Tuesday, May 08, 2012

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.