An interview with Copic Award 2025 winner sushidog - "I think Copic ABS is the perfect art supply for beginners."

The actual work—drawing line art, coloring, and airbrushing—took about a week. However, deciding on the theme and design for the piece took much, much longer. In total, it probably took about two months.

I originally lived in the United States, but I had the chance to move to Japan at the end of 2019. Japan is famous for anime and manga and, even though I already had an office job, I remembered how I had dreamed of becoming an illustrator or manga artist as a child. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I lived in Japan, so I started working as an assistant to a manga artist and sharing my own illustrations.

Back then, I was drawing illustrations digitally, but after seeing my favorite manga artist's Copic illustrations, I became interested in analog illustration myself. I casually mentioned wanting to try using Copic markers during a stream, and my followers really encouraged me, saying they'd support me and so I should just go ahead and try it.

I often stream in English, so I have a lot of international followers, including those viewers. For people overseas, even if they're interested in Copic markers, the barrier for entry is pretty high. In the US, a single Copic marker costs around 7 dollars (about 1,100 yen)... Since they're more expensive than in Japan, there's a strong anxiety that it'd be a waste to buy them if you're not able to master them. So people really appreciate artists who show themselves actually using them and share techniques.

That happened around February 2022, so I've been using Copic markers for about four years now.

I watched tutorial videos by people drawing with Copic markers and bought lots of books to teach myself. When I used to draw digitally, I'd sometimes get headaches, maybe because of the light from the liquid crystal tablet. Analog drawing suited me much better because that doesn't happen, so I got hooked.

That said, I still draw illustrations digitally at times. I switch between mediums depending on where the work will be shown—for example, using analog for solo exhibitions and digital for social media or videos.

It might seem difficult, but I personally think Copic ABS is the perfect art supply for beginners.

It's pretty easy to come back from any mistakes by using a blender. Also, for example, after drawing a girl, if you lightly airbrush around her, it instantly changes the whole atmosphere. And if some of the paint gets on the character, that adds its own charm.

I know a lot of people worry that one mistake can ruin the entire illustration when using Copics. But I once accidentally drew a character's hands on the wrong side. I just redrew the hands on a separate sheet and pasted them over the top to fix it (laughs). Once you scan it, you can't tell at all. Using whiteout or adding patterns over the mistake works surprisingly well too.

Do you know the artist Bob Ross?

Yes. He's famous for the phrase, "It's not a mistake, it's a happy accident." Messing up is not a bad thing, and you don't need to worry about it.

Even if I make a mistake, I just think of a different approach. It's likely I'll discover new techniques or find opportunities to improve my skills through this cycle of trial and error. In my case, I believe that hitting a wall is precisely when we grow the most. So even if I make a mistake, I almost never start over from scratch.

My freckle technique actually came from a mistake. My finger accidentally touched the airbrush nozzle, and for a moment I panicked, thinking I messed up. But when I looked closely, the uneven dots actually looked like freckles. That's when I decided to use that technique when drawing girls with freckles. That led to my entry being selected as a finalist for the Copic Award 2022.