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conservative skills even radicals should strive for.

Final

I tried putting white highlights in his eyes with white out. That crap never works. So I had to go in and try retouch some stuff.
Well there you have it. Now back to animating.

Neutral Colors

Ok, time to get at the neutral colors...
Neutral colors are colors that are not primary or secondary colors. They are colors not easy to name because they are much more subtle blends. "Brown" is the simplest form of a neutral color but even "brown" is usually too harsh to use as a main area of color.

Gray is neutral too, but there are many tints of gray. Add a touch of blue for a cool gray, a touch of red for warm gray, etc...Grays, tans, earthy colors, creams and a myriad of shades can be found in nature and not in enough cartoons (not since the 40s anyway). In the cartoon world trees are thought to be "brown" with "green" leaves. Which is why so many cartoons have unsubtle pure brown and green trees - and blue skies. If you actually look at any trees, very few are actually "brown". Again - the psychological danger of thinking of art in terms of the simple words we use to describe things. Words are crappy artists. Eyes and brains make better pictures.

Here's a wonderful painting of trees made with subtle neutral colors:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/trees

What color is a fart cloud? "brown" comes to mind, but I would rather use more subtle grayed brown-ish colors. And some olive green tints and fumes suggest a particularly rancid odor.
All these neutral colors are tinted in various color directions, some towards the yellow, some towards magenta, etc. Using a variety of tints enriches every fart.
I do Stimpy's nostrils in brownish colors - but over top of the blue shades. Blending the two color groups harmonizes them by lessening the contrasting hues.
I'm using cooler colors for his eyelids - grayed blueish, purplish colors to give a subtle contrast to the warmer gaseous part of the waft.
"Delta Brown" is more gray than brown. I'm using it for the darkest deepest part of the nose-hole.

I'm using "Cinnamon Toast" around the rim of his nostril, just to make the orifice that much more delicious.
I can never remember what color Stimpy's eye mask is. You've probably noticed it changes all the time. Perhaps it changes with his emotions.

OK, it's almost finished.

Next step is to touch up the lines and add some more shades and to make it look worked.
Let's give a special thanks to my all time favorite dream pet with the gorgeous neutral colors and Clampett -like appeal and proportions.

Blue Nose

I always bugger up Stimpy's nose. I can never get the right kind of blue out of a marker.
The names of the colors and the colors on the label tend to lie about what color the ink actually is. COLOR TIP: Don't be influenced by the names of colors on your paints, markers, crayons - whatever. Test each color first and judge it by your eye and taste.
I have the worst luck in finding good light blue markers. Stimpy's nose is mainly a "middle blue" - a blue that is neither tinted with red, nor green. But most of the light blue markers I can find are either light turquoise (blue with yellow) or light blue-violet.
-I put my base color down first -the lightest blue I can find.
Then I find the closest thing I can to a "middle blue" that is neither dark, light, nor tinted to the red or yellow. Unfortunately, the one I used is slightly tinted to violet - or purple. I use the pointy part of the tip to draw lines around the borders of the other colors. (If I used the wide part of the tip, it would likely bleed into the lines and make a Godawful mess)
Then I use the broad flat tip to fill in between the edges. I have to go over the whole area in circles a few times to tamp down the streaks.
It still ends up kind of blotchy, but that's what I get for using markers instead of learning to paint like a real artist. I left a strip of the light blue at the bottom of his nose to make an underlit effect.
Now here comes my theory again about how to make colors look rich and deep -as opposed to monochromatic. Since the middle shade of his nose is a neutral blue (pure with no red or yellow tint) then I will make the shadows and highlights in opposite tints,
I went over the highlight at the top of his nose in a light turquoise (blue with yellow tint)

and then did the opposite for the underlit part of his nose. There I am tinting it towards purple (blue with some red in it)
Now, after I did all this and not got exactly the blue I wanted, I found a perfect middle blue - a prismacolor called - "true blue".
And I found an even nicer one by Copic - the super expensive brand. But too late!
I continue to go over the underlit part with purple tinted blues out of sheer frustration while I try to figure out what to do next.

Next: Coloring the areas that use "neutral colors". -or colors from nature.

Naked Colors

I separate my flesh colors into 2 groups:
1) Pinkish flesh colors. -for people who sunburn easily
2) Yellowish flesh colors. - for people who tan easily
Ren is basically a naked Mediterranean man. he always has a slight tan.
I start with an orangey brown color for shaded areas.
Then I use "buff" to do his lighter areas.
I do his main color fill with "Light Sand".
Next: Stimpy's Blue Nose

Marker Posters - Coloring - Fills

I don't enjoy coloring as much as inking. Especially doing the large flat color fill areas.
I dread Stimpy the most because he has large areas of red to fill and I can never find a marker that looks like Stimpy's shade of red. Coloring takes patience and really taxes the ADHD. I try to break up the process by using more than one red and taking breaks between each step.
I have my reds loosely sorted by:

1) Warm reds - middle reds and reds mixed with yellows and browns.
2) Hot reds - Reds mixed with a bit of blue - magentas, wines, burgundies etc.
I usually try to put a light pink highlight around Stimpy's RIM. It doesn't always work though, because the darker reds bleed into them.
Then I take the middle red and draw a ragged line along that rim.
I fill in the red. This is where I find out that I didn't make his outline dark enough, which means I'll have to go back and re-ink parts of it. I never learn.
For the tongues I use very light warm and hot pinks as a base.
Using the 2 different tints of red gives the picture look more depth. If I was to only use one kind of pink and just darker and lighter shades of it, it would end up looking monochromatic - which deadens the picture.
Same theories for Ren's eyes.
I gradually darken the pinks stroke by stroke.
Next: The Art Of Naked Colors: