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So when you last heard from me— I had locked myself out of the studio for the weekend, vowing to take my first weekend off in over 9 months.

How’d I do?

Well, I stayed out of the studio even though I was tempted a couple times to find the key and do a quick task. I was good. I started a Monday to-do list instead of doing it right away.

I did get a lot of yard work done. The problem is, I thought about work the whole entire time.

And you know what happens when I get to thinking…

So yes, I have new ideas for new time-sucks.

Maybe it’s better if I don’t give myself time to think?

Acorn Variations is our October project for intermediates. Every Acorn here uses the same marker/pencil recipe. We’re jazz riffing with color.

Sun Gold

Which G markers should I use for grass?

Which greens make the best trees?

Which green blending combination do you use most?

Uhhh? You’re asking me?

I’d say none of them, which isn’t the answer you want, eh?

Here’s my best beginner buying advice:

Skip the Copic Greens until you own all the Yellow Greens.

And if you were really pesky and bugged me for specific Green blending advice, I'd say:

Drop the darned Gs and find a similar YG combo.

Seriously? Am I that anti-green?

Yep.

But this isn’t an irrational bias. I’ve got good reasons for skipping the Gs.

I’ll admit, I may have some childhood green trauma.

First off, my dad was a ragin’ Michigan State fan which meant that 94.72% of his wardrobe involved G29.

And my mom? That’s a whole ‘nother bag o green nuts.

She must have hit a clearance sale on green spray paint because somewhere around 1978, she started painting everything dark green. This continued throughout my childhood and long after I moved out. The mailbox, the front door, the shutters, the porch pots, the clothesline poles, and all our lawn furniture with thick Hunter Green Krylon.

Even our rusty swing-set didn’t escape the canned paint. The crusty green-painted slide would rip a hole in your backside if you were dumb enough to try it.

I don’t know why. It was the 70’s. People were weird back then.

Bad spray paint aside, I'm just not a fan of the G marker family.

I could easily give away all my Gs and never feel poorer for it.

If you see me using Gs in class, it's because I've made a special effort to use a Green combo... as an instructor, I feel I have to; it’s not because I want to.

So what's wrong with the Gs?

For starters, Copic G greens are not very organic.

Which is weird because in theory, green is the most Mother Nature-ish color of them all.

The G family inks are artificially sourced.

Except for the G-90 series, all G markers are based on Viridian or Phthalo Green which are both blue-shifted greens. You don’t see a lot of blue leaning green in the garden. Chlorophyll has a yellow tinge, not blue.

So if I'm coloring a botanical, landscape, or anything natural, I'm not grabbing the weird bluish green, thank you.

But the other problem is that Gs are stubborn inks.

G’s grab onto paper fibers and they’ll kick and scream before they'll blend.

G28 is called Satan's Spit for a reason.

Thanks to that stubborn quality, anything you might color with a G can be done faster and easier with a similar YG.

Time yourself sometime if you don’t believe me. G blends take longer than YG blends.

Why? Well, in case you didn’t realize it, the YG family is really just a bunch of greens with a splash of yellow added to every marker.

That’s what YG means, Yellow Ink + Green Ink = YG Ink

The yellow ink is key. Yellow is a pussycat— it's easy to blend and like a lullabye, yellow ink soothes the savage beast. Adding sweet yellow to a green formula tames green's evil nasty tendencies. I teach beginners with YGs but I also use them myself because they make my life easier.

Bonus points: the YGs are also cheerful colors-- they’re sunkissed with an optimistic vibe. Who doesn't love that?

In the spring, I see YGs everywhere.

Every little bud coming up out of the ground and all that fresh grass? It’s all highly tinged with yellow.

So in the spring I use lots of YG-Zeros, Teens, and Twenties.

They feel fresh.

But fresh isn’t what we want in October, right?

October is more mellow and there’s an antique, tarnished feel to autumn greens— less Hansa sunshine. More gold and ochre.

Don’t worry, the YGs still have you covered.

Around mid-September, YG67 starts creeping back into my projects. By late October, I’m down in the dirt with the YG-Nineties and mixing them with Y-Thirties and BG-Nineties for rich and subtle vintage color.

The YG family covers the full seasonal spectrum.

Here’s a question for you— especially if you’re a card maker or anyone who colors by the season…

Bulb flowers in the spring, summer cottage gardens, fall vegetable harvests, and winter’s pine and spruce

Do you use the same ol’ green combination year round?

If you don’t have a lot of markers or if you’re still struggling to blend, I understand finding a combination and sticking with it.

But the seasons change and your blends should too.

I’m not saying go crazy with a totally different green blend everyday.

But you can easily modify your 3 marker YG combo to better match the colors outside your window.

My acorn project is a weird YG combination: V22, G24, YG23, YG21.

It’s the same YG21-23 I’ve been using in projects all year but now I’ve tempered the optimistic brightness with some grunge. It’s a mature green more suitable to this season of loss and decay.

I know, we all have our favorite, ideal green combination.

You can still use it.

Just modify it slightly for the season.

Do you need sunshine or gold?

Your YG markers can handle ‘em both.

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