What’s a Good Blending Combination for Copic R29?
I’ve used Copic Markers professionally for 30 years. After all this time, I know more than a few red blending combinations.
But I’m always a little sad when someone asks for a marker recipe.
There’s more to artistic coloring than pretty Copic blending combinations.
To be honest, blending combos are the least of what we do.
Today, let’s look at Copic Marker R29 Lipstick Red from the artist’s perspective— how do I use this red marker in my classes and in my artwork?
Let’s get past the basic blending and find out how this marker really performs.
“Cool Peppermint” by the author, Amy Shulke. This is an intermediate level online class which teaches universal shading and underpainting for realism. This project was colored with Copic Markers and Prismacolor Colored Pencils on X-Press It Blending Card.
Copic Marker R29 Lipstick Red is a classic red, perfect for coloring food, florals, and holiday items. I highly recommend this versatile color with R27 as your first red purchases. R29 can be a stubborn blender, using high quality marker paper will improve the smoothness of your R29 blends.
Copic R29 is a Bright, Classic red
When you think “red”, you’re picturing Corvettes, fire engines, and Santa Clause with his fluffy red hat and his red nosed reindeer friend.
R29 was born to color all of these things.
R29 Lipstick Red is the red-lover’s red, a color right out of the Crayola box of red crayons.
In the intermediate level Cool Peppermint class project shown here, I’ve used R29 to create the swirling red stripes on the starlight peppermint candies.
About the Color Family:
Red is one of the larger Copic Marker families and is designated with the letter R on the caps.
You’ll also see YR, RV, and VR families. These colors use red ink in their mixtures. Only the R family is true reds.
About the Ink Group:
R29 is part of the “Twenty” group of R markers— the first number in the ID code tells you the group number. In general, Copics which start with 2 tend to be bright but they’re not as candy colored or as glowing as the Zero or Teen groups. The Twenties are often my go-to for colors that are “bright yet sophisticated”..
Learn more about the Copic Numbering system in my article at MarkerNovice.com here.
About the Color Value:
The second number in the code R29 is a 9. This tells you that R29 is the most color-intense marker in the Twenty group (nine is always the darkest while 0 is the lightest).
The Copic R-Twenty family has a nice range of colors, more than average with 6 markers: R20, R21, R22, R24, R27, and R29.
Most Copics with a last number 9 are so intensely colored that they’re stubborn to blend with. There’s simply a lot of colorant to smooth out.
Reds in general are also a staining ink, meaning they grab onto paper fibers and are reluctant to budge. Anything with an R on the cap will require a bit more attention on your part to blend it smoothly.
Despite the fact that R29 is a stubborn and reluctant blending marker, we still highly recommend this marker for beginners because of its classic color. It’s simply hard to imagine coloring without this essential shade of red.
About the Name:
R29 is a bright traditional red, perfect for a little red dress and matching lipstick. The name “Lipstick Red” is a perfect description of this color.
Copic names don’t always make sense but this one does!
Is Copic R29 Ink Lightfast?
Does it fade quickly? Can it be erased? Does it shatter? Does the cap color match the ink color?
I’ve tested R29 ink to help you better predict how this ink will behave during use.
See the test results for:
Lightfastness
Layering
Color Build-up
Dilution
Value
Cap Accuracy
Behavior upon contact with Colorless Blender
MarkerNovice.com is the sister site to VanillaArts.com where I offer reliable information for Copic Marker beginners.
How Do I Use Copic R29 Lipstick Red in my Classes and Projects?
Red is my favorite color, so I tend to use reds more than the average colorer.
But I have to admit, R27 is my favorite shade of red. It’s a bit lighter and brighter.
I teach with reds a lot, even though reds are a stubborn-blending ink.
Actually, I teach with reds because they’re harder to blend. I figure if you can blend R29 smoothly, then the other colors will be a piece of cake. So we hit R29 again and again in my classes. Practice makes perfect.
R29 blends easier when combined with R27. There’s not a lot of value difference between the two markers but R27 brings a bit more colorless blender to the party. I think of R27 as the manipulative friend who can coax R29 into doing anything I want.
For advanced classes, we skip the R27 and jump to R24. The blend is harder but there’s a better color difference between the two, making for a nicer gradient.
R24 + R29 is my favorite pairing for light to dark red but R27 + R29 is an easier pair to make smooth.
Read More:
Click to visit Amy’s articles which discuss coloring with red
How to Blend with Copic R29
Here are a few sample blending combinations using R29 Lipstick Red.
In the Self Blending swatch, I’ve applied from 1 to 3 layers of R29 to create a color gradient from just the one marker. The darker left side is three coats of ink, the middle mid-tone is two layers, and the far right is one layer of ink.
People don’t often think about blending a marker with itself but self-blending always creates the easiest gradient possible and a self combination always looks smooth.
The Natural Blend is three markers which all share the same first number.
Here, we have R29 as the darkest color (far left) with R27 in the middle, and R24 on the right. This blend is used in a lot of coloring classes and tutorials, it’s by far the most popular way to blend R29.
The Almost Natural Blend uses R39 to add a darker value to the combination. This is also a very common blend.
The last swatch is my personal favorite and this is how I use R29 most often. I underpaint reds with a blue marker quite frequently. B23 gives a nice punch of murky darkness without overpowering the feeling of red. R29 goes over the top of the blue and R17 rounds out the trio for a punch of warmth at the end. I happen to like my reds a tad on the orange side rather than the pinkish reds many favor.
Tips for blending R29:
Note: R29 is a mildly stubborn marker which does stain the paper. But as I stated earlier, if you get good at blending R29, you can pretty much blend anything. So keep practicing!
The entire R-Twenty family is a bit cool (meaning it leans more towards blue than yellow). This is why the markers like R22 and R21 at the low end look a bit pink. This is why I switch to R17 in my favorite blend, it adds the feeling of light red without shifting the blend pink.
For beginners, R27 really does help force R29 to behave. I highly recommend using R27 in your R29 based blending combinations until you get a good feel for how much moisture is required to get R29 to smooth out.
Don’t over-ink with R29— it’s a staining color, so the more R29 you apply, the more you have to blend out later.
If you’re working on copy paper (Hammermill, Neenah) or if you’re working on cardstock developed for cardmaking (Gina K, Bazzill, Ranger) then you’re encouraging R29 to misbehave. These brands of paper contain a large amount of long grained wood pulp. R29 is especially staining on wood. Switching to a paper developed for markers will help R29 blend better. Try X-Press It (associates link to Amazon) or Transotype (also called Holtz or Perfect Colouring paper, associates link to Amazon).
The Most Important Tip for Coloring with Red Copic Markers:
I don’t know if it’s because beginners have only a few markers to choose from or if this is a problem that stems back to elementary school when we were taught to mix white paint into red paint to make pink paint.
But anyway, I see a lot of people using RV markers to make light red because they don’t like the orange-ishness of some of the ligher R markers.
Anyway, the insistence of blending reds with pinks leads to problems when they try to color with realism.
Because shocker of shockers…
Light red is not pink.
Why do your red objects look fake and cartoonish?
Because you’re shifting the temperature way too cool when you add pink to the blending combination.
Pink is actually a version of light magenta. The entire magenta family is very cool compared to the warmth of red.
Highlights tend to sit in the areas most hit by the sun, these are physically the warmest spots on any object. So it looks weird when you pull out an ultra cool pink to highlight something which we expect to be warm.
And here’s the weird part… if I asked you to pick a dark pink, nobody would go shopping in the R section, you’d pick a Copic RV…
So why do people pick RVs for light red?
I can’t explain it.
Dark pink is not red.
Keep your pinks distinct from your reds.
Light red looks peach in color. People are always puzzled by how peach R12 and R02 are, but that’s because they’re expecting pink.
Light red is much warmer and more golden than pink.
And for the record, I really think R85, R83, and R81 should be in the RV family. They’re not reds because they’re not warm enough.
Shade and Highlight Suggestions for R29 Lipstick Red Copic Marker
If you’ve read many articles here at VanillaArts.com or taken any of my classes, you know I teach an underpainting method.
In underpainting, we choose opposite colors on the color wheel to add the realistic murkiness found in real-life shade. We “desaturate” with complementary colors. Read more in my article series here.
After I underpaint and blend with Copics, I come back with colored pencils to boost the shade and add highlights. My pencils rarely match the Copics.
Shade suggestions for R29 Lipstick Red:
Copic Underpaint: B23, B32 or B34, BV20, BV13, V04, V12, or V20.
Unlike a lot of Copic instructors, I do not recommend shading R29 with R59 or R89. Yes, they’re deeper reds but they’re too cool. If you must add a darker red to the blending combination, R39 is the best option.
Prismacolor Pencil Overpaint: PC931 Dark Purple, PC937 Tuscan Red, PC1095 Black Raspberry.
Highlight suggestions for R29 Lipstick Red:
Lighter Copics: Try the Vanilla combo shown above (B23, R29, R17) but add a marker to the light end. I like continuing with R14 and R12 for an ideal spectrum of red. (See my Cardinal project for R12 used as light red.)
Prismacolor Pencil Overpaint: PC 914 Cream, PC1012 Jasmine, PC927 Light Peach, or PC938 White.
Is Copic R29 a Good Marker for Beginners?
Yes. I think R29 should be your first red purchase along with R27 and R24.
It’s a great value too! You can color for a very long time with just this one red blending combination.
I teach beginner classes with R29 because it’s a classic red but also a great opportunity to teach how to handle stubborn blending markers.
R29 is on my starter list here and it’s the red we use in all my beginner classes.
Read more about my starter set with tips for building your marker collection in my article here.
“Cool Peppermint” by the author, Amy Shulke. This is an intermediate level online class which teaches universal shading and underpainting for realism. This project was colored with Copic Markers and Prismacolor Colored Pencils on X-Press It Blending Card.
Learning Resources for Copic Marker R29 Lipstick Red
See R29 in action:
Use our Vanilla Undercover swatches to add realistic depth and shade to your next coloring project.
We publish new swatches every Thursday.
Vanilla Undercover is sponsored by Violeta-Ink.com
Vanilla Arts Online Classes & Kits using R29 or similar classic red color palettes:
(Click for more info)
Cool Coloring
Join Amy for a fun lesson on realistic shading and underpainting for realism
“Cool Peppermint”
Learn to color striped objects using the universal shading technique which strips away the clutter from the normal blending combination theory of shading. You’ll color faster with more realistic results!
Intermediate Skill Level
Copic Marker + Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils
Anytime access, work at your own pace.
Class Printable Pack Includes:
Digital stamp in 3 easy print options
Class syllabus with detailed recipe guide
Full color project sample
Guide to Copic base
Detailed color map
Project inspiration references
Select supplies used in Cool Peppermint:
Vanilla Arts Company is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for use to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com.
