Simply Artistic Pleasures

Here is the blue panel in my Book of Color study.

Picture of the supplies I used,

• Acrylic paints – soft body and fluid.  The cheaper acrylic color, Ultramarine Blue and Cobalt Blue had a significant purple hue to them.  Both are nice colors just not the blue I was expecting.  The Golden fluids were Teal and Manganese Blue Hue.  The teal is light and a beautiful tint of “Robin’s Egg Blue”, the Manganese Blue is dark with a bit of a grey undertone.
• Fountain Pen Ink – I pulled out a bottle of J. Herbin “Bleu Pervenche” ink and used a small brush to paint the color on.  WOW, this color is an absolutely beautiful turquoise color.  The color is saturated and stained the paper.  The box doesn’t state that it is waterproof, but I did lay down watercolor over it (after it dried) and it did not blend.  I love this ink.
• Daler Rowney Acrylic Ink – I chose Rowney Blue, a dark “ocean” blue.  You can see the strip on the lower left side of the page.  I like the color and wondered if I could have used a cosmetic sponge to push it through a stencil even though it is a liquid.
• Dylusions Ink Spray in Calypso Teal – Another beautiful shade of Teal.  The color, when sprayed, came out darker, but when I used a brush to push it around, the color was easily recognizable.
• Liquitex Acrylic Paint Markers – Brilliant Blue is a nice medium blue with a bit of green undertone.  The Cobalt Blue Hue is a darker shade, leaning towards Ultramarine blue.  I liked both colors.  I prefer to paint with a brush rather than the pen.  The pen tip leaves marks, like a marker does.
• Faber Castell Gel Sticks – love the creaminess and saturation of color.  I did notice that if you lay down too much, it is harder to get the color to spread evenly when wet.
• Caran d’Arche neocolor II – I chose four different colors of blue, two were purple (Ultramarine and Blue Lavender), one was  more grey (Light Blue) and the other was Turquoise.  Although I love the ease of laying down the color with these, I don’t like seeing the scribbles after I have added water and brushed them out.
• Cray-Pas Oil Pastel – Cobalt Blue Hue – like I did in my earlier studies, I only laid down a little bit and rubbed it out with a rag.  The color is a medium blue and stains the paper.  Since other mediums do not go over the oil, perhaps this should be applied in the last layer.
• Colored Pencils – I chose a range of colors in Faber Castell, Blick Studio and Prismacolor.  I liked all the colors but in particular the aquamarine, more of a green than a blue but blended well with the other colors.

What I enjoy about this panel is the variety of blues (the green and purple tones as well), still read blue overall.  I discovered that fountain pen ink is another great medium, not just for filling a pen.

The next panel is purple.  Hmm, I don’t see a lot of purple supplies.  This should be fun.

Cheers!

The fourth panel in the Book of Color is Green.

Below are the supplies I used:

Acrylic paints – soft body and fluid.  These three were very different in color.  The inexpensive acrylic was a beautiful grass green called Green Light, the Golden Green Gold was lovely.  I liked how the green and the gold separated depending on how thin I laid down the paint.  The other Golden was Permanent Green Light.

Daler Romney and Liquitex acrylics – The Daler Romney has a beautiful shine and a bit of glimmer to it (similar to the LuminArte Watercolors), the color is Macaw Green.  The Liquitex color was Vivid Lime Green.

Adirondack Color Wash spray – the color is Lettuce and was more brown than green once sprayed.  You can see the droplets in the upper left corner.

Dylusions Ink spray – Loved the brightness of this color, Fresh Lime.

Painters and Liquitex acrylic pens – Loved the Painters bright green called Lime Green.  It was a neon.  The darker green of the Liquitex was Emerald green.  The lighter Liquitex was Vivid Lime Green and matched their acrylic ink that I used.

Faber Castell Gel Stick – what is not to like about these?  They go on smooth and activate nicely when water is applied with a brush.

Caran d’Arche neocolor II – like the gel sticks, they roll on smooth and activate more color when water is applied.  The two colors were Spring Green and Yellow Green.

Colored pencils (Faber Castell) – I had lots of green pencils but decided on these three, light green, emerald green and dark phthalo green.

LuminArte Watercolors – Key Lime, Irish Mist and Moss Green.  Love the shimmer in these.

Zebra highlighter pen – the neon didn’t show through as much as I had expected (like I saw on the yellow panel).

Cray-Pas Oil Pastel – lovely spring green, the color was Yellow Green.  Knowing that other mediums will not lay on top of this, I didn’t use much.

Gelly Roll pen – this one didn’t show up well.  I used it to make zig zag marks between the solid color bars.  I think these pens are make for darker backgrounds.

Ranger Archival Ink pad – I used this color, Olive, with a foam stamp (bars on the sides).  It’s pretty dark as expected.

StazOn Ink pad – the color, Cactus Green, was also applied using the foam stamp.

I’ve discovered that I am drawn to the light, bright greens and that you just need a bit of the dark for contrast.

Ready for the next panel, blue.  I have lots of shades, tints and tones of that color.

Cheers!

Here is the third panel in my Book of Color, A Study of Yellow.

Here are the supplies I played with.

Acrylic paints (heavy body, soft body and fluid) – All of these created a nice yellow with some variations.  The Dairylide Yellow and Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue has more orange than yellow.  I liked the Primary Yellow and Hansa Yellow Medium the best.  I tried a new-to-me fluid paint from Golden called Hansa Yellow Opaque.  I didn’t see a big difference in coverage, but then I only had yellow on the page.  Perhaps it would have shown up as more opaque on a different background.

Daler Rowney and Liquitex Acrylics –  I applied them with a paint brush.  These are saturated colors.  Water resistant.

Dylusion Spray – the color was called “Lemon Zest” and it sure looked like it.

Copic marker – It bled through the paper, color was nice though.

Sharpie Highlighter – love the pizazz the neon added.

Painters acrylic pens – same colors and coverage as the acrylic paints.  The neon yellow matched the Sharpie Highlighter.

Faber Castell Gel Stick – beautiful yellow and draws very smooth.  Added water with a brush to release and spread the color.  Noticed that the areas where I applied this dry with a glossy-like finish.

Caran d’Arche neocolor II – love how these crayons glide on the paper and then release even more saturated color when water is applied.

Colored pencils (Blick, Prismacolor, Faber Castell – all are very similar in color.  Noticed that they did not write well over the inked areas or over the Sharpie Highlighter.  I think this is because of the wax in the pencils.

Koi watercolor – the yellow was very faint and didn’t show up over the other layers.  This should be applied in the first layer.

Overall I made quite a few discoveries with this color and I like this panel.  I’m looking forward to panel #4, Green.  I wonder if the greens, being a secondary color, will be as difficult as the orange panel was.  We’ll see.

Cheers!

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!