What split cakes do you use and how?

I was inspired to start this after reading the DFX mini reviews. I love splits and am always experimenting with them. I also love to check out the color combos of the ABC cakes on SillyFarm. Many are clever and some or "alright". I do struggle with how they get some to look nice with so much black in the cake as when I add even a tiny sliver, it overwhelms the other colors. Maybe I should use Snaz and not DFX black. All a work in progress.

These are some that I am currently playing around with.


1. red, light orange, dark orange and DFX neon yellow
You shouldn't be frightened about redoing your splits. Wendy gave me this with black, red, light and dark(all paradise). I though the black too much and wondered what adding neon yellow would do. WOW! The neon really takes it over the top.
2. White and black combo. This one is great, but needs A LOT of practice and only a sliver of black. Your brush also needs to be clean in between for a clean stroke.

1. Here we have paradise blue, Snaz light blue, Snaz liliac and white. The Snaz really blends together and gets a bit muddled, but I am still working on it.
2. DFX Neon Pink, Snaz Bright Pink, Kryolan Lavendar, Paradise Wild Orchid. In playing with this one, it really doesn't need the Snaz pink.
3. DFX Dark blue, light blue and white. Love this one.
4. Wild Orchid, Kyolan Lavender, DFX Gold, Snaz tourquoise, I do find that the Snaz really muddles the other colors when you have several like this. I can never get it so show all four colors. I think Snaz may be best used when only two colors are used like with sparkle yellow and sparke orange for tigers.

Neon DFX green, light green and essential green. Love this one too. The neon green really makes it pop.

Would love to make a large pallet of splits only and solid red, black and white. I think these are the only three colors you need solid.

The one advantage to the buying the small rainbows it to see what works and how the combos work together so that you don't spend as much time and money experimenting on duds.

Post your splits, bad or good, here.

-Metina

Snaz blends easily, sometimes too easily, making it hard to maintain color seperation. I think thats why Arty used wolfe and other brands of paint to keep her cake colors seperate as they are applied.
Personally, I use only Snaz and have to pay attention to brush load to have it come out like I want to, but I am used to it and it makes my florals & foliage look more realistic.
I made up some small boxes of split cakes for my foam brushes and longer ones for One Stroke work. After this photo was taken, I found that only a bit of black hugging the far edge is all I needed, as it overpowers the other colors easily. So more than half to three quarters of the black shown was removed.

I will be coming up with a new green combo for snakes & gators to replace my brown combinations, so I will be taking another photo of my updated boxes soon.

I was curious what sort of designs do you create with the black and white split cake? I don't think I've seen that combo before. I can imagine it would be cool looking though.

I mainly use only light/dark split cakes...

So like....
a dark blue/light blue
light green/ dark green
pink/red
lavender/purple

that sort of thing.. I also have a rainbow cake and a light blue/hot pink and a yellow orange one....

I havn't tried my new one that I got from you the other day just yet! Gonna give them a try at the restaurant on Thursday

I need to go home and take pics of my splits... but I wanted to say...

Metina, What lovely nails you have!!!!!

Thanks about my nails. It is about only the 4th time in my life they are all the same length. I am trying to keep them painted so they won't break.

I am still playing with the white and black combo, but it works great for dogs. If you look at Rebecca Tonkovitch's(spelling) gallery, her dog it a great example. Because it ends up being white, gray, black when you use the stroke, it adds three demension.

http://artybrushstrokes.smugmug.com/Other/Arty-Brush-Strokes08/4691212_6znva#392587397_ENvNv

I could see this also for skulls. It seems like the best technique when making these cakes is to figure out what your main base color is and then make a cake with that color, another color and black thus pulling the colors together as in her cat here: http://artybrushstrokes.smugmug.com/Other/Arty-Brush-Strokes08/4691212_6znva#333235857_nVXgM

But the black is so tricky. If you get too much on the brush it totally muddies the other colors.

-Metina

Nice cat! But what was not utilized was that black & white on a inch & a half brush will make nice automatically strieght wiskers with just a brief touch to the skin.
I used my black, silver & white to make the elephant on my site. The trick is to put very little black in your cakes or just let a bit of the brush touch black when loading. Please note that my browns have the correct amount of black against the side.
Remember Metina when I told you how I loved your idea of the boxes and kept the paint low in them so I could lean the brush away from black, using the box edges as my guide? Still works great ; )
Susan

I made a bunch of little split cakes from Snaz...trying to imitate the AB ones. It didn't work so well when I tried painting with a large brush. I did find, however, that if I used a sponge it worked much better. Just a tip for anyone who's dissatisfied with the over-blending of their Snaz minis.

Tha Arty Brush Cake "Peacock" is the one split cake that is a must...IMHO

TTFN,
Rebecca

Rainbows are a must of course - so many uses. And Peacock - whether the ABC or homemade. Those are the two I use most.