Some time in the early 1970s, I got a few of these color-pencil-by-numbers sets as Christmas gifts. For young Cygnus, the color pencils were a godsend. I loved the ubiquitous Crayola rainbow, but wax crayons left a lot to be desired. They couldn't give you the fine lines of a pencil or pen... and if you stacked up a few of your creations on top of one another, the papers would stick together and get kind of goopy after a while.
I was fascinated by one particular brand... the Venus Paradise pencils, which had their own unique color palette. Each color was assigned to an evocative name and a specific number in an esoteric sequence. The numbers corresponded to the digits on the color-by-numbers outlines, but I don't remember filling in many of them. I tended to just hoard the pencils and draw other stuff with them (and I still have some nubs left in a box somewhere).
So, a few months ago, I discovered a massive, labor-of-love web site for Crayloa crayon collectors. Over the years I've also seen quite a few attempts at creating web-based color palettes out of the classic crayon colors. But where's the digital love for Venus Paradise? Someone might want to re-create their childhood color-pencil artwork as accurately as possible. Okay, Cygnus (plus some image-grabbing software) to the rescue.
1. Deep Yellow: (247, 210, 039), #F7D227
2. Sarasota Orange: (245, 120, 057), #F57839
3. Poppy Red: (231, 067, 069), #E74345
4. Hollywood Cerise: (255, 111, 145), #FF6F91
5. Orchid Purple: (089, 062, 103), #593E67
6. Navy Blue: (022, 057, 108), #16396C
7. Peacock Blue: (078, 195, 239), #4EC3EF
8. Emerald Green: (036, 179, 134), #24B386
9. Deep Chrome Green: (024, 092, 069), #185C45
10. Photo Brown: (136, 068, 032), #884420
11. Chestnut Brown: (067, 047, 026), #432F1A
12. Midnight Black: (017, 017, 016), #111110
13. Ultramarine Blue: (059, 123, 210), #3B7BD2
14. Natural Flesh: (246, 224, 181), #F6E0B5
15. Lawn Green: (056, 134, 079), #38864F
16. French Green: (203, 215, 087), #CBD757
17. Smoke Gray: (159, 153, 146), #9F9992
18. Blush Pink: (251, 133, 126), #FB857E
19. Cherry Red: (217, 057, 064), #D93940
20. Arizona Topaz: (243, 208, 119), #F3D077
21. Indian Red: (174, 064, 042), #AE402A
22. Sky Magenta: (208, 123, 154), #D07B9A
23. Cotton White: (254, 253, 253), #FEFDFD
24. Lemon Yellow: (253, 243, 132), #FDF384
25. Bright Gold: (195, 170, 117), #C3AA75
26. Bright Silver: (155, 185, 190), #9BB9BE
27. Sky Blue: (104, 192, 236), #68C0EC
I so love those color names. If I ever write a noir-ish crime drama, I'm sure I'll steal at least three or four character names from the above list. I think #4 and #17 must be having an affair.
Here's what the digital RGB colors look like in graphical form:
Please do whatever you like with this information. I'm still not sure why it's ending up on this blog. I just know I had a blast putting it all together. Right now, that's enough for me.
I should note that I never owned numbers 25 or 26. According to the web, these two were the rarest colors of the bunch. It took me a while to even find an image of #26 (see below... ain't it bee-u-tee-ful?). For #25 I had to go slumming with online images of other brands to even begin to guess what "Bright Gold" might look like. I'll find one someday! :-)
