The vegetation is finally turning green here, which means it's jorts season! And update crayon tin season! I limit the number of crayons I take with me because premixed colors get muddy very quickly if you use too many of them. There's a lot of abstraction involved (3 or 4 different shades of green in a scene will get condensed into 1 or 2, for example).

Color selection is a new "problem" for me because I'm used to mixing colors from primaries. I used to exclusively mix accurate colors for paintings, but my experiments with limited palettes have helped push me out of my comfort zone. The crayons have sent me further in that direction because I really have to think about what I want to communicate with color (vibes, if you will).

I've been using olive greens for vegetation and foliage a lot during the winter, but they just don't do it for spring even though a lot of trees are approximately that color. When I think of new spring leaves, I think of the delicate translucent look they get when the sun hits them, and a desaturated green doesn't capture that. On the other hand, the spring green Neocolor goes down as a lime green but turns into fluorescent yellow when it's wet, which nails the vibe even though it isn't as realistic.

On the topic of greens, I'm contemplating adding a neutral green to my lineup, but I realized after some experimenting that spring green and dark green layer well to create the same effect. I might get it anyway as a convenience color because it shows up so often, but I like the tonal variation that the mix of two greens has to offer.

Clockwise from top left: A tree drawn with salmon pink (flowers) and Vandycke brown (trunk); a tree drawn with spring green (foliage) and Vandycke brown (trunk); dandelions drawn with yellow (flowers), spring green, dark green, (leaves), golden ochre, and English red (surrounding leaf litter).

I love all the pops of color that are starting to dot the landscape as the flowers come out. We have some tulips starting to bloom, and I'm hoping we have better luck with the columbines we planted last year. Also, the dandelions are back!

After some experimenting, I settled on this palette. It's not that much different from my winter palette because there are a lot of staple colors that I can't get rid of, but the few swaps change the tone of it completely!

• White
• Vermillion
• English Red
• Ochre
• Yellow (Staedtler Karat Aquarell)
• Sahara Yellow
• Spring Green
• Olive Brown
• Dark Green
• Turquoise Blue
• Ultramarine
• Periwinkle
• Vandycke Brown
• Beige