Finding Your Palette (Colours) -Traditional Mediums

Heather Boyd

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all doing well.

Many of you might already know that I work in traditional pencil and pencil crayon. And that I mainly use minimal colouring. Getting colour just right is still very important to me. I am struggling in finding or making a palette of colours for myself.

I struggle because unlike digital I don't have every colour available to me.
I sometimes like to layer colours but I struggle to create the same colour consistently.
I have started putting the colours I like to use separate from the others, but find though they work separately they don't necessarily work well together.

Do you know whether pencil crayon brands have set colours I can buy or do I have to go through individually and find my own way (I'm not opposed but I would like a basis to start with). I really love earth tone colours, and also some pastel colours.

Thank you for listening and any tips or any help would be greatly appreciated as always,

You guys are awesome!

PenAndrew

@Heather-Boyd Have you tried making a kind of grid and mixing the colours one by one? colour pencil chart.jpg

This helps to create a great deal of harmony. I think of colour in terms of dullness or vibrancy and prefer colours that I respond to, and colours that excite my eye. I don't believe you need large sets to get what you want.

LouD

@Heather-Boyd I really like how you are using color, it looks very thoughtful.

I don’t have a lot of experience or tips for colored pencils specifically, but for part 3, I’d suggest doing master copies. Pick a piece of art where you like the color combo, and copy it. You can also analyze it with the eyedropper color picker tool in photoshop, because a color can look totally different when isolated vs surrounded by other colors.

Look at how the master drawing uses colors for balance, movement, contrast, etc. Then try to use the same palette for one of your drawings.

AngelinaKizz

Pencil crayons do come in sets ranging from 12-120 (12/24/36/48/60/72 and 120 typically). If you like earthy tones, I quite like the earth tones in the Derwent lightfast sets.

When deciding on what brand to go with, I do recommend buying a few basic colors in each brand open stock and playing with them to see what qualities you're most drawn to. Buying a set is such an investment, that it's worth doing the leg work first to see what you will enjoy working with the most.

Layering, well that can only come with practice and really learning your color wheel. The more layers you can add, the more dimension you'll create in your finished piece. I will often lay down up to 30 layers before I burnish (heavier handed final layer that melts everything together). Understanding how the colors play together will help you know which color to reach for to shift the tone towards the end result your hoping for.

Kristen Lango

@Heather-Boyd in keeping with what @PenAndrew has mentioned, I've found making color charts extremely useful in finding a color palette in traditional medium.

I do it with watercolor pencils, but maybe this is helpful for you to see:

Kristen Lango

@Heather-Boyd sorry, one other thing - I think this is also a very empowering exercise because it makes you realize that you really can make a huge variety of color swatches with only a set of 24 or even just 12.

So you're not daunted by the task of buying many different expensive uniquely colored pencils... Hope that makes sense!

Lee White

I only use 6 colors total in my watercolor palette. I'll be doing a whole lecture and demo on that process soon (for my Patreon). The base colors you pick make a MASSIVE difference in your overall ability to hit color. Two colors that look the same when squeezed from the tube will mix is a very different way.

There are a few keys to getting really consistent colors with a good range while also staying as simple as you can. The color charts here are essential too for fully understanding the range of possibilities. The important thing is to have a base understanding of what you are looking for in a palette (sounds confusing, but it's really not), then you can pick the right base colors for it.

von_Nimmermehr

@Lee-White will it just be available for your patreons or will it be a course on svs too?

demotlj

@von_Nimmermehr Vesper Stamper has a course on SVS in which she describes her 5 color watercolor palette. I've used it for quite a while now and it really helped simplify color mixing for me.

Lee White

@von_Nimmermehr This is going to be one of many many things I'm going to have on my Patreon. I'm using that space as a place to put things that don't necessarily have enough info to be a full class, but can make a dramatic impact on your art. I'm doing tons of full demos with voice over too. Getting into materials and how they affect your art, etc. Even a place to do critiques for students. It's more of a personal teaching space for me and a window into the things I'm making and how I'm making them Specific business topics relating to selling art, taxes, etc too. : )

I just did the voice over for how I painted this image. The total painting took about 3 hours, but the tutorial video is about an hour. The Patreon isn't live yet, but will be by Monday or so.

phoenix yip

@PenAndrew woah that’s a great idea

von_Nimmermehr

@Lee-White you are just reeealy good at selling yourself and i spend a good amount of my money on supporting you all (just backed your Tarot deck) but i just canceled all my patreon support and stuff. The last two years have been hard and i have to make a step back...out of just beeing selfemployed and go back to normal work... the amount of money you have to pay back to the goverment AND Taxes on top...all because of Covid, its crazy.

I know i don't need to explain myself, i will take a look at it when things are getting better and i'm looking forward to it.

I made so much progress in the past year, and mostly because of you guys
A good day to say thank you.

Melissa_Bailey

@Heather-Boyd hello! You've gotten some great responses so far, and I especially agree with @AngelinaKizz 's advice. Looking at your website, your work is gorgeous, and you seem to have a really nice eye for color. Your limited palette is working in your style. Are you looking to expand your color palette? Or are you looking to try something new?

Not knowing what brand of colored pencils (pencil crayons) you have or prefer, it's difficult to make recommendations. Budget also plays a role in recommendations.

Yes, you can buy sets of colored pencils -- all brands offer sets. But the downside of that is you only get the pencils that come prepackaged in the set. Earth tones and pastels usually don't come in the 12 to 48 color sets.

Many brands offer open stock (buying the pencils individually) and I've found that has what has worked best for me, especially when trying to find my preferred brand on a budget. That way, you only buy the colors you want, need, or think you'll use. You can purchase online through sites like Blick and Jerry's Artarama (both US based but sell internationally), Jackson's (UK based but sells internationally), and DeSerres (based in Canada but offers a more limited selection of open stock pencils).

If you have a store like Michael's in your area, they often sell Prismacolors open stock and provide a pad to test out the colors. Prismacolor is a very good budget pencil brand, really creamy and soft and highly pigmented. The downside is that quite a few colors are not lightfast (which is a concern only if you're planning to sell the original art) and the core tends to separate from the casing, which leads to breakage. Your local art supply store might also sell open stock colored pencils and allow you to test the colors out before buying.

Hope this helps!

AngelinaKizz

@Melissa_Bailey Delta Art in Edmonton has a fabulous open stock selection of all the major cp brands, and the prices are really good.

Heather Boyd

@PenAndrew Thank you. I had not considered drawing a chart. Do you first put all the colours down and then go and mix them gradualy?

Heather Boyd

@LouD Thank you.

I have certainly considered it but trying to find the exact colour that I located in a image with the teardrop vs. finding it in my colour pencil crayons have rather intimidated me, as well as possible disappointment if I cannot find the colour in my pencil crayons.

However, I will look into it further. There are possibilities in what you've said could help.

Heather Boyd

@AngelinaKizz Wow thanks, I am so not practised in pencil crayons lols. How do I avoid burnishing too early? I tend to do that.

Heather Boyd

@Kristen-Lango Thank you. It's also helpful that you've noted the first layer and overlayer.

Heather Boyd

@Lee-White I would love to simplify to 6 colours! If you haven't already answered this, I haven't read everything under this post yet, how many out of your 6 are base colours? And do you tend to use only one additional colour overtop of the base layer or more than one? I apologies if these are the things in your Patreon.

Heather Boyd

@Lee-White Critique for students from teachers is what I miss from school and in many ways what I wished SVS had but understandable. I know you mainly work in digital/watercolour, would you still give critique help in other mediums?