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War is not porridge. CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUEArticle: A Colorful Pet
Peeve A Colorful Pet Peeve by Wendy Maki Recently, my son, who's in grade 6, was learning about color. Sure enough, the color wheel he'd painted up as
an exercise was the same old standard red-blue-yellow wheel that most of us were taught. You know the one: What's wrong with that? Well, it *does* get the basic concept across, but it isn't quite right. I often wonder how many of us, or our kids, give up on color wheels, and never use them -- because they just don't *work.* The *problem* is that the standard simple red-blue-yellow color wheel uses the wrong colors! The only *right* color is the yellow. The blue is the wrong blue. The red is the wrong red. The *mistake* comes from the fact that there are *two* different color wheels, one for mixing light (sun...), and one for mixing pigment (like paints and inks). Mix the three *light* primaries together and you get white light. Mix the three *pigment* primaries together and you get black. So, what are the *right* colors for paints and other pigments? Take a look at the ink cartridge in a color printer. What colors do you see? Cyan, *not* an ultramarine blue. A magenta red, *not* a crayon or Christmas red. And yellow. *Those* are the colors that you need if you are going to create any other color by mixing pigments. Printers have known this, but artists, and budding artists, aren't always taught this. Try it out for yourself the next time you want to mix a purple. Use a cyan blue color with a magenta
type of red. Voila. You can come up with an amazing Like most people, I learned the standard color wheel, at school and in the books I looked at. And I muddled along making various shades of *mud* until... I was several years into my university art training, and I had the chance to take a wonderful color theory
course from an amazing woman. She taught us a color I haven't used any other wheel since, and it always works. I always know I can take just 3 colors plus white and black, and create *any* color I could ever want, as clear and brilliant, or as complex or subtle as I need. The Christmasy red that you see so often as the primary red on simple color wheels, like those taught
at school, is really a *secondary* color on a pigment ****** When you have all three primaries in one pigment mix, the color starts heading toward black. Voila, *mud.* ****** The same idea goes for the ultramarine type of blue that's usually shown as the primary on simple color
wheels. That, too, is really a secondary *pigment* Knowing this, not only can you create cleaner mixed colors when you want to, you can also create
sophisticated mixed blends. For example, you can Even if you don't paint artistically or decoratively, understanding how pigment colors mix can be really
useful when you're trying to paint your home or How To Identify the 3 Primary Colors in the Pigments You UseHere's a simple way to identify the true primaries for whatever pigments you are using. Pick out three colors that are clear and strong, and that seem to be possible primaries: yellow, cyan, and magenta-red. (Compare them to a computer printer ink cartridge to narrow it down.) Mix two of those colors together. If you end up with a muddy or greyed-out tone, it means that one or both of the pigments you started with isn't quite a true primary. One or both has a bit of the third primary in it (or some white or black added). The more muddy the result, the more of the third primary (or white or black) has found its way into the mix. From there, it's just trial-and-error, and a process of elimination. For example, try a slightly different
red, and see if the test mix produces a clearer and You've identified your 3 primaries when you can mix 3 other separate clean, clear, and true colors using them:
The 3 secondary colors that you've mixed up form the RGB palette that you find used on computer monitors. That's because those secondaries just happen to be the light primaries! The majority of pre-mixed decorative painting acrylic paint colors aren't anywhere near primary pigment colors. You need to pick colors that are closest in the product line to being artist's quality to find the colors that are primary or close to it. Or, you might need to try a different brand altogether. Also, some blues that are named *cyan* have some yellow (or white) mixed into them, so they aren't
always the exact blue that you need. Many *magenta* Add white and black to your 3 pigment primary colors, and you can literally mix up *any* color you could
ever need from just 5 tubes or jars of pigment. Even Recommended books & links: Color and More Color
Marketing your crafts on-line:Right now, I've got 3 free ebooks that you can download directly from my site. I'm not sure how long I'll keep these downloads posted. The space they take adds up, and sometime I'll need to make room for new things. To download them, all you need to do is *right-click* on the link, and that should open up a window where you can *Save Target As* to save it to your computer. These links go directly to the books themselves. If you'd rather read them online, then just click the link normally. Download #1 I was looking back over the time since I first decided to come on-line, remembering the *light-bulb* moments and *turning-points.* One such moment was reading the course that's in the first ebook. Since then, I've gone on to read many other things written by Ken Evoy, and I'm now using his SiteBuildIt! package to build my new web site (more on that farther down). The Affiliate Masters course has a lot of useful information about building a site around any kind of special interest, even though the course's particular focus is on building income from affiliate programs. One reason I've been able to get as much traffic from search engines as I have is this course. You can download the course in pdf book format. It's a large file, 970 kb, so you might prefer to get the course by email. Download #2 [NO LONGER AVAILABLE HERE] For those of you that were with me for the second issue, you'll know that I've been paying close attention to the discussions that are raging in the small online business community about the problem of getting legitimate emails delivered and received. I don't want to dwell on it again in this issue, so I'll just point you to a great little book I stumbled across. Did you know that you could miss out on legally binding notices that can now be sent via email? I didn't -- until I read Sandra Bowman's book. Inspired by her own experiences, she wrote it to educate others, and takes a balanced approach to the subject of spam and email blocking. She's letting websites give her book away, so you can download it directly from my site. (Sorry, the exe ebook format only works for Windows users, so it won't work on Macs.) Right now, small businesses online are the hardest hit, but it's definitely affecting all email communication, some way or another. Download #3 [NO LONGER AVAILABLE HERE] Chuck McCullough's Search Engine Primer is still
available. If you're building a web site, it's a really good basic reference to have on hand. It covers how you (Sorry, the exe ebook format only works for Windows users, so it won't work on Macs.) Forums are a popular way for craft sites (or any web site) to build an online community. Until now, there hasn't been much around to help someone learn how to build one, or how to make postings that draw traffic. With these two new releases, there's bound to be a rash of copy-cats coming out with titles on the subject. Michael Green of How To Corp has added forum building to the list of subjects covered by his popular line of How To products.
On the flip side, joining forums and becoming an active poster to discussions, can be an effective way to become known in a niche topic, and attracting visitors to your own website or newsletter. There are definite dos-and-don'ts, though, to this no cost traffic building strategy. Last, but not least... My fauxgrain.com craft marketing page links to an unusual web-hosting package offered by Ken Evoy of
SiteSell. I've been itching to try it out myself, but I held off because of the time fauxgrain takes. Finally,
my new year's resolution to myself was to *just do it*! Copyright 2003 Faux Grain. All rights reserved. e-fg-zine... delivered to its readers by...
All e-fg-zine & Faux Grain material is presented in good faith, but is for educational and informational purposes only. No warranties or guarantees of any kind are expressed or implied. Read the full disclaimer. |
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Issue #3
