HELP! Why do some effects turn the object gray?

I have an object that when i try to apply the Color pencil effect, no matter what it just grays or blacks out.

However, when i appy the grain effect, it works as expected.

About 50% of the effects work as expected, 50% do not. 

What am I doing wrong? No matter the object. No matter what. I have checked the colors to make sure it was not on grayscale. My computer is more than capable enough to render complex graphics, so I do not understand what I am doing wrong here. Any help would be very very appreciated!

Cheers,

Bob