Color Spotlight: E33

Today is the last day to add a comment to Tuesday's post. Tonight at midnight I'll tally up the winner and post next week what the favorite paper/ink combos are.

Finally, I'm starting my Color Spotlight feature. Every week or so I'll showcase a different color and give ideas of color combos that will work with it. Please note: When I mention a color combo whatever color I put first is the color I put down as my base color, then I blend in the second color. So E33 + G85, the G85 was layered over the E33.


E33, Sand
Story behind E33: This was among the first colors Japan created over 20 years ago. This is a good, multipurpose middle/light warm brown, and one of our best-selling browns (that's not a skin color).
Available in these styles: Copic, Sketch, Ciao, Wide
Natural Blend family:
E30, E31, E33, E34, E35, E37, E39
Simple Blend:
Highlight E31 Midtone E33 Shadow E35
Similar colors, other families:
B34, BG32, RV32, Y32, R32, W3
Marianne’s Unusual Combos:
E33 + G85, E33+ V06, y23 + E33

Advanced Color Rules for E33*:
Complimentary: E33/B02
Triad (simple 3 color combo): E33, G24, V15
Tetrad (simple 4 color combo): E33, YG03, B02, FRV1
Pentagram (simple 5 color combo):
E33, FY1, G03, V17, RV17
High Contrast: E33, E39, E77, G29, BG18
Compound: E33, E29, BV04, FV2, B79

*Advanced color rules are generated by Adobe Illustrator CS3 based on the digital representation of the Copic Color Spectrum set into a special color wheel. I generate these as suggestions for color combos to try when you are looking for a nice change, or you have a paper that matches this particular color and you want help picking other unusual colors to go with it.

The project I made for E33: Low Tide on the Oregon Coast

Sometimes I get tired of coloring other people's beautiful stamps, so here's a pic I drew to feature E33. I have always loved the coast, and it's hard for me to forget my Marine Biology teacher when I think of sand, so we get a vibrant low-tide drawing today. To show you how you can incorporate the swatches for E33, I tried to use mostly colors or color families found in the above rules, plus a couple extra that it's hard to live without, like the colorless blender and B000 :). These colors make the picture a bit brighter than a real beach scene, but that's OK. BTW, I compared the color E33 to sand from my son's sandbox. A more accurate sand color would be E43 with a little W3 layered over it to tone it down.

Water: B000, B02, BG10, BG13, BG18

Sand: E31, E33, E35, E37, C7 Sky: BG10

Rocks: E31, C3, C5 Mountains: E31, C3, BG18

Sea Stars & Urchins: RV17, V15, V17, YR61, YR65, E33

Seaweed: G24, G29 Mussels: C3, C5, C7

Anemones: YG03, YR61, V15

I used the colorless blender on almost everything