New Year, New Palette

 

My wacky Museum Aquarelle palette (swatches made in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook)

I decided to put my pencils where my mouth is.

At the end of my review of the Caran d’Ache + Germanier Colour set, I muttered about how intriguing it might be if I chose my own eccentric palette inspired by Germanier’s principles – and used it for urban sketching. As far as I could see, his palette (as reflected by the Caran d’Ache set) shows total disregard for conventional primary or secondary triads, complements, temperature or any other color theory pattern – yet it makes total sense when used to represent values (in his own idiosyncratic way).

Although I could simply use the Germanier set with all those wacky combos of neons and metallics, I thought it might be a little less jarring to come up with my own set. First I pulled all my usual watercolor pencils (mostly Cd’A Museum Aquarelle and a few Derwent Inktense pencils) out of my daily-carry kit. Then I looked through my Museum Aquarelles and picked out five that made no “sense” in the way I usually select my palette but that I thought could work together to represent at least three tonal values (top of post).

The first time I used them was last week at the USk Seattle outing when I found myself facing a very boring view across the street from the café where I sipped a latte. Actually, the view of nothingness was an ideal opportunity to disregard subject matter and focus on values. Right off the bat, I saw that Lemon Yellow (240) and Spring Green (470) were too close in both hue and value to use together in this experiment, so I went home and swapped out the yellow for Russet (065). Overall, I hope the selection is wacky enough for this experiment (and by “wacky,” I mean choices I would not otherwise make for urban sketching, which would therefore help me apply colors the way Germanier does).

Image shows sketch before I finished activating the background colors.

Detail of fully activated sketch

One surprise was the blend of Beryl Green (214) and Purplish Red (350) in the background window behind the tree after activation. Those are two colors I would not have thought to put together for any reason, but I did because they were the darkest values in my limited palette. What a gorgeous, complex mix (at left)!

We’ll see what else this palette teaches me. If nothing else, it may wake me up during the most colorless time of year.

Just for kicks, I selected an equally wacky palette in Cd’A Neocolor II crayons (below). They are not daily-carries, so I’m less likely to use them. But the Neo II color range is so much wider than Museum Aquarelle’s that it was fun just to pick out the colors.

Wacky Neocolor II palette (swatches made in S&B Beta sketchbook)

Incidentally, when I pulled out all my usual watercolor pencils, one of the biggest quality differences between Caran d’Ache and Derwent became visually apparent (below). All of them were equally newish when I put them in my daily-carry bag last spring or summer. After banging around in my bag all those months, the Museum Aquarelles (at left) show almost no wear, while the Derwents are chipped and worn on the barrels and especially the end caps (one has almost completely chipped off). 

In addition, I have dropped both Museum Aquarelle and Inktense pencils on the pavement from standing height, and in many cases the Inktense tips have chipped or broken completely – but not the MAs. That’s not going to keep me from using Derwent pencils, of course, but it does help to answer the question that’s often asked about the high price of Caran d’Ache pencils: Are they worth it?

Left: Cd'A Museum Aqurelles; right: Derwent Inktense, after several months of daily-carry