Summer Palette Refresh, Triad 1

6/13/22 Green Lake neighborhood (new primary triad 1)

A recent sketch at Green Lake made me realize that I’m tired of the reliable colored pencil palette I’ve been using for years. I also realized that I lean too much on “normal” greens and neutrals for the typical urban landscape that I find myself sketching 99 percent of the time. By “normal,” I mean too realistic. Whenever I experiment with a primary or secondary triad, I’m usually pleased with the vibrancy, but unless I push myself that way, I just fall back into my lazy realism. And yet, seemingly paradoxically, I also recently surprised myself when I acknowledged that using a primary triad actually requires less thinking than using “realistic” colors! All of this led me to the same conclusion: I’m long overdue for a palette refresh.

I decided that the easiest way to give myself a swift kick in the palette pants is to keep the palette limited and try some new primary triads. I love the CMYK-based triad I’ve been using for a while (Caran d’Ache Phthalocyanine Blue [162], Lemon Yellow [240] and Purplish Red [350], shown at bottom of post and which I last used in the sketch in yesterday’s post), but it’s on the cool side. Since summer is just a few days away (though you’d never know it from our thermometer), I went through my Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle palette and looked for colors to warm up the basic CMYK.

Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle primary triad 1

New triad -- a bit too cool?

I picked out two variations. The one I’m showing you today includes the same Purplish Red (350), but I’ve swapped in a warmer Yellow (10) balanced by a cooler Permanent Blue (670). My first sketch with this trio, made near Green Lake, makes me think it may be cooler than I want, but I’ll try it a few more times.

Tomorrow I’ll show you the second primary triad I’m trying. It didn’t make sense to carry two primary triads when I’m trying to simplify and limit my palette, so I’m keeping one triad in my everyday-carry bag and the second in my tiny walking bag (which has no other colors except “heavy equipment yellow”). I haven’t jettisoned my “realistic” palette from the everyday-carry bag, but if I find myself getting lazy and using convenience greens and neutrals again, I might have to take stricter measures. But if the triad excites me, it will be incentive enough to keep using it! 

By the way, I had to chuckle at the conversation I overheard as I was sketching at Green Lake. A small party that had been dining outdoors nearby walked past me. “Is it always this cold here?” the visitor asked. “Oh, no – we usually get summer by July or August,” her friend reassured her.

My previous CMYK-based primary triad

Squared Crown Hill Trees (and Triad 3)

 

6/20/22 Crown Hill neighborhood

Eighth Avenue Northwest in Crown Hill is one of my favorite streets to sketch. A center divide between the two directions of traffic is lined with dense Zelkova trees. I thought that they had been trimmed in a weird, squared-off way to accommodate large trucks and buses, but a friend told me that the trimming has happened naturally as vehicles have hit the lower branches! I tend to sketch there in the fall to catch the color. Here’s a sketch I made in November when the backlighting was lovely. Several years earlier, there was more color by November, and another year the color was just starting in October.

On the day before the solstice, an overcast morning appointment brought me to Ballard, so I drove home by way of Eighth Northwest to see what the trees would be like to sketch in June. Lighting conditions weren’t the best that day, but I liked how each tree showed a fringe of soft light. It was a good test for primary triad 3.

After a few sketches, I had decided that primary triad 2, although slightly warmer than triad 1, was not doing it for me. I’ve swapped out the Caran d’Ache Turquoise Blue (171) for Caran d’Ache Ice Blue (185), which sounds cooler, but it’s closer to the Phthalocyanine Blue (162) that I was using in my original CMYK-based triad. Purplish Red (350) and Yellow (10) remain the same.

Primary triad 3

My choice may sound reasoned, but it’s probably more random than reasoned. I simply pulled out several blues I thought would work, made triad swatches, and picked the combo I liked best. It’s always interesting to make swatches because mixed triad hues never quite look the way I expect them to, which is part of the fun and excitement of using them. But the proof is always in the sketches – not the swatches. The hues in the sketch above might be cooler than I had intended, but ironically, it seems about right for our cooler-than-average June.

Traditionally, primary triads are made by mixing warms with warms or cools with cools. By mixing warms with cools, undesirable mud can sometimes result. That’s the basic concept, anyway, that I learned in a beginning watercolor class during my first year or two of sketching. Color mixing is more complex than that, however, and when I first learned about the primary triad based on CMYK hues, my head exploded: The three hues I think of as primaries are not necessarily red, yellow and blue at all!

Triad 1 is still in the running, but I haven’t used it often enough to decide whether it’s “right.” Ultimately, whether a triad is “right” is just a feeling and not a formula.

Trees on Location: Exploring a New Primary Triad

 

6/15/21 Japanese maples, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Nearly a year ago, I was excited to learn about a different way of looking at primary triads from Amy Lindenberger’s book on color. Instead of the traditional pigment-based color wheel and primary triad that painters use, Lindenberger uses hues that would look more familiar to printing press operators: magenta, yellow and cyan. In Prismacolor pencil terms, the three primaries are Process Red (994), Canary Yellow (916) and True Blue (903). Understanding this triad really opened my eyes to a new way of looking at color mixing that makes more sense for a glazing medium like colored pencils in which layers of transparent hues are optically mixed. Unfortunately, I didn’t explore it much further beyond studying the book.

Kathleen Moore, instructor of the colored pencil class I just finished at Gage Academy, also uses the Process Red, Canary Yellow and True Blue triad, which she discussed several times during the course. (In fact, she says this triad makes sense even for traditional paint media, and she uses it with watercolors and oils, too.) For field sketching, she brings only the triad plus Black Grape (996) and/or Sepia (948) for the darkest value. For our final lesson, she demo’d using nothing but that limited palette to draw trees on location while camping at Kalaloch. The assignment was to do the same: Draw a tree from life using only that limited palette. Finally, I would have the opportunity to explore the possibilities of this triad – and in the field!

For my first attempt, I walked a few blocks from home to where I have seen a row of Japanese maples (the variety that stays dark red all year; above). Because their foliage is dense, it seems easier to see the shapes of the leafy branches and the dark, shadowy areas underneath. That was my theory, anyway. Depicting the deep red of these maples was difficult with this triad, but it helped to have both Black Grape and Sepia to make the shadows as dark as possible. (I can’t explain the presence of the cone; perhaps it came along with the excavator across the street.)

My second attempt was also just a couple of blocks away (below). Although I could have applied more blue to make the tree more green instead of yellow, I liked the stark complementary contrast with the Black Grape shadows. (Yes, the class is in drawing nature, not urban sketching, but most of the nature I see must coexist with humans and their need for utilities, so it’s an urban sketch after all.)

6/16/21 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Since I’m much more accustomed to the speediness of watercolor pencils on location, I thought the Prismacolors would take longer, but each of these sketches didn’t take much longer than usual. The additional time probably went more toward thinking and planning values and composition in ways that we have been studying in Kathleen’s class. I thoroughly enjoyed the last lesson, as it was the most applicable to urban sketching, and the primary triad has got me thinking. . .

I have pulled out colors from my water-soluble pencils as close as I could find to the Prismacolor triad. Looking forward to giving them a try on location!

Ramping Up Color Temperature (Plus Thoughts on Colored Pencils)

 

3/1/25 Rainbow of hues without crossing the color wheel
(all exercises done with Prismacolors in Stillman & Birn
Zeta sketchbook; same Earthsworld reference photo for all)

Week 4’s assignments in Sarah Bixler’s class extended the palette to primary triads and a full rainbow. For the rainbow exercise, we were instructed to avoid blending “across the color wheel” (to create neutrals) and instead maintain fully saturated hues as much as possible, blending only analogously. The result would enable us to demonstrate our understanding of color temperature without neutrals muddying things up. Although the resulting portrait is wacky looking (at left), it certainly was effective in forcing me not to fudge!

For the other two portraits, we were to use a traditional painter’s primary triad and what Sarah calls a printer’s primary triad (what I refer to as CYMK). These were much easier for me because of all the primary triads I had played with a few years ago (and still find fascinating to explore).

3/2/25 printer's primary triad (CYMK)

On one of them, we could add a warm neutral and a cool neutral to help with values if needed (below). I thought the latter additions would be helpful, but in practice, I regretting losing the clarity of the triad hues.

3/3/25 painter's traditional primary triad with addition of indigo and
burnt sienna as cool/warm neutrals

Why use colored pencils?

During a class discussion, one student, a painter, asked sort of a devil’s advocate question: Why use colored pencils instead of paint? Sarah’s response was especially interesting to me as both a colored pencil geek and an urban sketcher: Initially she had started using colored pencils because she was looking for a portable medium that she could use when she was out biking or hiking and wanted to stop for a quick plein air study.

The more she used them, however, the more she realized that colored pencils had unique properties that paint did not. With paints, she can mix any color she wants, but the more she mixes, the less her original chosen palette is apparent. Colored pencils make it easier for her to see how each color addition affects how she perceives the other hues. Because transparent pencils mix optically and can’t blend completely as paint can, they won’t lose their original color identity.

She also finds that because the earlier marks cannot be completely obscured by later layers, she has more opportunity to push toward abstraction. “A nice wonky abstraction is possible,” Sarah said. She enjoys the clear, directional marks that pencils make.

Her comments validated many thoughts I’ve had myself but haven’t always articulated about why colored pencils are a unique, compelling medium.

Confounding Ornamental Plums (Primary Triad 4)

 

6/29/22 Green Lake (primary triad 4)

During the first pandemic summer, I became fixated for a short time on finding the right pencil color to sketch the many ornamental plum trees nearby. Their dark red foliage looks downright black in the shadows, yet leaves directly reflecting light are silverish. Several reddish-purple or dark magenta colors could work when dry, but activated, the diluted hue might be pinkish, and the trees look like they are in blossom. It’s a confounding color. I eventually settled on Caran d’Ache Dark Plum (106) as the best color with gray in the shadow areas and leaving the paper’s tooth to create the silvery sparkle. This post shows a sketch that is the best example of my experiments.

Searching for a single pencil hue is the paint-straight-from-the-tube solution. Now that I’m experimenting with primary triads, I gave myself a new challenge: How to capture the foliage hue using only a triad. Caran d’Ache Purplish Red (350) is the pencil I’ve been using consistently as the “red” in my triads because it’s the closest Cd’A color I can find to Prismacolor Process Red (based on the CMYK model). Close enough to the foliage, it’s a good start, though it needs to be cooled. The harder one to mix in is the blue.

In primary triad 4, I’m using Caran d’Ache Yellow (10), Purplish Red (350) and Middle Cobalt Blue (660). The latter, which I routinely use for Seattle skies, is cooler than Phthalocyanine (the Cd’A hue closest to cyan or Prismacolor True Blue), and it’s also much less intense than other blues I’ve tried in triads. With the goal of warming up my summer palette, I didn’t think it would work, but I gave it a good shot anyway.

In the sketch above, a plum tree stood in the shade next to a utility building at Green Lake. Some other foliage and the lake itself were in the light. I think I didn’t use enough blue in the red/blue ratio, so the tree resulted in a somewhat garish purple. It’s not bad, but it’s not what I was going for. (This sketch also includes a peek of the lake itself, which I rarely seem to sketch, despite how much time I spend at Green Lake.)

In the second sketch below, also in the Green Lake neighborhood, the plum tree was mostly top-lit by mid-morning. I used more blue in the ratio this time, and I even added a bit of yellow to the base of the tree to dull it down and evoke the shaded bottom. I think that mix is closer to the ornamental plum I’m looking for. I’m not sure I like the cool green that results from this triad, though. I have one more triad up my sleeve.

7/1/22 Green Lake neighborhood (triad 4)

Messing Around With Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape Blocks

Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape water-soluble blocks

In my “messing around” series, I use a product new to me that I know little about and then show the evidence of my mess accompanied by a few uninformed opinions. I don’t consider this a product review.

When I started last month’s series of “messing around” posts, my preamble explained that although these products that had recently crossed my radar were all watercolor-resembling products (either in their form factor or in their results), they were not technically watercolors. This final installment (for now – obviously not forever, knowing me) is a product that resembles traditional watercolors the least. It’s also not new to me; in fact, I’ve had it for years but never got around to even dabbling with it until now.

I think I first learned about Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape water-soluble blocks when I was in Porto, Portugal, for the 2018 Urban Sketchers Symposium. I was going to say I may have received some in my goodie bag, but I looked back at that post and don’t see them in the photo, so I must have bought a few colors at the symposium trade show.

I do remember distinctly how I received several more: Sometime during the interminable, early-pandemic doldrums, a member of the pencil community who works at Viarco found out that I was a big fan of the company’s ArtGraf water-soluble graphite pencil. We had chatted about pencils and Porto (the factory is a short distance away, and to this day, I kick myself for missing an opportunity to tour it when I was there). Later he surprised me with a gift of several colors (as well as various other forms of the company’s ArtGraf products). Touched by his generosity, I really wanted to use them, but since I had been away from watercolors for many years, I just wasn’t sure how to get into them. The ArtGraf Tailor Shape blocks sadly languished in my studio – until this month.

In addition to not looking anything like traditional watercolor pan paints, they also don’t look like the bars or blocks we’ve seen in other products like Derwent’s Graphitint or Inktense. I refer to them as “blocks” for lack of a noun in its official product name, which seems to be “ArtGraf Tailor Shape” in reference to old-school tailor’s chalk.

I received or purchased most colors open stock, but I bought the trays so that they could be stored and used like sets. The shiny one at upper left is graphite. Who knows what the others are?

This lack of clear identity is stumping many reviewers. As I searched YouTube to see what others were doing with them, the titles of reviews often seemed to ponder what the heck these “tailor shape” things are – pigment-based like watercolor? Dye-based like Inktense? Graphite-based? Chalk-based?

I admit, I did my share of pondering, but ultimately, I decided it’s best to do what I eventually did while messing around with Inktense Blocks: Stop trying to figure out what other products they resemble and just figure out what Tailor Shapes do best. And what they do best is explode with amazingly rich colors!

11/23/23 ArtGraf Tailor Shape blocks in Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook

The colors I had originally acquired individually included the traditional primary triad and several earth tones. Although the blue is close to cyan, I wasn’t too fond of the mixes I was getting with the triad (above and below). Once I saw what the material could do, I purchased all the remaining colors (except white). Blick and Amazon both carry most colors, but I ordered directly from Viarco because I also wanted the empty cork trays to store and use the blocks in. (Plus it was just fun to order from Portugal and say hi to my friend in the order note!) In addition to open-stock singles, the blocks can also be purchased in various sets of earth tones, primaries and monochrome.

Swatches in Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook. Red, yellow and blue were used in the primary triad.

Primary triad using magenta instead of red 

One of the new colors I got is magenta (mixes shown at left), which makes a much better primary triad, as I suspected it would.

Like Inktense Blocks (oops, I said I wouldn’t compare – oh, well), they are opaque and dry with a matte finish similar to gouache. Also like Inktense Blocks, the wet-in-wet sky I tried looks streaky and flat. Whatever ArtGraf is made of does not flow well like watercolors, even on Hahnemühle paper.

Although the basic primary + green palette can be mixed into decent secondaries and grays, I think where the ArtGraf blocks really shine are in the earthtones. Using a block as if it were a watercolor paint pan, I first tried the monochrome rabbit (below) to get a feel for varying values of the dark brown. This brought to mind the effects I got with the Derwent Tinted Charcoal and Inktense Pan Paints, both of which are quite tolerant of overworking without appearing overworked. Perhaps it’s a paradox: Although none of these products flows well the way watercolors do, that lack of flow gives me more time to poke around clumsily without ruining the results as much. Score!

10/23/23 Dark brown in Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook (photo reference)

For the two portraits, I used a variety of techniques: applied with a brush like traditional pan paints; applied dry over wet paper; applied dry to dry paper and then activated like water-soluble pencils. In some parts of the hair in both portraits, I left the material dry. I’m impressed by the deep hues I achieved without much effort.

11/23/23 I used a mix of sanguine, dark brown and sepia for both portraits to get these beautifully rich skin tones. (Earthsworld reference photos)

The Tailor Shape blocks have two drawbacks, especially for urban sketching: They are not at all portable, especially if they are kept in the large cork trays (which have no lid other than the flimsy plastic packaging). If I want to use these on location, I’d have to break off small pieces (which wouldn’t be difficult, since several arrived broken anyway). They are also messy on the hands. With a slightly oily texture (like graphite), they leave a residue almost immediately, which gets worse as they warm in one’s hand. Yuck.

All of this is sounding quite a bit like a review, isn’t it? I still feel I haven’t used them enough to legitimately review them, but I like them enough to keep using them, so a review might eventually happen. For now, I’ll just say that ArtGraf Tailor Shape blocks are a unique product with exciting potential (that I’ll likely be confined to my desk to explore, which won’t be a problem during the miserable-weather months ahead). 

Summer Palette Refresh, Triad 2

 

6/14/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood (new primary triad 2)

Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle primary triad 2

Yesterday I showed one of two primary triads I am trying out for summer. Here’s the second one. The only difference between this one and yesterday’s is the blue, which is a warmer Caran d’Ache Turquoise Blue (171).

The sketch above posed several interesting color challenges. First, I am still getting to know this triad, which is noticeably warmer than the other one I’m trying (and much warmer than my favorite CMYK triad). Second, the day was overcast again, and from the angle I chose, the subdued light  illuminated both sides of the house nearly equally with very little difference in value in the roof angles. Finally, the two yellow caution diamonds were also nearly equally illuminated, but I wanted to show one at a right angle to the other.

As I pondered the roof, I suddenly remembered color temperature! I haven’t been focusing on color temperature since I started the composition challenge, but things I learned from Sarah Bixler’s workshops and Ian Roberts’ videos popped into my head: If I make a hue warmer, it appears closer to the light, even if the value differences are slight. With colored pencils, it’s easy enough to add a bit more yellow to warm up the slightly more illuminated side.

Much warmer primary triad 2

As for the two caution diamonds, I applied the same principle, but probably went overboard. I made one diamond cooler and therefore slightly less illuminated, but it got darker than I had intended.  

One additional challenge was the ultra-tiny spritzer that I keep in my small walking bag (it’s the perfume atomizer shown in this post). It’s much harder to target the water output compared to my favorite spritzer (also shown in that post), but I like its small size, so I tolerate it. I over-spritzed the page in a couple of places, and I also had to use a thumb or a hand as a mask to keep from over-spraying areas that I wanted to keep dry. But as all watercolor painters know, it’s best to embrace the out-of-controlness of water media instead of trying to manage it!

Rare bird observed in the wild! (Photo by Mariah)

As I was happily sketching, a woman walking by was surprised to realize what I was doing. She was familiar with plein air painting (“with the easel and palette and all that”), but urban sketching was new to her. She was so delighted that she asked to take my photo (and I asked her to take one with my phone, too). I know so many urban sketchers that I always feel like we are everywhere all the time, but I guess we are still a rare bird that average pedestrians are surprised to encounter in the wild.

Secondary Triad Season Has Begun

 

9/12/22 Secondary triad season is just getting started!

Bittersweet but without regrets, I’ve let summer go. I’m ready to embrace the coming fall in my favorite way: with secondary triads! Last spring when I was trying to wrap my head around color temperature, a secondary palette was helpful, but autumn is the best time of year to focus on orange, green and purple.

My chakras were mostly balanced, but this
palette otherwise didn't do much for me.

Before I get to my new palette, though, I want to close off the chakra palette I’d been using the past few weeks. It was fun using colors chosen for their spiritual associations rather than by esthetics or color wheel formulas, but ultimately, the palette didn’t hang together for me. As a seven-color rainbow, it seems like it should have been basic, and yet somehow it lacked coherence. Maybe it was just that I was conscious of trying to use as many of the seven colors as possible in each sketch (to balance my chakras). Interestingly, that part wasn’t as hard to achieve as I had expected. I thought purple might be difficult to work into urban sketches, but it reminded me that it’s an excellent shadow hue, which gave me more confidence about my secondary triad plans for fall. Although the chakra palette wasn’t a keeper, I’m glad I gave it a shot. And now – onward to my secondary triad palette.

To choose the specific pencils, I used the traditional “split” formula that painters use to create primary palettes: one warm and one cool of each of the three secondary hues. From my Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles, I auditioned the likely candidates. Good purples and violets are the hardest to find (since all colors in the Museum Aquarelle collection are supposed to be lightfast, notoriously fugitive purples must be difficult to formulate). For a wider range, I brought in a couple of Cd’A Supracolors, including the Violet (120) that I had just used in my chakra palette. Shown below are the trials:

These are the Caran d'Ache colors I auditioned for my secondary palette. Most are Museum Aquarelles; a few are Supracolors.

Initially I selected the six Museum Aquarelles in the triadic mixes shown at the bottom. But MA Periwinkle Blue (131) lacked intensity for the way I like to use purples as dark shadows. I decided to swap out MA Periwinkle Blue for Supracolor Violet (120) as the warm violet. But what am I using for the cool violet? It’s Museum Aquarelle Violet (120)! Whaaat?! I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but these two Caran d’Ache violets (at left) with the same number are several shades apart! I can only assume that the brighter Supracolor 120 has fugitive properties that had to be changed in the Museum Aquarelle version. But why give them the same number when they are so different? (Notice also that Periwinkle Blue 131 is the name and number given to two different hues in the Supracolor and Museum Aquarelle lines, though the difference isn’t quite as dramatic as with 120.) My final palette is shown below:

My final palette

Cool and warm mixes

In the traditional split primary triad scheme, the theory is that if you mix warms only with warms and cools only with cools, you avoid mud. Should I stick with that theory with my split secondary scheme? Or does it even apply? With secondaries, I am always dancing dangerously close to the edge of mud, even if I keep to the warms-only or cools-only theory, so it probably doesn’t matter much. The greater risk might be in using too many pencils, even if they’re all secondaries, and spoiling the cohesiveness of a nicely limited triad.  

All 6 colors used... maybe too many.

In the sketch at the top of the page, I did just that – used all six of my selected split secondary colors, especially in the trees. The result isn’t bad, so maybe I got away with it (this time).

In the sketch below, I used only the cool triad, and I think it looks more cohesive. I like the way the purple and green came together on the shaded side of the house – an interesting cool neutral. The only spots where I used all three hues are the foreground stones and the little Japanese maple in full shade next to the door. Muddy? Maybe – but in a good way. (I guess you have to like near-muddy neutrals to use a secondary triad palette at all.)

Here’s to a secondary autumn!

Incidentally, James Gurney has a great video demo in which he paints on location using a secondary triad palette – but he’s thinking in terms of a primary triad. Whaaat?! Another brain blowout for Tina! (While making the video, a spontaneous conversation occurs between Gurney and a man who used to live in the old house that Gurney is painting. He could have edited out the dialog, but he didn’t. Gurney is an urban sketcher after my own heart.)

9/13/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Only the cool secondaries used

The Secondary Triad

4/20/17 water-soluble colored pencils (photo reference)

This week’s lessons in my colored-pencil class are depicting distance and using the secondary triad. I’m not too pleased with my result in terms of showing distance, and I wasn’t at all inspired by my photo reference of a marshy field – something I would probably never choose as subject matter on my own. On the other hand, I love the secondary triad palette I used and the process for mixing those hues!

During most of the previous lessons, we’ve used a primary triad palette (red, yellow, blue) with a warm and a cool of each hue – a classic paint-mixing structure. When I used watercolors, my tiny paint box allowed only eight half pans, so I generally carried some variation of a primary triad with a couple of secondary or other “convenience” colors. I’ve also experimented with colored pencil primary triads on my own, so I’ve gotten used to mixing primaries.

This week when Suzanne introduced the concept of using a secondary triad, I was very excited! Orange, green and violet is my favorite color combination for almost everything (someday I might show you my dishware, towels and downstairs bathroom), and I’m always attracted to it when I see it in the work of others. (One of my favorite urban sketchers who uses the secondary palette beautifully is Richard Sheppard.) But I’ve never consciously used it as a painting palette myself. It was high time for me to use it with pencils!

 

The secondary triad palette I used for the exercise above.

While picking out warms and cools of the primaries is easy, it took a little more thinking to choose the secondaries, mainly because I don’t do it often. Finding the right purples and greens was relatively straightforward, but the oranges were more challenging – it’s strange to think of any orange as being cool. With Suzanne’s help, and keeping in mind the marshy subject matter of the photo reference, I chose a dark reddish orange for the cool and a yellower one for the warm.

Mixing the cool green and cool violet for the darkest shadows was fun and surprisingly rich (instead of garish, which I feared).

My uninspiring photo reference.

I’m going to be using this palette again . . . in fact, I think it will be ideal for Italy next month! 

Updated 4/27/17: Here are the specific colors in the secondary triad above:

Caran d'Ache Supracolor - Russet (065)
Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer - Terracotta (186)
Caran d'Ache Museum - 245
Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer - Deep Cobalt Green (158)
Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer - Delft Blue (141)
Caran d'Ache Supracolor - Purple Violet (100)

Backyard Redux: Durer Primary Triad

 

7/4/21 Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer pencils in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

When I wrote about looking for a CMYK-based primary triad in the Faber-Castell palette and showed a sketch made with Polychromos, two readers requested seeing the Albrecht Durer triad. My first thought was that the triads would be the same – oil-based Polychromos and water-soluble Durer palettes are designed to be identical, and most hues do match closely – so what would be the point? But of course, the colored pencil geek was tickled to oblige.

Cadmium Yellow (107), Middle Purple Pink (125) and Phthalo Blue (110)

Rather than simply pulling out the same colors I’d found in Polychromos, I started from scratch and examined the Durer palette with fresh eyes. Cadmium Yellow (107) and Phthalo Blue (110) still both seemed to match the model Prismacolor triad (Process Red, Canary Yellow and True Blue) most closely, but this time I chose Middle Purple Pink (125) for the Process Red hue. Middle Purple Pink was an alternate I had considered when I was picking out the Polychromos triad, but I ended up choosing Fuchsia that time. It would be interesting to see how the different “red” would change the triad. For the darkest shadows, I used Dark Indigo (157).

Unlike the sweltering day that I had made my Polychromos tomato, it was a lovely 73 degrees with a breeze on the back deck when I sketched the backyard again. With harder Durer pencils, it took me a bit longer to build up enough layers of color, but as far as the triad goes, I think the three hues worked together well. In fact, I think the cooler Middle Purple Pink is a better choice than Fuchsia as a primary “red.”

Below I show an image of the sketch before spritzing. Somehow the drama of the spritzing moment didn’t seem as high with Durers as it does with Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles; the higher the pigment content, the greater the change when activated with water. Luckily for me, the spouse guy was in the kitchen just as I was about to do the magic, so I was able to ask him to capture the moment on video. (It’s a three-handed job, and when I’m out urban sketching, I usually have only two. Using my back-deck studio does have benefits.) To view the video, please see my Instagram post.

(Another benefit of my back-deck studio is being entertained by many birds. Among the ones I saw and/or heard as I sketched were grackles, hummingbirds, spotted towhees, juncos, flickers, finches, chickadees, Steller’s jays and crows. Ahhh, summer. . . no matter how long it lasts, it won’t seem long enough.)

The pre-spritz sketch

Sunny Palms

 

8/22/22 Green Lake neighborhood

During the first pandemic summer when I really got to know my neighborhood better, I decided to sketch as many palm trees as I could find within walking distance. (Despite their tropical look, the Chinese pinwheel palms growing around here are native and don’t mind cold and rain.) Here’s one and here’s another one. Recently sketching the one across the street made me realize that it had been a while since I sketched a palm.

On my way home from Green Lake a few days ago, I remembered a couple of palms growing side by side. Two years ago (below), the farther tree’s fronds looked a bit scrawny, but as you can see from my sketch above, they have filled out.

6/18/20 My "realistic" palette

Color and process notes: Compared to the one two years ago, I spent much less time on this sketch – it’s smaller, and I didn’t pay as much attention to surrounding foliage or the houses. The colors, though, seem more vibrant in my current sketch because I used my summer primary triad instead of my former “realistic” palette.

It has been more than two months since I decided I was tired of my usual palette and needed to shake things up. Except for the brief diversion prompted by the Beya Rebaï palette, I’ve been mostly using variations of a CMYK-based primary triad all summer. Although occasionally the triad seems to need something (and I don’t always know what the something is), for the most part, it has convinced me that I have no need to go back to my old palette. I just need to figure out what kind of help the triad might need, add to it, and jettison the rest.

Every now and then, I fall back on my conventional palette because those colors are still in my bag like a security blanket. But I’m ready to take them out. If I didn’t have them with me, I wouldn’t fall back on them! Stay tuned for another palette shakeup (or maybe I should call it a bag shakeout!).

Of course, I’m also thinking about exploring secondary triads again this fall, which always seems like the best time of year for rich purples and oranges. Maybe all I need is the right primary triad plus a good purple (always the most difficult to mix from primaries). Or maybe I could follow up on an idea prompted by my yoga instructor . . .