Drama Queens Always Need A Supporting Cast

Last week, I took you on a tour of the Bold, Bright paintstik colors. The Brights are the Drama Queens of the matte color line. They’re vibrant, in-your-face colors. Today, I want to introduce you to the Dark colors.

Along with the Dusty colors (coming next week), the Darks are the supporting cast for the Brights. In the same way that we use Light, Medium and Dark fabrics to make a quilt, we need Dark colors (along with lights, neutrals and dusty colors) for paintstik projects. The supporting colors are great for shading as well as providing visual relief — a place for your eyes to rest.

Deep Darks

This is part 4 of our Matte Color Series. You can read the earlier articles of the series here on the blog.

1 – Naturally Neutral
2 – Luscious Lights
3 – Bold & Bright

There are 13 Dark colors in the Matte Paintstik line. I use the darks for shading images when I’m stenciling or for a number of different techniques when I’m working on light to medium value fabrics. Dark matte colors are not very useful on dark fabric. They don’t have the “shiny stuff” found in the iridescent colors, so there is no value contrast between the dark colors and dark fabric and the colors get lost. Stick to lighter fabrics and you’ll love them!

Here are the 13 dark colors:

Alazarin Crimson is a deep ruby red that leans a bit toward purple. This is the darkest red in the Matte Color line.

Grape is a red-violet. It is more on the transparent side of the spectrum.

Dioxazine Purple is a beautiful deep purple.It’s quite dark, but very rich.

Phthalo Blue is a deep blue with a slight purple undertone.

Prussian Blue is a deep blue with a slight green undertone.

Teal Blue is best described as a deep turquoise. Definitely blue, but has a lot of green in it.

Phthalo Green is a dark green with a definite blue undertone.

Old Sap Green is a great deep middle-of-the-road green. It leans just a bit more to the blue side than Sap Green.

Sap Green is a middle-of-the-road green. Some teachers like this green because they can mix with yellow or with blue to get the shade of green they want. It has just a touch more yellow than Old Sap Green.

Asphaltum is a fabulous golden caramel color. It’s quite transparent, but much more interesting than the name implies.

Burnt Sienna is a reddish brown and very opaque.

Burnt Umber has a definite green undertone. It semi-opaque.

Chocolate is a transparent, middle of the road brown. Think Hershey bars.

Iridescent Colors + Dark Colors = Fabulous Results

I admit it. I have a strong preference for the Iridescent Paintstik Colors. I’m more than a bit of a magpie and I love shiny stuff! Even so, I discovered a simple rule early on: THERE ARE NO DARK IRIDESCENT COLORS! Some are darker than others, but the shiny stuff in those gorgeous iridescent colors makes it impossible for them to be truly DARK.

When you want to shade an object, whether it’s a leaf, a flower, or a geometric shape, you need dark colors to get the desired effect. Here is a sample I put together for the Paintstiks on Fabric book.

To make this image, I used Iridescent Light Gold an Iridescent Orange in the middle of the flower. Then I blended to Azo Orange, Alizarin Crimson, and Purple Sage along the edges. Using all iridescent colors simply did not work for this piece.

After the paint was dry, I added some free-motion embroidery and quilting to the piece. It’s a very small little portrait, but a good example of what you can do with Paintstik Colors.

I hope you enjoy working with Matte Colors as much as I do. It took me a while to get past my preference for iridescent colors (and all things shiny), but I’ve learned to love these colors and I can’t imagine trying to work without them.

p.s. Thanks to my friend Laura Murray for sharing the comparison of Bright Colors and Drama Queens and the need for a supporting cast. It’s a great analogy. If you are looking for more stencils, texture mats, and great ideas for using Paintstik Colors, click over to Laura Murray Designs. The Iris image above is from one of Laura’s stencils. She may have retired this design, but she has a lovely collection of stencils on her site.

If you are heading to Paducah for the big AQS Quilt Show, be sure to stop by Laura’s booth for a great dose of inspiration and an amazing collections of tempting toys!

This is part three of my Matte Color Series. You can read the earlier articles by clicking on these links:

1 – Naturally Neutral
2 – Luscious Lights

There are 17 Bright colors in the Matte Paintstik line. I’m going to divide these into 2 sections for a very important reason — some of these colors are made with pigments that contain heavy metals, and those colors deserve special consideration for safety purposes.

Bold & Bright – AP Label

The first 12 colors are from the line make a great color wheel. Each of these colors carries the Approved Product (AP) label from the ACMI testing organization.

Like all of the iridescent colors and all matte colors (except for the 5 colors in the section below), these colors have been thoroughly tested and approved as non-toxic and safe for use. If you like to paint with your kids or grandkids, you can use these colors without any worries.

As you can see, these colors are anything but boring. They are vibrant, saturated, in-your-face colors. As much as I love the Iridescent colors, they simply are not as intense as these matte colors, and some of them (like the bright reds) simply don’t exist in the iridescent line.

Tompte Red is a strong red that leans a bit toward purple. I think of this color as “lipstick” red. It is a little darker in value than Napthol red, but not nearly as dark as Alizarin Crimson.

Napthol Red is a lively warm red. It definitely leans toward orange. Think Fire Engine red!

Azo Orange is a good, basic orange with a red undertone.

Azo Yellow is a bright clear yellow.

Yellow Citron is yellow with just a hint of green. It’s hard to describe. Not quite chartreuse, but moving in that direction.

Marsh Green is an excellent substitution for “Mr. Yuck” green. It’s a bright, not muddy olive-like green.

Chrome Oxide Green is a nice, middle-of-the-road leafy green.

Veridian Green is a beautiful blue-green. This color is very transparent compared to most of the other matte colors.

Turquoise is an opaque greenish blue.

Ultramarine Blue is a clear blue with a purple undertone. This color is also transparent.

Purple Sage is a medium-value purple, slightly dusty in nature.

Fuchsia is simply fuchsia. It’s a bold, beautiful, vibrant pink.

Now, let’s take a look at the remaining 5 Bright colors.

Bold & Bright – CL Label

The final 5 colors in the Bold and Bright group are made with Cadmium- or Cobalt-based pigments. These are traditional pigments that have been used for centuries in paints due to their durability and light-fast qualities. Cadmium and Cobalt are heavy metals and these colors bear the Cautionary (CL) Label from the ACMI testing organization.

Any art supplies made with heavy metal pigments should be used cautiously. I often use my fingers to shade and mix my colors, but it’s probably not the best idea to finger paint with these particular colors. If you share your paintstiks with children, it’s best not to use these colors just to be safe.

If you take a close look, you’ll see that these colors are very similar to some of the brights described above. I’ll point out the similar colors below.

Cadmium Red Deep is a deep strong red. It is similar to, but not quite as “blue” as Tompte Red.

Cadmium Red Scarlet is a lively warm red. Very similar to Napthol Red.

Cadmium Orange is a clear yellow-orange. To duplicate this color in a non-cadmium color, mix Azo Yellow and Azo Orange.

Cadmium Yellow is similar to Azo Yellow, with perhaps a touch of orange added. The two colors are very, very close.

Cobalt Blue is nearly identical to Ultramarine Blue with one important difference. Cobalt Blue is opaque, while Ultramarine Blue is transparent.

If you have any concerns about using heavy metal based colors, you can certainly get by without them. Cadmium Orange can’t be replaced without mixing, but the others can quite easily.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m addicted to color. I have been since I picked up a fabric dying kit many, many years ago. I have no formal education in color theory (or any other art topic), but I’ve learned a lot through trial and error. Lots of errors — or should I say “learning experiences.”

Using Matte Paintstiks to Learn About Color

I ran across a fascinating book years ago called Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green. It’s very technical, but I latched onto the basic premise of the book and have never looked back. To simplify, author Michael Wilcox states that there are no “perfect” primary colors. Therefore, we may as well take advantage of the situation and learn to mix the variations of colors we want.

I’m not going to even attempt to explain further in this blog article, but I have a few pictures that illustrate the concept. In each example, I’ve blended Azo Yellow with 3 different blues. As you can see, the results vary widely from blue to blue. (We’ll talk about Prussian Blue next week with the Dark colors.)

Azo Yellow Mixed with Turquoise

Azo Yellow mixed with Prussian Blue

Azo Yellow Mixed with Ultramarine Blue

I hope you enjoy working with Matte Colors as much as I do. It took me a while to get past my preference for iridescent colors (and all things shiny), but I’ve learned to love these colors and I can’t imagine trying to work without them.

I’m fortunate to belong to a small group of adventurous quilters called the DIVAS. (Yes, it actually stands for someting — Designing, Innovative Visual Art Sisterhood!) We took a road trip Saturday morning to meet with a similar group called Crossing Borders. We met at a delightful coffee house called Jitters in a town that’s about half-way between our two locations.

This was strictly a Show & Tell meeting, and at times it dissolved into raucous laughter. The highlight was seeing the results from the Alphabet Challenge. To start the challenge, someone drew 5 letters from the alphabet. The letters were D L K M J. We could make anything we wanted, but the associated sentence had to use the letters in that order. Here are just a few of the titles:

Do Lovers Know Marriage means Joy vs. Jail?

Dodge Lovers Keep Mechanical Junk

Daring Laura Kissed Mister Jensen

Dandelions Love Killing My Jonquils

Two of the quilts were made with paintstiks, so I just had to take photos to share with you.

Ginny Thomas loves butterflies. The title for her challenge quilt was Distance Long, Kilometers, Monarch Journeys. She made freezer paper stencils for her butterflies.

The second painted quilt was made by Sarah Howard. She made a freezer paper stencil for the word Jitters. The phrase for her quilt was Drink, Lounge, Kickback, Muse, Jitters. We all signed the quilt and Sarah gave it to the owner of the coffee shop as a thank you gift for the great hospitality.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. There’s nothing like a great day with a bunch of creative women to get me fired up to spend some time in my studio.

What did you do this weekend?

I usually do my blog posts on Monday, but we’re having a SALE and I want to get the news out before the weekend.

Forget March — It’s Time For Matte Color Madness!

March Madness is finally over and not a moment too soon! I’m a little tired of hearing about basketball. I’d much rather be working on a quilt or painting up some fabric. It’s much more fun than hearing endless discussion about who is shooting at what percentage from behind the 3-point line.

In all fairness, I have to say that the Women’s championship game was fun to watch and very inspiring. I could only watch in awe of the raw talent and athleticism on the court. Basketball has sure changed in the years since I played in high school — and no, I’m not going to count how many years it has been.

Back to the topic at hand… I started working on this series about matte colors last week. I’m having a wonderful time – this is a great excuse to break out my paintstiks and actually play with each and every one of them. It’s interesting to see which colors are densely opaque, which are translucent, and which fall somewhere in between.

Last weekend, I had an idea that will make this a little bit more fun for all of us. Instead of just telling you about the colors, we’re going to give you an opportunity to purchase the Colors of the Week at a discounted price. And in a tip of the hat to basketball fans out there, we’ve got a buzzer-beating 3-point play for you. If you’ve ever wanted to explore the matte color line, you can do it now and save some money at the same time.

The Matte Madness Sale started Thursday and runs through May 4. Here’s how it works:

Colors of the Week

Each week, the colors featured in our e-zine will be offered at a discounted price in our online store. We’ve set up a special section in the Online Store called Matte Madness Sale. (What else?) This way you won’t have to hunt through 4 pages of matte colors to hunt down the featured colors. We’re letting you pick and choose the colors you want so you don’t end up duplicating colors you already own.

Colors will be added to the Matte Madness Sale each Thursday. They will be removed at noon (central time) on Wednesday the following week. Single color sale prices will be at least 15% off our regular prices. If you want to get a reminder each Thursday, Join Our Community. Your membership includes a free weekly e-zine that will keep you up to date on any special sales.

This Week’s Featured Colors — Neutrals and Lights

I wrote about the Neutral Colors before I dreamed up this sale, so I’m adding them to our sale this week. Click over to the Matte Madness Sale page to add your favorites to your paintstik collection.

Tip Off Special! Order the Complete Set of Matte Colors at our BEST PRICE EVER!

Here’s a deal that won’t last. It’s the best price we have ever offered for the Complete Set of 55 Matte Paintstik Colors.

For one short week, we are offering this gorgeous set for just $300. The full retail price for this set is $406.05, so your total savings are a whopping $106.05, more than 25% off. Now that’s some serious savings!

Click here to take advantage of this very special offer.

I just did a quick calculation. The retail prices for Matte Colors are $6.50, $9.75 and $12.95. This works out to an average price of $7.38. If you take advantage of this offer, your average cost for each paintstik is just $5.45. That’s over a buck off the every day cost of the lowest priced paintstiks — and more than 55% off the highest priced sticks. Wow!

So is this really a good deal? Absolutely. We offer the Complete Set at a small discount every day on our site, but nothing that comes close to this offer. For one week only you can get the complete set for $64.95 less than our regular everyday price. And that’s more than enough to cover the postage to Australia, South Africa, or Timbuktu.

It’s your choice. You can pick and choose the colors you like as we go through the Matte Madness Event over the next month. Or, you can treat yourself to the complete set at our best price ever, pay only one shipping charge, and know that you have it all! Once again, here is the link to fabulous savings.

But don’t think about it too long. Cinderella turns into a pumpkin on 12 Noon on Wednesday, April 13. After that, you’ll have to be content with the Color of the Week discounts. (Yes, I know, that was one too many basketball analogies. With any luck, I’ve got them out of my system for another year!)

This is part two of our Matte Color Series. You can read the first part of the series in an earlier post. (Click on the title to go to that post.)

1 – Naturally Neutral

There are six colors in the Matte paintstik line that I think of as LIGHT. These are clean colors that have been mixed with a substantial amount of Titanium White. They are very opaque and show up well on dark paper or fabric.

(Actually, there are several more paintstiks that are light in value, but I’m going to include them with the “dusty” colors in another article. I have to break up the colors in some way. I really don’t think you want a novel in your Email box.)

Light Matte Colors

I mentioned Titanium White and Antique White in the first article on Neutrals, but when I sat down to put the colors into groups, it was clear that they belong here with the Lights. Here are the six light colors:

Titanium White is a pure, bright white. It is very strong and densely opaque. Titanium White is one of my secret weapons when I’m stenciling on dark fabric or paper. A base layer of white acts like a primer on walls. It blocks out the darkness of the fabric and allows me to get the color I want without adding so many layers of paint.

Antique White is a lovely, creamy, not-quite-white. I have often heard this color referred to as Candlelight White.

Medium Pink is a nice clean pink, a perfect “baby girl pink.”

Peach is an orange blended with Titanium White. It’s still got a lot of color, but it’s softer than orange. Think “tangerine.”

Light Green is a wonderful minty bluish-green. A perfect accent for the froth on ocean waves.

Periwinkle is that fascinating color somewhere between blue and purple. If you mix Iridescent Sapphire and Titanium White, you’ll be very close to Periwinkle.
The most important thing to note about the light colors is that they are very opaque. They are great for adding light accents and shading, and work well as a base color when you need to block out the “darkness” of black or other dark colors.

If you have a print (or a decorative paper) that is too strong for your project, try brushing over it with a light color to dull it down. Use a large, soft stencil brush and make sure you don’t have too much paint on the brush. It’s a great way to have a piece of fabric/paper that is “there” but not overpowering.

Have you used “light” paintstiks to put accents on your projects? Leave a comment and let me know how you are using them. Got a picture? Post it on our Facebook page.

Up Next: Bold & Bright Colors

At this point, we’ve talked about Neutral Colors and Light Colors. If you find yourself wanting to shout SHOW ME SOME REAL COLOR, just hold your horses! Next week we’ll explore the Bold Bright Colors.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been talking about some projects that you can do with Design Magic stencils. Today I want to show you a super-simple quilt that would look great from any Design Magic design. The quilt is called “On Safari” and you’ll find the instructions in the project section of the Design Magic book. (Click here to learn more about Design Magic.)

Whether you love to make your own designs and stencils or use our pre-cut mylar stencils, this little quilt is a great project. I made it up in earthy colors for the book. The colors reminded me of the Safari trip I took in Kenya in 2006. But you can make it from bold bright colors for a totally different look.

About the Safari Design

Matthew Mills, my very talented graphic designer, created the Safari design for me, and I have to say it is one of my favorite designs. The design is printed in the back of the book so you can make freezer paper stencils from it, or you can purchase our pre-cut mylar Safari stencils. The mylar stencils have several advantages — they are already cut (of course!), you can see through the mylar, and all the alignment guides are etched into the stencils to make your life easier as you paint the images on fabric. Here is a picture of the Safari stencils.

And here a closer look at the Safari design on a piece of the Gradations fabric from Benartex. I used the new Sorbet Iridescent Minis to paint this sample. The fabric changes color from one side to the other, giving a different look at each end.

I used this set of stencils to make the On Safari quilt project that is included in the Design Magic book. I don’t recall if we named the stencils or the quilt first, but it’s a great combination. Here is the super-simple quilt I promised…

The 4 large panels of the quilt are painted on fat quarters that are then trimmed to size for insertion in the quilt top. I just quilted in the grid lines. I was surprised how many people at quilt market thought it was appliqued or pieced.

If you don’t have need for a lap quilt, you can also make a small quilt from a single block. Here is a little quilt I made for an event using some of the same fabrics.

Skip the Quilt, Make a Bag!

When I finished work on my Design Magic book last spring, I had some wonderful samples. And rather than carrying the samples around, I decided to make something special for myself using the cover fabric from the book. I’ve already worn out the Primrose tote that started my Design Magic adventure, so I decided to make the new Margo bag from my good friend Joan Hawley at Lazy Girl Designs.

Margo is a delightful bag with a zipper at the top — and leave it to Joan to figure out such an easy method for adding a zipper! Margo is a little bigger than I would normally make for a purse (I like them SMALL so I don’t carry too much junk…) but she is going to be perfect once my iPad arrives.

I used the Safari design and a Grape (matte color) paintstik to paint a  beautiful piece of hand-dyed fabric. As soon as I finished, I knew it was perfect for the the cover of the book, and I have to say that it made a fabulous bag as well. I had a hard time cutting into this piece of fabric to make something I’m sure to wear out, but hey – what good is beautiful fabric if it just sits in the closet? If I wear it out, I’ll just have to make a new one!

At any rate, you can go on your own Safari Design Magic adventure. Make a Margo bag, make a quilt, you decide! Whatever you choose, it will be lots of fun.

I love color. I love to dye fabric, play with paints, browse through fabric stores and wander through greenhouses. I simply love places and things that are packed with color. I keep telling myself it’s OK — I could have far worse vices than color.

Try telling that to my husband who looks at my collections of colored fibers, threads, buttons, netting, and bins of narrow strips of fabric… I just smile and remind him that I don’t smoke, don’t drink and don’t chase other men, so he should just put up with my color addiction. So there!

On the serious side, it was one of my little color adventures that led me to our Paintstiks, and I’ve been happily painting up a storm for the past 11 years. I’ve spent most of my time with the iridescent colors, but I’m learning to love the matte color like more and more.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll take you on a guided tour through our matte color line. I’m going to start with the neutral colors this week and we’ll move into more colors from there. I’ll do my best to share the answers to questions I’ve heard from various customers. I hope this will help you as well.

The Matte Color Line

In any line of artist’s colors, you’ll find a wide range of colors (hues) and a number of more neutral colors. They are useful for backgrounds, blending, making shadows, mixing with and toning down other colors.

In the Shiva Paintstik Matte Colors, there are some warm neutral colors that lean toward the browns and cool neutrals that are based in black. Let’s start with the cool neutral colors.

Titanium White

First we have Titanium White. I didn’t even try to take a photo of this color because it’s kind of a waste of time and effort to get it right. Titanium white is really truly a bright white. It is very strong and very opaque. I use Titanium white when I’m stenciling images on black or very dark fabric with a more translucent color. The white acts just like primer on  walls — it blocks out the darkness of the fabric and allows me to get the color I want without adding so many layers of paint.

Cool Neutral Colors

Next, we have a series of gray colors from fairly light right down to black. Here are the cool neutral colors.

Ice Blue is a light gray with a blue tone to it. (I would not have given it this name, but I wasn’t invited to the color naming party…)

Pewter Gray is a really nice medium middle-of-the-road gray.

Payne’s Gray is best described as “not-quite-black.” It’s a great color for making shadows as it is not quite so stark as Ivory Black.

Ivory Black is a strong, opaque black. It’s also a little warmer than Payne’s Gray. When I put the two side-by-side, I see Payne’s Gray as a “cool” black and Ivory Black as a “warm” black. It’s really just the same as what we find in the fabric world — black is not black is not black…

Warm Neutral Colors

On the warm side, we have some different neutral colors.

Antique White is a lovely, creamy off-white. It’s a color that I have often heard referred to as Candlelight White.

Sandstone is a chalky color. In my mind, Sandstone is a light taupe.

Mudstone is very much related to Sandstone, but quite a bit darker, more of a dark taupe.

Finally, Beige is much pinker than the other warm neutrals.

To see the full range of colors, visit this page on our site. The color chips on site were provided by the paint company years ago. As I continue this series, I’ll be updating the chips to match what you are seeing in this newsletter. (It’s almost impossible to get it just right, but I think some of these are better than what we’ve been using on the site.)

Next week, we’ll jump into something a little brighter!