Greens for my Swatch book

I've been working hard this weekend on many projects. One ongoing project that each of you should work on is your Color Swatch Book. As I was gathering my supplies for my next round of Certification classes on the East Coast I realized that my swatch book didn't have many green examples, nor did I have examples of some different types of paper. So I added some pages and I figured you would like to see them this week

By the way, Mystic, CT • Buffalo, NY • Toronto, Ont are all open to the public. If you wish to register send me an e-mail for the application. And, you can now follow me on twitter.

Swatch Book Color Ranges
With hundreds of colors available you really have a lot of swatches to try to find combinations that work for you (click here for a downloadable color wheel and blank chart). Swatch books will reflect the personality of the owner. You'll probably make more pages in your favorite colors and the more you work with your favorite colors the more you'll find combinations using your favorite colors. If you find yourself always reaching for the same 15 colors out of your collection of 50 then you should branch out. Throw in a color you don't use very often to mix it up a bit. Sometimes the results will startle you.

Look through your swatch book every now ant then and see where the color combos are lacking. My color book had mostly blues and browns, because people asked a lot of questions about blues and browns. Also, there are LOTS of shades of blues and browns and it's hard to remember what I've tried.

Here is a partially done example page. If you look at the blossoms (I think they're hydrangeas but I can't remember which flower I was drawing at the time) you'll see that I'm also looking at the V000, V01, V04, V05, V06, V09 Natural Blending Family. Each blossom is very different, yet they're all within the same color group. This is why you need swatches.

If I remember from math correctly, for 322 colors, if you are just blending 2 different colors each time then you'll have a possible 103,362 options. (formula: n(n-1). ) If you throw in a 3 color blend, then you have over 33 million combinations! (formula: n(n-1(n-2)). ) That's not factoring in different ink types, paper types, and all the other little things that go into your artwork. So don't feel like you have to write down every color/ink/paper combo out there, just the ones that you find useful.

Greens
I needed to document the basic green family, so I started from the beginning, with G00. I know that Copic makes a G000, but it's too light for my scanner to pick up, so if you love that color don't feel that I'm leaving you out. Since I am trying to see color combos in Natural Blending groups for this page of greens I prepared it with blank spaces for color swatches on the side, then on the main image I mix up the colors on the side to see different combos and to get a feel for contrast.

Greens are actually pretty easy to find great looking combos. I hesitate to say that any two greens will look good together, but it's a safer bet that they will than guessing that any two pinks will work well with each other.

Since green is made of Yellow and Blue, you can add either of these and also find good green color combos. You can warm up your basic greens with Y, or YG. You can cool down your greens with BG or B. If you want to mute out your greens (turn them brown or gray) then throw in the opposite color, red.

You can see from one of the leaves on my example page I shadowed G85 with V99. Although those colors are totally different, I had used the purple in the blossom and I know that v99 is dark and that cool shadows have purple in them, so I knew that I could add a cool, deep shadow to my green leaf and it would work.

Also compare the greens from the G00 and G12 pages to the greens on the other two pages. Look at how much more vibrant colors from the 00's and 10's are. If youa re coloring leaves in the springtime then they will be more vibrant and warmer, like the 00's and 10's. If you are coloring something from the deep forest, an older plant, or something from late summer then you might want to reach for more muted greens like the G40, G80's or G90's.

When you jump from a base color of G02 to shadows of G99 you will start to see where some greens just don't quite work together. Why? Because G02 is a WARM, bright green. It has a lot more yellow in it. G99 is a COOL, dark green. When you add a warm and a cool it turns to gray/brown. the vibrancy of the G02 would get lost in the dull, muted G99. However, I might be able to get away with shadowing the G02 with a YG, or maybe adding a bit of warm gray, or... I think I have to test more colors first!

Contrast
I know I've discussed it before, but to make an image more eye-catching you need to add contrast. Look at each flower on this page. Which blossoms grab your attention first? Which seem more alive? You'll note that the blossoms which stand out and look most real are the ones with the largest color range.

Any element on these pages that has a color jump of more than 5 digits on the last number grabs your attention more than color combos that are only 2 or 3 digits off. Yet my darkest colors are not overwhelming the picture, rather, they are only for accenting the shadows. Do you see how all the little suggestions I've been giving you are starting to fit together?

The flower with V000, V04, V09 has wonderful richness to it. The blossom with BV00, BV04, and BV09 also really pops off the page. If you look back to my post a couple weeks ago on the basic Rules of Good Design you will see that this contrast is part of M,B and V from DUMB-V. Because of the high contrast this is a more dominant image and a good way of coloring if the flower is your most important element in the picture. Your eyes move to the high contrast areas first. By having a larger range of colors you add varienty to an otherwise flat image.

You really need to experiment on your own, and keep updating your swatch book regularly. I'll try to show you more examples as I work through my book, but remember, colors will look different on a computer than they will in real life. Paper: Prism Simply Smooth, Image: Whispy Blooms from Our Craft Lounge. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

FAQ- What colors should I start with?

It's time for more questions that people are always asking me, or things that I think will be useful to you before you ask me. This is probably the question I get asked MOST often. While I don't really mind answering it once in a while, you can see where 10 requests a day for the same thing can really bog me down because this is not a straight-forward question to answer.

Q. I'm just getting started with buying Copics, I know which style of marker I want, but what colors should I choose?

Easy Answer: I don't know, I'm not you.
Real Answer: I don't know, I'm not you, I don't know what you'll be coloring.

The actual color families you choose to start with depend on what you'll be coloring.

I know this sounds obvious, but everyone has different goals in mind when they start coloring. If you ask me what color to start with I can give you my opinion, but that won't be best for everyone.

Picking individual colors:
For whatever you color pick at least 2 colors in each color family that fall into Natural Blending Groups. Remember that vibrant colors are going to be in the 00's and 10's, while more earthy, muted colors are going to be in the 70's, 80's and 90's with the last digit being how light or dark within each little group. I know it's hard to start, but discuss it with friends, look at things online that you like the colors, find colors that match your favorite inks, and take the plunge with a couple colors. Remember, there are no BAD colors, just colors that are Less Useful to you.

So if you find yourself frequently coloring any of the below, you might want to start with some colors to match.

People: skin colors, hair colors
Plants: get two general greens, either bright and springy or muted and natural. browns for wood. Browns/pale warm grays for the ground
Blossoms: choose a color family (like RV or Y) and get two colors in that family
Bears, dogs, deer, etc. Again, two browns in a color family

You get the idea... Most times it helps if you have one picture you want to find colors for, then build your collection from there. Or, if you have a swatch of paper or an ink you like and you match your colors based on things like that.

Generally Useful Colors:
These are colors that almost everyone should have, since they are so versatile
Really pale blue (B000, BG10, or B21) for sky, water etc.
Really pale buttery yellow for rich, subtle sunny backgrounds & highlights (Y000 or Y21)
Pale Gray- C1 or C3 for cool shadows, W1 or W3 for more earthy, natural things

OR

Picking Sets:
If you are coloring a lot of different things and know that you'll need one of each color family you can start with one of MANY beginner sets out there. Just about everyone has their own assortments of colors that they like- some have been picked to match specific color palettes, this line of paper, that line of inks, others are picked to color one specific style of images. Most of these are built as 12 or 24 pc. sets, usually with one or two colors from each color family.

In general, pick colors about a shade lighter than you think you'll want them. It's easier to go darker, but it's harder to go back to white. I don't reach for dark colors as often as I do the pale colors.

Also, know that the Natural Blending families are just a guideline, not a LAW. You'll have beautiful leaves if you blend a light YG with a darker G, even though it breaks out of the Blending family. When you find these combos that work for you add them to your swatch book. If you look at the sidebar on Debbie Olson's blog you'll see some good suggestions, many of which do not follow Natural Blending groups.

If you feel that you need to follow the Natural Blending families, then you can pick a beginner set and build from there- i.e. If the set comes with G17 then eventually add a G14 and G12. If it starts with B00, then you'll want to add B02 and B05. Do you see how that works?

Many of the pre-built sets that we at Copic sell are intended for very specific audiences. We have Manga Wallets, Fashion Design sets, Papercrafting assortments, etc. Each set has colors picked for very different reasons. If you color stamps of plants all the time, you might like our Landscape Architecture colors, even if you're not a landscape architect. Just look at the colors offered in each set and think what you will be coloring most.

The nice thing about pre-built sets is that they do include colors you don't think you'll need at first but many times you'll find yourself reaching for them as they become your new favorites.

If this helps, the first large set of Sketch I chose was the 72 B. This was perfect for ME. Why? Because I draw a lot of comics and people. This set had about 6 skin colors I liked, plus it came with the colorless blender, and lots of muted pastels that were more useful to me than the primary and dark colors in the A set. I also needed the cool grays, but didn't need warm grays, since at that time I drew more metal than dirt.

I just have to warn you that whatever markers you choose to start with you'll end up wanting more. I still walk out into the warehouse and get excited seeing all the pretty markers and I think "Oh, I need that one!" when I probably have a dirty old one on my desk already.

Understanding Contrast part 2

Yesterday I jumped into contrast, so I want to give some further explanation as to why contrast makes your images more exciting and why you should be daring and try bumping up your contrast a bit if your work looks kinda blah (Think back to Monday's post of the snowflakes and bird, how it really got more exciting by adding white).

Why you need more color range
The human eye is pulled to things with high contrast. Most books are printed as black letters on white pages because this is easiest to follow. Think of visiting a website or blog where there is a photo background where, yes, it's a beautiful photo, but it conflicts with the text making it hard to read because there's not enough contrast between photo and text.

Going back to the range of values from yesterday, you want white, light, middle, dark, black for the full range of contrast. This is the most exciting combination.

Look at the series of circles below. See how plain the first one is? It has no definition, since it is just a light color. It is floating there without any reason to be important. This is a perfect way to show sky, water, or something without strongly defined edges, but it doesn't work as a solid shape.

The second is an improvement- it has light and black. See how the light looks a bit more important, but this is still a flat picture. Not very exciting, and it is so pale, our eye doesn't think much of the colored area.

The third circle is better. We now have black, light and middle. Notice though that the black circle still stands out - it is such a heavy contrast from the light that our eye still notices it too much.

Now, look at the last circle. I left white, and added an extra layer of dark. In this circle the black line doesn't seem so heavy, since we have a balance between our color values. By far, this is the most interesting of our circles, and we can see that it is no longer a circle, but a ball.

Applying this to artwork
Let's carry this over to a simple picture. This Riley Moose was nicely colored, but very flat. I have two colors represented, black and light brown. Not very exciting.

Next, here he is with black, light brown, and middle brown. He doesn't look so flat anymore, but he's still not very exciting.

Last, here is Riley with white, light brown, middle brown, dark brown, and black. Now he has life! See how the base color for his body and antlers is still the same, but you feel that the antlers and hooves are different because they have white, light brown, and shadows of middle brown. His body however has highlights of light, middle brown, and shadows of dark brown. They're the same tone of brown, so they match, but just by changing the contrast range in each area they look like different surfaces.

Look at the final coloring below. I still felt that there was not enough contrast on Riley, so I added even more number variation- I went with E31, E35, E39. See how he pops off the page ever so much more?

Shiny things
Shiny things have a sharper contrast between light and dark. You can represent this as crisp edges between your white and color, or, in the case of this airplane, I'm not using a light shade, I am only using white, middle, and dark. The highlights are added in as opaque white to be extra crisp, so they look like sunlight reflecting off the shiny airplane body.

Remember, if you have a hard time leaving white in your picture, you can always add opaque white to really punch some life into your work.

Image: Plane Riley by Hanna Stamps, Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Other: Opaque White, 0.1 multiliner to write the sentiment on Riley's banner

Understanding Contrast

One of my long-term goals with this site is to explain how to use the grays and why/how to use shadows (which gets to be a very involved art concept). The best way to really understand shadows and accurate coloring is to do lots of black and white photography, so I'll be explaining concepts and how they relate to photographs and Photoshop, even though we're really coloring little pictures with markers.

The last couple posts have been really detailed, so this time I want to share something relatively simple. Here is an instance where you don't need much color to make the image look done.

Heavy Contrast Images
I had to make a couple manly birthday cards the other day and I was using this image. On a picture like this where you have very heavy black and white contrast you don't always need as much detail work in your coloring. It would look out of place to have lots of shaded colors when the shadows are so deep.

This picture is perfect for using single colors to show the color contrast, and give the illusion of more colors than you actually used.

Why would it work to use less colors?
Think about a photograph. If I had taken a picture of this person and the shadows were this deep and the white areas were so bright then it's like doing a flash when you're too close to the person. In that case the whites are super bright and there is no smooth blend from light to shadow, so I can do very crisp edges to my color. When you compare the blended version below to the crisp, heavy contrast do you see how the contrast works in this case? On the smooth blended face the heavy black areas just don't match the soft, smooth colored areas as well.

In photography it is considered good to have a range of colors from the brightest white to the deepest black. The trouble with this stamp is that there is too much black, unless we leave lots of white to balance it, much like a teeter-totter. When we color in all the white with smooth blends there is no white left to balance the black. I have only black and middle/light colors. This could make the black look too flat- it sucks the life out of the colored areas because there is less contrast (This is an opinion, you may think the smooth face looks fine).

Now compare it to the second version, with fewer colors.

When I cut out the lightest skin color I am increasing my contrast between light and dark, yet I still have my white, middle, and black values. The picture looks more dynamic, even though I used half as many colors. Also note, on the first picture I used a pale gray on the white parts of the shirt. For thin lined work without heavy contrast this would work, but because there is so much contrast on this picture my light gray is useless and lost, so I cut it out.

The shadows tell me where to put my color. In this case, for skin I'm using E11, a color I would normally use as a middle shadow, and B34. This is all I need and the picture looks fine- good contrast and a clean, crisp feel that works.

How this applies to other things:
For those of you who use Photoshop, have you ever taken an OK photo that you know needs the colors tweaked a little bit and then it's a good photo? You go up to your menu and choose "Auto Levels". Now your photo looks much better. So what is "Auto Levels" doing?

Auto Levels looks at the overall color feel/balance of your picture, then it evens out the contrast so your whites are whiter and your darks are darker, but you still have a smooth range of grays in the middle. You can also do this manually under the regular "Levels" window, which is the way I usually do it, but for the most part, Photoshop does a good job.

If you give a number to these color values with 0 being white (or almost white) and 9 being black (or really dark) you can see how the last digit on Copics work. 0 is your lightest in each Natural Blending Group, 2 or 3 is your light, 4 or 5 is middle, 7 is darker, and 9 is black.

When I am coloring a picture with Copics, I have stated before that it's good to have two or 3 shades in each Natural Blending Family. A light, middle, and dark. Then, you have the white of your whitest areas and your black (usually) of your line work. This means that you have a range of 5 values - White, Light, Middle, dark, Black. Photoshop would say that you have good levels in a photo if you have each of these colors represented.

Going back to my colored image, the blended example has black, middle, and light, but no darker or white (I'm not counting the white of the shirt). This is why it looks slightly wrong. The second example has white, middle, and black- a perfect balance, and the reason why it works.

Image: Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Paper: Neenah Classic Crest

Natural Blending Families

Sorry about the awkward formatting of the blog. I'm a designer and I'm used to more flexibility in layouts, so in the future I'll keep my layouts simple.

No, I'm not purposely avoiding answering the question "What stamp ink with what paper?", I am going to answer it next week as a form of survey with blog candy, so stay tuned :) (meanwhile I suggest you go over to Splitcoaststampers and search the forums for ideas). Other people besides cardmakers / stampers are following this site as well, and I have so much stuff to cover! By waiting, I also know that more people will find this new blog by then so we'll get more feedback. Just content yourself to know that I am part of a conspiracy theory that will never directly answer your deepest, most important questions, rather, I will string you along forever...or not *wink*.

Natural Blending Families- I created this fancy term for a simple Copic concept that many people have already discovered, but can never be explained enough. You have a color of marker and you want to find a shadow and highlight for that pen. What color should you use? This is where the code on the cap answers that question.

Here's the scoop: I have paper that perfectly matches my B24 marker. I have a picture I want to color, but I want to make it look dimensional with shadows and lighter areas. My two questions are-

1. What colors will make my B24 look shadowed/highlighted?

2. What other colors will go nicely with those blues and not look strange?
These are both easily answered. First, the color number B24 tells me a few things right away:

B- This is a blue marker
2- This is a bright, but not super bright blue (those would have a 0 ir 1 in this spot), and it's not very gray (or else this would be a 7, 8, or 9)
4- This is a middle blue (pale colors are going to end in 0, 1, or 2; Middle colors are 4-6; and dark colors are 7-9)
To answer the first question, shadows & highlights:

Keep the letter and first digit the same. We know instantly that our shadow and

highlight will be in the B20's. There are two colors lighter than B24, which are B23 or B21, but which one should we get? This takes us to the second rule:

Keep a 2 to 3 digit difference between numbers. So our lightest spot will be B21, our main color will be B24 and our shadows will be B26. Not bad, now we know that any part of our picture that we want Blue will be B21 + B24 + B26. This is what I call a Natural Blending Group. These are 3 shades that naturally go together based on color number alone.

As to the second question, what goes with the blue:
Keep the numbers the same, just change the letter (color family). Ok, so we need a green (G), Red (R), yellow (Y), and pink (RV) to go with our blue. We're in luck- there's an exact match for the first two color families. G24, and R24 will look great with B24. Yellow doesn't have a Y24, but Y23 is close enough. Same with RV, we'll go with RV23.

So we end up with B24, G24, R24, Y23, and RV23 for our color range. Where your colors quickly multiply is when you get into shadows and highlights for each of these-
B: B21, B24, B26
G: G21, G24, G28
R: R22, R24, R27
Y: Y21, Y23, Y26
RV: RV21, RV23, RV25



Aaack! what started as a simple picture with one color now has 15 colors I need!

OK, so this formula is just a starting point, you might really only need 2 shades in each color family. You can also shift colors from here- what if you want the pinks to be lighter? Use just the RV21 and the Rv23. What if you want the reds to be darker? Use R24 as the highlight, R27 as the middle red, and R29 as the shadow. You may totally hate these colors together- it's up to you. Personally, I think I'd ditch the pink in this sequence. If I had a purple to match the pink then maybe it would work better.

This is the final image I colored. Since the picture is so small, I mostly used 2 shades in each family, and I chose not to use the pink, instead I used the R21.

Image Credits: Stamp- Flower Shop by AMuse. Ink- Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Paper- Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80# Cardstock Marker colors: B21 + B24, R21 + R24, G21+G24, Y21 + Y23 + Y26

Monday, I will showcase my first color. I'll show it's Natural Blending Group, matching colors from across the color spectrum, aaannnd I have a cool color chart that I programmed into my software that lets me generate other color combos you can try based on other color rules, so I'll show combos that the computer says go well together. Have a great weekend!