Café Arta with Primaries

6/18/21 Cafe Arta

 Café Arta’s patio was an ideal place to sketch on a lovely afternoon (before our heatwave began), this time with Carol and Natalie for company. Between a plate of delicious mac & cheese and an affogato, the patio plants and trellis shadows were an opportunity to try the primary triad I had studied in Kathleen Moore’s class – with a difference.

Instead of using Prismacolors, I picked out hues in the Caran d’Ache palette to match the Prismacolor triad – Process Red, Canary Yellow and True Blue – as closely as possible: Purplish Red (350) in the Supracolor line and Yellow (10) and Phthalocyanine Blue (162) in the Museum Aquarelle line (see below). As for the Prismacolor Black Grape that I like for shadows, I couldn’t find a good Caran d’Ache match (Supracolor Violet 120 doesn’t come close), so I used my usual Museum Aquarelle Payne’s Gray (508) instead.

With only the three primary hues, it’s difficult to match “reality” (which is an effective way to bust me out of my usual self-imposed color box), but I love the shimmering quality of light in the trees where yellow predominates. I wouldn’t use the triad for everything, but now that I understand how to use it, those pencils have become part of my regular palette. And I’ve made a mental note for next winter’s minimalism challenge: This triad would be an ideal limited palette.

Prismacolor primary triad and matching Caran d'Ache pencils