Review: Koda Art Markers from Cheap Joes Art Stuff

thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Nov 13

Hi friends! A few months ago I saw that cheap Joe's Art Stuff was selling their own line of alcohol markers. I have really enjoyed the Cheap Joe's house brand products in the past and I wanted to give these a try too! They sent me the full set of 120 Koda Art Markers to review a month ago and it was great timing with Inktober in full swing!

Watch the video for my full review and scroll down for the written review.

Koda Art alcohol markers from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff

They are available in sets and open stock. They feature a Japanese-style brush nib on one end and a chisel nib on the other in an oval white matte barrel. There are 120 colors in all. The kind folks at Cheap Joe's Art Stuff generously sent me the complete 120 set to review.

Pros:

Color selection
Comes in a high-quality square padded bag that can be stored on its side.
No spatter when removing caps
Good ink flow
The oval barrel is comfortable to hold (same size as Copic around but about 1/2" longer)
Splotch-free ink coverage
Blends well
Layers well
Not streaky
Most caps match ink
Swatch card included
Reversible brush nib
Available open stock

Cons:

The brush nib is a compressed felt rather than a neoprene (aka foam rubber) nib like Copic uses.
There are slots on each side of the marker cap that could catch your nib when closing the marker if you are not careful. You can avoid damaging the nibs if you are aware of this.
No ink refills available or nib replacement (but the Ohuhu brush nibs will fit and in the unlikely scenario you damage a chisel nib they are pretty standard, cheap, and easy to find.)

Bottom line:

I really enjoy this set of markers. Its compact size allows me to have 120 colors at my fingertips when I work away from my desk. These are much more affordable than Copic (a 36 set of Copic would run you as much as the 120 set of Koda Art markers) and the artwork I made with these are just as good as art made with higher-end markers. That said, I was hoping they would have the neoprene/foam rubber nibs instead of the fiber brush nibs and other markers that have the fiber brush nibs are generally half the price. However, the other budget markers with the fiber nibs tend to spatter ink when uncapping and the barrels don't match the ink colors as well as these do. Taking all of that into consideration I think they are a good value and I have really enjoyed using this set. Below you can see the artwork I did with these markers. Thanks to Cheap Joe's Art Stuff for sending me these markers to review and til next time happy crafting!