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I always bugger up Stimpy's nose. I can never get the right kind of blue out of a marker.
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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.
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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.
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-I put my base color down first -the lightest blue I can find.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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,
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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)
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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".
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And I found an even nicer one by Copic - the super expensive brand. But too late!
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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.