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Permalink Reply by henry cohen on September 9, 2011 at 5:15am

Lucy, here is something that help you, a chart by Jim Ligget with 36 colors that are most used.

Attachments:

• chartpak list.jpg, 580 KB

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Permalink Reply by Kevin J. Gaughan on September 9, 2011 at 5:31am

Great list Henry! I would suggest getting a couple Willows...I used that color the most by far!

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Permalink Reply by henry cohen on September 9, 2011 at 5:35am

Kevin, glad you like the list. Please suggest as many as possible. I have a bunch of markers but rarely use them.

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Permalink Reply by Jordan Lockman on September 9, 2011 at 8:55am

I use:

willow green for grass

grass, nile, and emarald green for trees

flesh blush and brick red for colorful trees

buff and a couple of diff warm grays for site elements

cool gray #5 for shadows

a blue for water

Then I have a bunch of pencils that I color over with.

 

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Permalink Reply by Albert C on September 9, 2011 at 9:23am

I have a box of them somewhere, now its Adobe Illustrator, I do remember Willow and Brick Red

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Permalink Reply by Brian Lin on September 9, 2011 at 10:53am

no need for too many colors...Maize, grass green, willow, suntan, buff, sky blue, sunset pink, pale indigo, and blender. You can create many other colors by mixing these colors. Stay away from the darker markers....very dangerous.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Martin on September 9, 2011 at 2:10pm

I created the above chart for my own use a while back when comparing large format scanners available at different print shops across town.  Most of my rendering occurs in Photoshop today, although I use digital versions of several of the above colors.  A few brain droppings about hand rendering:

1. Every batch of paper accepts color differently.  Color also varies between markers, and sometimes between brand new markers.  Feel the analog love...
2. My palette works best at neighborhood design scales; go WAY lighter at a residential scale unless you want to freak out your clients.
3. Work backwards from your end goal, and figure out how your work is going to look after it is scanned.  Just as colors on screen rarely translate well to a plotter, colors on paper never scan the way I see them.  One large format scanner here doesn't pick up Willow Green or some of the lighter blues, for example.
4. Prismacolor pencils seem particularly vulnerable to strange translations from paper to scanner to plotter, such that I quit using them years ago.  Ditto cool grays.
5. Normally I only use darker or more intense colors on vellum or tracing paper, although some of the darker greens can work well in small quantities on bond.
6. Store your markers in a ziplock bag or air tight container unless you enjoy contributing to the economy by purchasing markers often.  Don't bother with the little cardboard boxes and marker caddies that Chartpak has for sale.
7. Keep the dried out markers you forgot to put away, and you will never again have to pay money for a blender.

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