Mud Brown

I received a meme from someone the other day. One of the questions on it was, If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?

I felt for my colour for a moment and decided, mud brown. In fact, I am mud brown most of the time. It's true I wasn't feeling particularly cheerful at that moment. But that's not why I am mud brown.

I took a drawing course this Spring with the wonderful Barbara Klunder, artist, designer, and creator of the Klunder fonts. I like drawing on kraft paper (sandwich bag paper) because the paper is textured and forgiving. I make lots of mistakes. To work mistakes into master pieces, Barbara held up two colours and said, If you can find these colours on their own, buy them. These are the secret colours that masters use to give oomph to their work.

The colours were forest green and mud brown.

Mud brown is not dark or chocolate brown. It is that clayish brown, like dried mud. On its own, it looks dull and innocuous. But it holds the power to transform its surroundings. If you've made your drawing too dark, mud brown lightens it. If you've made your drawing too light, mud brown give it contrast, tone and grounds it. Mud brown neutralizes and balances, bringing wholeness and harmony to a drawing. Mud brown is a high functioning colour, gold to an artist. I am mud brown.

And the person who sent me the meme, she's forest green.