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8/4/22 University Village |
As I concluded in my review of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II,
the water-soluble waxed pastels will unlikely become a go-to urban sketching
material. However, illustrator Beya Rebaï’s palette, the basis for the
limited-edition sets, is so far off from my usual palette that I became
intrigued trying to use it. It’s worth further exploration – but with my
beloved Cd’A Museum Aquarelle pencils!
I had never compared the Neocolor color line with Museum
Aquarelles, but since they are both made by Caran d’Ache, I assumed I’d find
most colors to overlap. I was surprised that this was not the case. Of the 20
colors in Rebaï’s warm and cool sets, I could find only seven overlapping with
Museum Aquarelles (and several of those are significantly different in hue or
intensity, though they share the same numbers).
On the swatch page below, I picked out all the Museum
Aquarelles that matched Rebaï’s Neocolor palette (marked with *) and added
others that are not part of the palette but look like they could be. Then I
chose four warms and four cools to use (circled). My selections are the
lower-key hues that are closer to the way I use color while still staying true
to her palette.
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Four warms and four cools inspired by Rebaï’s palette |
On the first drizzly day in weeks, I found a great sheltered
area at U Village from which to sketch umbrella’d tables. The palette worked
well for the umbrellas and large tree trunk, which required mixing several
colors into a dark, interesting neutral. But then it was time to mix colors for
the foliage, and the only green was the minty, non-natural-looking Beryl Green
(214) (which was perfect for the umbrellas). I tried mixing Prussian Blue (159)
with Apricot (041), the closest I had to yellow, but the result was still too
close to the synthetic green of the umbrellas. I might have to pull in a yellow
from my normal palette.
It
’s going to take some practice to use this palette, but I
like it for summer. I’m also happy that it keeps me from using my comfortable
default colors. We’ll see how long I stay with it before I start drifting back
to my own palette.
Even more than favorite tools or media, I think we all have
a color comfort zone that’s difficult to push out of. Learning to use a new
tool or media is a matter of practice, but favorite colors are much more
idiosyncratic and emotional. When I found the Museum Aquarelle pencils in
Rebaï’s palette, several had not yet been sharpened past the factory
sharpening, which shows how little I had used those colors. It’s a fascinating
exercise to deliberately use colors I’m not typically attracted to!