I learned color from my favorite professor in undergrad, Stan Sporny, who made me mad by forbidding black paint in the studio. (I tried to sneak some in but he could totally tell in my painting). Instead we used colors like ultramarine blue and burnt umber to make “black” which we could balance out warmer and cooler to get more realistic darks. That forced me to really see color in everything because I couldn’t just rely on the same black paint to darken colors and create shadows.
This seems to be the best teaching method!! I like looking at Wayne Theibaud paintings, how he managed to pull color out of edges and shadows (still doesn’t mean I can do it!)
I also use a syringe to fill my pens, best method! My variation is filling waterbrushes — the kind intended for watercolor — with ink. They hold more ink than a cartridge, and come in a variety of brush sizes. I also had that greyed-out ink problem — I found that Noodler’s X-Feather Black, with just a tiny bit of water, is as black as the Pilot.
Great idea! I bought some water brushes with really small tanks (4ml). I use upthe water too quickly in regular painting. Was going to give those away (have a local group that accepts art supplies), but now I'll try this with them instead. The Koi brand of waterbrushes (9ml tanks) are a bit pricey, but they're worth it. You can take off the brush and cap the water part separately for storage. Also, it has a mechanism to prevent the paint on the brush from bleeding backwards and contaminating the water tank. Using a Koi allows me to carry just one brush with watercolors as a travel kit--easy to switch colors. https://www.amazon.com/Sakura-39122-Water-Color-Medium/dp/B004O45GJI/
I love this idea of refilling the spent cartridges of the Pentel brush pen and creating less waste! I love that pen too. One of my hacks is using the Sailor Pen with Fude nib. I THINK "fude" means "bent". In anycase, this pen can give me a wide range of line widths. Plus, it comes with cartridges of water soluble ink. With this pen and ink combo I can sketch outlines and do some hatching then use my water brush to activate the ink to get shading/ I like to sketch while out nature walking but I don't want to have a heavy kit so this I why I like this pen. Just one pen, a water brush and my sketchbook and I have everything I need in my pocket. Using your hack means I can experiment with different colors instead of gray scale.
Apr 19, 2022·edited Apr 19, 2022Liked by Austin Kleon
Love this post! I'm nuts about color. For writing in my journal I use a set of 8 Pentel Sign Pens (the classic one, not the brush pen) in various colors. For my journal itself I use a Rollbahn grid notebook - different cover color each time. Rollbahn has one of the best color palettes among stationery brands.
I learned color by osmosis- I’m Indian and every aspect of our culture involves color - food, clothing, religion. My mom also is into art and took me to lots of art shows as a kid.
Omg, those CYM brush pens are everything! I love that you DIY’d them to reuse what you had too. My grandma was an artist and she had all sorts of art supplies she would make herself. She also used this thin, clear, dark red tape for everything. I have no idea where she got it but she must have had 1,000 rolls because she never ran out in the 25 years I knew her. She just used what she had.
My journey in color happened in one of my most favorite classes in college - an intro to painting class. We spent a few weeks doing color studies and it blew my mind. We had to do a still life of eggs (just the white kind from a grocery store- not even the pretty brown ones) I thought it would be so boring until the professor said we couldn’t use black or white paint. We had to LOOK and use the colors we saw. Suddenly I was seeing pinks and blues and yellows. I’ll never forget it. I never used my art degree for art, but the most foundational thing it taught me was how to look and see for real. I use that all the time :)
I love my pocket brushes. I make fiber art, but the pocket brushes are the best for my sketch book. I think the best way to learn about color is to USE color. Learning to see color is not only really fun, but very informative for artwork. I authored a color wheel set and book about color theory. I'm no expert, but color is my favorite part of making art. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=katie+fowler&crid=1CIPZZJRDB8DS&sprefix=katie+fowler%2Caps%2C142&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
I just discovered these Sennelier brush pens. Their zillions of colors are crazy and rich, the brushes are lovely. Give them a whirl, Austin. https://amzn.to/3EuFMY8
I learned about color from my quilting. After using hundreds of fabrics over 20+ years (and getting advice from talented quilters :-) ), I can tell now if a fabric combination will work for what I have in mind. This knowledge doesn't directly translate to paint because it's a very different medium, but it gave me a base to work from. I've been painting for about nine months, and it's a blast. Love your ideas about the Pentel brush pen--just starting to explore them with fountain pen inks I have on hand.
I stumbled across another great hack on Lynda Barry's YouTube channel. She creates a gray ink for shading by adding water to a cartridge with just a bit of black ink left in it. Of course you could do this with any color!
Awesome! I learned from an art book (sorry, can’t remember author) to fill two water brush pens with water and add 2 drops to one pen and 4-6 drops of black ink to the other. This gives me two shades of gray to tone values in sketches. You can always do multiple coats to create darker shades but I love have two shades of gray one light and one dark.
Well, I am just beginning. My first year and I am trying it all - lol. But one thing that is really teaching me alot is just using one color. Taking Connie's Monopalette classes (once a week for a year and they are free). This month we are working with Shell Pink besides the color we are working with we can also use white and black. It is really teaching me to be very experimental with color. Also I have a hard time starting, knowing what to do and one of the teachers that I have through other workshops has told me just to experiment with everything I had - separately, together and build up my consistency. oops - sorry - back to color. So, I am still learning color - found that my Christmas cactus (which only takes one month off during the year) gives me a BEAUTIFUL rosy pink that I can use as watercolor or build into Titanium White for Acrylic ;). Blueberry tea gives me a nice stormy color. Curry gives me a beautiful deep yellowy color ;)
Apr 19, 2022·edited Apr 19, 2022Liked by Austin Kleon
I learned a watercolor paint hack: instead of dealing with messy tubes, I bought watercolor sticks and empty watercolor pans, cut off pieces from the sticks, and mashed them into the pans. Also, I attach 12-14 half pans inside an Ice Chips mint tin with rubber cement to make my own little palette (Ice Chips come in tins with white insides, making it easier to see what I'm doing when I mix colors).
Apr 19, 2022·edited Apr 19, 2022Liked by Austin Kleon
As a podcast junkie, I’ve listened to countless shows of the Pen Addict. Even having attended a Pen Show in Los Angeles, I didn’t get bit by the pen or color bug. Nor did the adult coloring craze get me. This got me to ponder my monochrome lifestyle.
There is almost nothing I like more than color. I guess I learned by playing first, as a child, in coloring books, then studying color theory…I have a collection of color wheels, and have made many more :-) regardless of tool …thread, graphite, paint, ink, pastel…I can never get tired of blending color to get as much of a seamless flow …one color to the next…as possible …my happy place.
Also, I think color transparency is fun. You can get a whole new world of variations when you layer transparent colors.
I can’t think of any hacks at the moment … I like using unconventional tools for mark making, and stamping. I have brush pens…I’m going to make your CYM colors.
I learn color all the time from my Mom who is a beaded jewelry designer (She sells a lot on Etsy, so I know she knows what she's doing.) She has an eye for which colors of beads go together. So, before I start something that's going to take a lot of time / expensive supplies I get her on Facetime, so I can point at my underpainting primordial pencil sketch and talk about color palettes.
This reminds me I was taking the plastic Easter eggs we put out for the kids and matching the tops and bottoms to different colors and seeing what was the most pleasing 😂
Cool! I'll try this, that brush pen is my favourite too.
Dunno if it counts as a hack, but I've been using a Blackwing pencil of late and it makes drawing in pencil so much more satisfying. These days the "messier" the tool the more I like it. So Blackwing pencils, the Pentel Pilot pocket brush, and a cheap fountain pen. They really make a mark and get my hands dirty.
Not colourblind, but I learned colour via photography, by taking pics and seeing what I liked.
Oh yeah those blackwings are so good. I used to hate pencils until I found them and realized you need a good SOFT pencil. (“HBs are for architects!” https://austinkleon.com/2019/02/13/pencil-shade/
Love this idea to customize brush pen ink, I’m looking forward to trying this. Fun craft project: to customize the exterior of my brush pen I borrowed my daughters nail polish (watch ‘water marbling technique’ videos in YouTube or TikTok) to dip my pen and ‘paint’ a cool marble design on the pen. It was fun to combine my interest in pens with my daughters interest in painting nails. Be forewarned, watching finger nail polish design videos can be mesmerizing!!
I learned color from my favorite professor in undergrad, Stan Sporny, who made me mad by forbidding black paint in the studio. (I tried to sneak some in but he could totally tell in my painting). Instead we used colors like ultramarine blue and burnt umber to make “black” which we could balance out warmer and cooler to get more realistic darks. That forced me to really see color in everything because I couldn’t just rely on the same black paint to darken colors and create shadows.
This seems to be the best teaching method!! I like looking at Wayne Theibaud paintings, how he managed to pull color out of edges and shadows (still doesn’t mean I can do it!)
YES! It can be maddening sometimes but finding those random bits of unexpected color is always a game-changer.
I also use a syringe to fill my pens, best method! My variation is filling waterbrushes — the kind intended for watercolor — with ink. They hold more ink than a cartridge, and come in a variety of brush sizes. I also had that greyed-out ink problem — I found that Noodler’s X-Feather Black, with just a tiny bit of water, is as black as the Pilot.
Oh nice I might try those next!
Great idea! I bought some water brushes with really small tanks (4ml). I use upthe water too quickly in regular painting. Was going to give those away (have a local group that accepts art supplies), but now I'll try this with them instead. The Koi brand of waterbrushes (9ml tanks) are a bit pricey, but they're worth it. You can take off the brush and cap the water part separately for storage. Also, it has a mechanism to prevent the paint on the brush from bleeding backwards and contaminating the water tank. Using a Koi allows me to carry just one brush with watercolors as a travel kit--easy to switch colors. https://www.amazon.com/Sakura-39122-Water-Color-Medium/dp/B004O45GJI/
I was just on my way to bring up the water brushes. I just got some and didn’t expect to love them as much as I do.
I love this idea of refilling the spent cartridges of the Pentel brush pen and creating less waste! I love that pen too. One of my hacks is using the Sailor Pen with Fude nib. I THINK "fude" means "bent". In anycase, this pen can give me a wide range of line widths. Plus, it comes with cartridges of water soluble ink. With this pen and ink combo I can sketch outlines and do some hatching then use my water brush to activate the ink to get shading/ I like to sketch while out nature walking but I don't want to have a heavy kit so this I why I like this pen. Just one pen, a water brush and my sketchbook and I have everything I need in my pocket. Using your hack means I can experiment with different colors instead of gray scale.
Ooh I need to look up one of these sailor pens!
Love this post! I'm nuts about color. For writing in my journal I use a set of 8 Pentel Sign Pens (the classic one, not the brush pen) in various colors. For my journal itself I use a Rollbahn grid notebook - different cover color each time. Rollbahn has one of the best color palettes among stationery brands.
I learned color by osmosis- I’m Indian and every aspect of our culture involves color - food, clothing, religion. My mom also is into art and took me to lots of art shows as a kid.
Omg, those CYM brush pens are everything! I love that you DIY’d them to reuse what you had too. My grandma was an artist and she had all sorts of art supplies she would make herself. She also used this thin, clear, dark red tape for everything. I have no idea where she got it but she must have had 1,000 rolls because she never ran out in the 25 years I knew her. She just used what she had.
My journey in color happened in one of my most favorite classes in college - an intro to painting class. We spent a few weeks doing color studies and it blew my mind. We had to do a still life of eggs (just the white kind from a grocery store- not even the pretty brown ones) I thought it would be so boring until the professor said we couldn’t use black or white paint. We had to LOOK and use the colors we saw. Suddenly I was seeing pinks and blues and yellows. I’ll never forget it. I never used my art degree for art, but the most foundational thing it taught me was how to look and see for real. I use that all the time :)
1) your grandma sounds rad — I tend to hoard any supply I like a lot
2) that’s how my wife says she learned color! Took a painting class and wasn’t allowed to use white or black — maybe I’ll take one!
Definitely worth looking into!
In the meantime, you might want to check out this book:
https://www.abebooks.com/Color-Third-Edition-workshop-artists-designers/31157386753/bd?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade_10to20-_-product_id=COM9781786276605USED-_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwu_mSBhAYEiwA5BBmf01Q1EWIk9U5bAlJe6PrcCD56-XuWv59lTmJtceuPwL0fNF0aG0A5xoC9lkQAvD_BwE
This book is fantastic. I have a previous edition, but I assume it got even better.
I love my pocket brushes. I make fiber art, but the pocket brushes are the best for my sketch book. I think the best way to learn about color is to USE color. Learning to see color is not only really fun, but very informative for artwork. I authored a color wheel set and book about color theory. I'm no expert, but color is my favorite part of making art. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=katie+fowler&crid=1CIPZZJRDB8DS&sprefix=katie+fowler%2Caps%2C142&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Katie, I have your color wheel and it's fabulous. I heard about it from Alex Anderson.
I just discovered these Sennelier brush pens. Their zillions of colors are crazy and rich, the brushes are lovely. Give them a whirl, Austin. https://amzn.to/3EuFMY8
Oh wow! Danny Gregory subscribes to Austin Kleon! Lol are Maira and Lynda here too?🥰
But of course! I wouldn't miss it.
I learned about color from my quilting. After using hundreds of fabrics over 20+ years (and getting advice from talented quilters :-) ), I can tell now if a fabric combination will work for what I have in mind. This knowledge doesn't directly translate to paint because it's a very different medium, but it gave me a base to work from. I've been painting for about nine months, and it's a blast. Love your ideas about the Pentel brush pen--just starting to explore them with fountain pen inks I have on hand.
I stumbled across another great hack on Lynda Barry's YouTube channel. She creates a gray ink for shading by adding water to a cartridge with just a bit of black ink left in it. Of course you could do this with any color!
Oh wow I missed this!! https://youtu.be/pGr_Xk45j50
Here’s one where she even shows you how to assemble it: https://youtu.be/RtPuCYwcRqU
Thanks to your new CMYK inspiration, I am going to be ordering more brush pens! I was just thinking about color and how I learned it. My Mom was artistic and I think I learned to have a good sense of color and composition at an early age from her. As a graphic design major in college, I had a book called "Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color" that was my bible. I still refer to it often, even though the design examples are very outdated. It explains the emotions evoked by different colors, and has many examples of color combinations. It's not in print anymore, but it is a nice tool if you can find an affordable used copy. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjuxfqvwKD3AhXUk4kEHTO0D50QFnoECAsQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FPantones-Guide-Communicating-Leatrice-Eisemann%2Fdp%2FB004J8HX5E&usg=AOvVaw3bPcXwg38Baj7hl7IvWmpe
Awesome! I learned from an art book (sorry, can’t remember author) to fill two water brush pens with water and add 2 drops to one pen and 4-6 drops of black ink to the other. This gives me two shades of gray to tone values in sketches. You can always do multiple coats to create darker shades but I love have two shades of gray one light and one dark.
Well, I am just beginning. My first year and I am trying it all - lol. But one thing that is really teaching me alot is just using one color. Taking Connie's Monopalette classes (once a week for a year and they are free). This month we are working with Shell Pink besides the color we are working with we can also use white and black. It is really teaching me to be very experimental with color. Also I have a hard time starting, knowing what to do and one of the teachers that I have through other workshops has told me just to experiment with everything I had - separately, together and build up my consistency. oops - sorry - back to color. So, I am still learning color - found that my Christmas cactus (which only takes one month off during the year) gives me a BEAUTIFUL rosy pink that I can use as watercolor or build into Titanium White for Acrylic ;). Blueberry tea gives me a nice stormy color. Curry gives me a beautiful deep yellowy color ;)
I learned a watercolor paint hack: instead of dealing with messy tubes, I bought watercolor sticks and empty watercolor pans, cut off pieces from the sticks, and mashed them into the pans. Also, I attach 12-14 half pans inside an Ice Chips mint tin with rubber cement to make my own little palette (Ice Chips come in tins with white insides, making it easier to see what I'm doing when I mix colors).
And +1 on water brushes. They're so handy!
As a podcast junkie, I’ve listened to countless shows of the Pen Addict. Even having attended a Pen Show in Los Angeles, I didn’t get bit by the pen or color bug. Nor did the adult coloring craze get me. This got me to ponder my monochrome lifestyle.
There is almost nothing I like more than color. I guess I learned by playing first, as a child, in coloring books, then studying color theory…I have a collection of color wheels, and have made many more :-) regardless of tool …thread, graphite, paint, ink, pastel…I can never get tired of blending color to get as much of a seamless flow …one color to the next…as possible …my happy place.
Also, I think color transparency is fun. You can get a whole new world of variations when you layer transparent colors.
I can’t think of any hacks at the moment … I like using unconventional tools for mark making, and stamping. I have brush pens…I’m going to make your CYM colors.
Great post! Thanks!
I learn color all the time from my Mom who is a beaded jewelry designer (She sells a lot on Etsy, so I know she knows what she's doing.) She has an eye for which colors of beads go together. So, before I start something that's going to take a lot of time / expensive supplies I get her on Facetime, so I can point at my underpainting primordial pencil sketch and talk about color palettes.
This reminds me I was taking the plastic Easter eggs we put out for the kids and matching the tops and bottoms to different colors and seeing what was the most pleasing 😂
Cool! I'll try this, that brush pen is my favourite too.
Dunno if it counts as a hack, but I've been using a Blackwing pencil of late and it makes drawing in pencil so much more satisfying. These days the "messier" the tool the more I like it. So Blackwing pencils, the Pentel Pilot pocket brush, and a cheap fountain pen. They really make a mark and get my hands dirty.
Not colourblind, but I learned colour via photography, by taking pics and seeing what I liked.
Oh yeah those blackwings are so good. I used to hate pencils until I found them and realized you need a good SOFT pencil. (“HBs are for architects!” https://austinkleon.com/2019/02/13/pencil-shade/
Love this idea to customize brush pen ink, I’m looking forward to trying this. Fun craft project: to customize the exterior of my brush pen I borrowed my daughters nail polish (watch ‘water marbling technique’ videos in YouTube or TikTok) to dip my pen and ‘paint’ a cool marble design on the pen. It was fun to combine my interest in pens with my daughters interest in painting nails. Be forewarned, watching finger nail polish design videos can be mesmerizing!!
oh NICE. Will look up!