Pollen - Green

The green centers of poppies and hellebores

Not every flower has a dark spot inside. A hellebore flowers to a greenish tone and its center practically merges with the perianth, a poppy has a clearly green seed capsule under the dark ring and a number of other plants carry the green filaments of their stamens before they ripen. The green powder is therefore a shade for a modeler who has really looked at a flower.

It is also used for unripe fruits and seed capsules. A small green ball in the place where the perianth has fallen says more about a plant than the most carefully made flower, because in a real bed both phases are always visible at once. The package takes 29.4 cm3 of material, in inch measure 1.8 cubic inches.

When to reach for green

It works most strongly where the other shades miss their effect. A white or pale pink flower with a dark center looks hard, whereas with a green inside it keeps its delicacy. It is similar with large petals, which a sharp contrast would optically make smaller.

The shade suits outside plants too. Rubbed over a damp wall it suggests algae under a gutter, rubbed into the joints between paving blocks it makes moss, and spread onto the surface of still water it creates the film that a pond tends to have at the end of summer. In all those cases the work is done with a very small amount and the material is rubbed in rather than spread.

The grain size corresponds to a pigment, so it can be combined with pastel dust as well as with ordinary modeling pigments. Before the shade is used in a visible place it pays off to try it on an offcut, because on a dark base it comes out markedly differently than on a light one.