Here is the second panel in my Book of Color.

Here is a picture of what I pulled out to play with.

This looks like a great selection right?  Lots of variations.

Here is what I discovered:

• All of the acrylic paints were basically the same once they were painted.  Not one of them was the “Navel Orange” color I was looking for.  Most had a brown undertone.  I added a bit of white to two of them to make a lighter orange.
• The Liquitex Acrylic Ink was yellow (even though the bottle said Yellow Orange Azo.  I’ll save this color for the next panel in the series)
• The Faber Castell Gel Stick was a deep red orange.
• The Caran d’Ache neocolor II was yellow orange.
• The Cray-Pas oil pastels look orange but they also had a brown undertone.
• The neon orange of the Liquitex Acrylic Paint Pens actually was orange.
• Dylusions Spray Ink was a great orange color, more of the “Navel Orange”.
• Adirondack spray ink was very dark, more brown than orange.
• The Copic marker was orange when applied but was covered up by darker acrylic paint.
• The colored pencils were brown-ish orange except the one neon orange.
• As a last resort, I pulled out a jar of Golden Acrylic Neon Orange.  This is a soft body paint that is between their heavy body in the tube and their fluid in the squeeze bottle.  I stenciled the circles with this color and finally achieved the color orange that I was expecting.

What I’ve learned with this panel is that orange is a difficult color.  I did not mix my own color for this, perhaps I should have.  Below are some color wheels that I created for reference.

Golden Primary Yellow and Primary Magenta.

Golden Yellow Hansa Medium and Quinacridone Red.

Below are Golden Primary Yellow and Quinacridone Magenta.

Creating the orange panel was a fun exercise.  My take-aways are:  Don’t assume the outside wrapper color will look like the paint color.  If you don’t like their colors, mix your own.

I’m looking forward to the next panel, Yellow.

Cheers!