North Seattle College (and New Primary Triad)

 

5/18/23 North Seattle College

Although North Seattle College is less than 6,000 steps from home, I rarely go in that direction on my walking-sketch outings. If the campus interested me visually, I would, but the mostly bland, boxy buildings don’t excite me much.

Still, I found myself walking in that direction on a comfortably cool morning last week, which gave me an opportunity to try out a new primary triad. Last summer when I experimented with various Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle triads, mostly with a CYMK focus, I found that Lemon Yellow (240) and Purplish Red (350) mixed well, but I exhausted all the blue options in the Cd’A palette that played well with them. Now that I’m feeling friendlier toward Derwent Inktense, I auditioned several blues to see which would mix well with the Museum duo. Warmish blues that don’t lean too heavily in the green direction seem to work better with Lemon and Purplish Red, so as a first try, I’m using Dark Cerulean (1010), one of the new Inktense colors. In its dry state, it looks cool, but warmer hints come out when washed. I like the way it mixes with yellow for late spring foliage. I’ll probably try some of the other blues over the course of the summer, which I find the ideal time to use warm primary triads.

Derwent Inktense blues I auditioned to mix with Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle Lemon and Purplish Red for a primary triad.

While testing Inktense for my review, I wanted to use them exclusively, so I removed all Caran d’Ache pencils from my bag. Shockingly, this was my first *syncretistic sketch in years! (I don’t count the occasions when I brought in single colors from different brands for specific purposes, like the pink Prismacolor watercolor pencil I used one year for cherry blossoms.) Will Derwent and Caran d’Ache coexist peacefully? We’ll see.

*Syncretism: The amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought; the belief in a fusion of faiths in harmony. (Google helped me find the term I wanted.)