Simplest way to map colours from a paint-by-number kit to greyscale?
March 11, 2023 10:09 PM Subscribe
I want to complete a paint-by-number kit using art markers and need help finding how to map the colours to the markers I have available.
I have purchased a cheap paint-by-number set from my local Dollarama. I want to try colouring it in with a set of art markers I have rather than use the included paints. The art markers are copic markers in various shades of grey. What is the "simplest" way to figure out the best mapping from the included paint colours to the greyscale markers that I have available? I'm hoping there might be a way that doesn't involve me eyeballing it and guesstimating what would work best.
I have purchased a cheap paint-by-number set from my local Dollarama. I want to try colouring it in with a set of art markers I have rather than use the included paints. The art markers are copic markers in various shades of grey. What is the "simplest" way to figure out the best mapping from the included paint colours to the greyscale markers that I have available? I'm hoping there might be a way that doesn't involve me eyeballing it and guesstimating what would work best.
If you have an iPhone you can go Settings->Accessibility->Display & Text Size->Color Filters->Grayscale (or just search settings for color filters), and then look at stuff live through the camera app. You could then compare small swatches of the paints with the markers, and match them that way. IDK if Android has a similar feature - it might.
BUT you might get better results by adjusting some to make extra brightness contrast where the paints only show hue contrast. I don't think this is something that can 100% be formulaic - it's a creative process interpreting it this way.
posted by aubilenon at 10:43 PM on March 11, 2023 [3 favorites]
BUT you might get better results by adjusting some to make extra brightness contrast where the paints only show hue contrast. I don't think this is something that can 100% be formulaic - it's a creative process interpreting it this way.
posted by aubilenon at 10:43 PM on March 11, 2023 [3 favorites]
Use a monochrome photocopier to get greyscale versions of the provided painting and of paint swatches? Compare with a 9 value scale of grey copics?
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:45 AM on March 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:45 AM on March 12, 2023 [3 favorites]
Using a greyscale filter as aubilenon suggests is certainly the way I'd start going about this.
What I'd expect to find, though, is that greyscale filterings of several of the included colours would match a greyscale filtering of one of my grey markers.
At which point I'd just say fuck it, make a bunch of photocopies of the paint-by-numbers outline, and do test colourings of regions where those ambiguous colours occur near to each other, to see which mappings I like the look of the most.
At which point it would occur to me that I'm overthinking the whole process and I'd just sit down with my markers and make something which is what I bought the thing for in the first place.
posted by flabdablet at 4:06 AM on March 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
What I'd expect to find, though, is that greyscale filterings of several of the included colours would match a greyscale filtering of one of my grey markers.
At which point I'd just say fuck it, make a bunch of photocopies of the paint-by-numbers outline, and do test colourings of regions where those ambiguous colours occur near to each other, to see which mappings I like the look of the most.
At which point it would occur to me that I'm overthinking the whole process and I'd just sit down with my markers and make something which is what I bought the thing for in the first place.
posted by flabdablet at 4:06 AM on March 12, 2023 [9 favorites]
Understand the progression of your markers grey scale.
Look at the picture on the box, fill in the numbers, unsure? Start with lighter shades first you can always mark over darker if needed.
Trust yourself.
posted by Max Power at 10:22 AM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Look at the picture on the box, fill in the numbers, unsure? Start with lighter shades first you can always mark over darker if needed.
Trust yourself.
posted by Max Power at 10:22 AM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
It would perhaps be helpful to know how many markers you have and how many and which colors of paint to have.
As flabdablet suggests, on paper you’re probably going to have an issue with different colors mapping to the same shade of gray. In the RGB color scheme Red is (255,0,0), Green is (0,255,0) and Blue is (0,0,255).
Pure white is (255,255,255) and Yellow is (255,255,0). Orange is (255,128,0). Assuming you don’t have Cyan (0,255,255) or Magenta (255,0,255) in your palette, i would probably start with something like this map from lightest to darkest grayscale
White
Yellow
Orange
Red
Green
Blue
Purple (picturing much darker than magenta)
Brown
Black
And then maybe do a little bit of tweaking. If you have a light blue and want the sky to be lighter than the grass, move blue ahead of green. Stuff like that.
posted by cali59 at 5:42 PM on March 12, 2023
As flabdablet suggests, on paper you’re probably going to have an issue with different colors mapping to the same shade of gray. In the RGB color scheme Red is (255,0,0), Green is (0,255,0) and Blue is (0,0,255).
Pure white is (255,255,255) and Yellow is (255,255,0). Orange is (255,128,0). Assuming you don’t have Cyan (0,255,255) or Magenta (255,0,255) in your palette, i would probably start with something like this map from lightest to darkest grayscale
White
Yellow
Orange
Red
Green
Blue
Purple (picturing much darker than magenta)
Brown
Black
And then maybe do a little bit of tweaking. If you have a light blue and want the sky to be lighter than the grass, move blue ahead of green. Stuff like that.
posted by cali59 at 5:42 PM on March 12, 2023
I would take a piece of paper similar to the art stock I wanted to use, and paint the number of each number onto it. Or maybe write the number and paint a little square. That's your colors.
Then I'd write out numbers for the various shades of gray, and make little squares for them; ideally on the same sheet if I could fit it all.
Then I'd scan that sheet on a monochrome setting. Open the resulting scan in whatever tool you like for manipulating graphics, and you can "move" the (say) #37 chartreuse square around until you see that it looks most similar to (say) gray #7.
(The real question, of course, is what shades of gray does one use to paint a picture of that black/blue dress from Twitter 100 years ago?)
posted by adekllny at 6:15 PM on March 13, 2023
Then I'd write out numbers for the various shades of gray, and make little squares for them; ideally on the same sheet if I could fit it all.
Then I'd scan that sheet on a monochrome setting. Open the resulting scan in whatever tool you like for manipulating graphics, and you can "move" the (say) #37 chartreuse square around until you see that it looks most similar to (say) gray #7.
(The real question, of course, is what shades of gray does one use to paint a picture of that black/blue dress from Twitter 100 years ago?)
posted by adekllny at 6:15 PM on March 13, 2023
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