Color Swatches - How to Make Them (and Why You Should)

How many times have you been coloring a picture, only to think to yourself, "Hmmm. A beautiful deep violet would be a perfect choice for this." As you look through your set of pencils, you find one with a nice, dark violet outer casing, and you put the tip to your paper. You soon discover that the barrel of your pencil was quite misleading, and the color you thought was a deep violet is actually blue. Even if you can work with this and turn it into something beautiful, it's still quite frustrating. In another scenario, there may be times when you find and purchase a set of pencils, only to discover that the manufacturer failed to print the color name on the pencils themselves. This can also be quite problematic; if you need to go back to the same green pencil later in your work, but you can't remember which shade of green you were using, you may end up with mistakes on your page. One of the best ways to avoid these problems involves making color swatches for every set of pencils, pens, markers, pastels, and other colored mediums you own. This involves writing out each product's name or color number, then coloring a small area next to that name from dark to light.

You can see my example in the photo below. I received a set of 72 Marco Renoir oil-based colored pencils today, so I decided to swatch them out. (This is my first attempt at swatching, so it's far from perfect.)

Now that you have a chart that shows you exactly what to expect when you put each pencil to the paper, things suddenly become quite convenient. When you want a deep violet for your picture, simply pick up your swatches and find one that suits your preferences.

Remember, too, that you don't have to use the same brand of colored pencil in your picture. You can switch brands if you'd like. In fact, in one of my most recent projects, I used Prismacolor Scholar pencils for the entire picture, save the background. I actually used Crayola colored pencils because the colors I wanted weren't available in any other set I have. This is one of the biggest benefits to having several sets of different pencil brands; you'll have an even wider selection of color. In the video below, you can watch as I make swatches for my 72 Marco Renoir pencils. I'll explain my methods for making swatches and how I prefer to store them in the beginning of the video, and then I'll go on to actually create them. Feel free to follow along, or subscribe to my YouTube channel and bookmark the video so you can come back to it.

If you'd like to make your own swatches, here are the tools I recommend:

• Index cards

• Stapler

• Any set of colored pencils you choose, and in any size

• A container for keeping track of your swatch "booklets" (I prefer a small, collapsible file folder I picked up for $1 at Dollar Tree)

Stay tuned to Simple Art for Adults for my unboxing/review of Marco Renoir oil-based colored pencils, which will be coming up very soon!

#adultcoloring #colorswatches #coloredpencils