that i will be using from now on.

This is a tin of prismacolor pencils and a bottle of zest it.

The image above was coloured using peerless watercolors.

This is how the peerless watercolors come. Its a book with pull out sheets of colour. You can use these 2 ways (that i know of) you can either cut a pice of your chosen colour off the page and then place it in a dish ect and add a drop of water to dilute the colour off of the paper..or the other way *which is the way that i do it* is to just take the colour directly off the page.
The colours are very bright...wich i love.When painting the image above i couldnt really experiment with using more water to obtain lighter shades as the paper i was using doesnt like water...lol  so i just had to do the best that i could.
Again i love these as you can achieve lovely bright colours.They aren't expensive either. I only have the one book which is the complete edition book witch contains 15 sheets of different colours.You can also buy different books and shades to this.....So there you have my rundown on these 3 different colouring mediums.
..I have always likes the result acheived with the distress inks...however to buy all the colour range right now is way out of what i can afford so instead i have purchased the all the colours from the range of inkidinks *1/3 of the cost of distress inks* am still waiting for them to arrive though...so i shall update this post with the results of those when ive given them a try :)
I hope some of you found this post useful.
TFL
Shaz xx