A Substitute For Brandy - Breaking the Colour Cliché

Amen, Tim.

I'm pretty much a primary-color person - I'd to have to come back to this thread and look up some of the colors I see listed here.

 

Gee, Tim, when people ask me what my eyecolor is, I usually say grey-blue! Got to get at least one more color in...LOL.

I like a variety of descriptors in my writing. In fact, I try never to use the same adjective in one paragraph. It adds flavor but, hey, that's just me!

 

Black--onyx, charcoal, raven, midnight, sithly (only in the sw universe)
Blue--aqua, lapis, azure, sky, sapphire, bluebonnet, blueberry
Yellow--jaundiced, saffron
White--alabaster, ashen, ivory, chalk, powder, cream
Green--forest, sage, hunter, celery, spinach, vine
Red--blood, burgundy, wine, cherry, strawberry...

 

Blue - beryl, teal, turquoise, sea, lapis, robin's egg, tanzanite, glacial

orange - apricot, coral, peach, red-yellow, salmon, tangerine, titian, marigold, sienna, pumpkin,

green - asparagus

 

Here's the website I found that has a listing of colors (many of them are already listed here): Different Colors

 

Thanks, Hobbit, I'll add it to the post with the colour list.

Dana

 

Fecal and Brandy for brown.

 

Both already suggested, sorry.

Dana

 

Just making a random up so other writers can use this!

 

One that I've used for brown/yellow (it's on the beige/taupe/ecru/cream spectrum): FLAXEN.

That's especially good for describing hair.

 

I just came into this thread, but when I saw the mention of Mara's hair at the top, I was reminded of a line from the Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League":

Every shade of colour they were?straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real vivid flame-coloured tint.

I do wonder how straw and lemon could be thought shades of red (rather than yellow, where lemon already is) -- and orange is, well, orange -- but the last few should be good. [Given that it's the usual cliche, one would think some reference to fire or flame would already be listed under red.]

 

Found this website where you click the colour name and the screen turns that colour. Good if you're not sure what an actual colour is though you know the name.

 

Just a few thoughts -

- the cliché with drwarves goes that they all have brown or grey beards - has anyone noticed Tolkien said "blue beards" with some of them in The Hobbit ?

- Twi'lek also can have a variety of colurs ...

So why not use different colours within species ?

 

Thanks for creating this thread folks, I was writing a piece of description for Mara and I was about to hit myself when the only descriptor I could think up was red-gold. It was very nice to see more options.

 

I'm joining the Basic Color Club.

My eyes are dark brown.

 

I don't think we've covered 'rainbow' or 'clear'?

rainbow, iridescent ...

clear ... (there must be other words to describe no-color! )

monochromatic (more describing the use of color rather than the color itself, though)

 

No-color: Transparent, colorless, translucent, clear, invisible, glassy, airy, insubstantial, uncolored

Iridescent: Glittering, ornate, colorful, multi-colored, shiny

 

Yellow: gilt (a golden yellow, I think), wheat-colored (used in the Ep 2 novelization to describe Obi-Wan's hair)

Purple: lilac

Black: ink, raven

Brown: sandalwood

Look at all the colors, they're so pretty! O.O This all reminds me of the contents of a Crayola box

 

smog could possibly be a sickly brownish color

fire or flame could be a reddish-orange

granite and slate could be grey

-Bob

 

I found another one for Brown: I didn't see it on the list up there. And without further ado it is: Honey.

 

Purple: Royal

Red: Anybody put ruby in yet? Or raspberry (though that one could almost fall under purple...)

 

I'd put rasperry under Red. Mulberry however - is definitely purple

 

For blushing red: pomegranate

 

Whoa. I need to keep better track of this thread . . .

Dana

 

This one's a great thread! Excellent idea Dantana.

And to make my contribution... It seems there was little said about gray although it is a very usual eye colour, let alone all those Coruscant buildings

Gray: ash, ashen, cinereal, clouded, dappled, dingy, dove, drab, dusky, dusty, grey, heather, iron, lead, leaden, livid, mousy, neutral, oyster, pearly, peppery, powder, sere, shaded, silvered, silvery, slate, smoky, somber, steel, stone.

EDIT: Had to change the thread's title a bit. My computer refused to show it the right way.