Yellow-oranges made from PY110 have many possible names, including Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (Holbein, shown) and Permanent Yellow Deep (Daniel Smith). I like the Schmincke name, Yellow Orange, because it’s simple, descriptive, and easy to spell. This color exists in the liminal space somewhere between a deep, orange-toned (warm) yellow and a light, yellow-toned orange.
Experiment Results
Gradient: In mass, it’s a fiery yellow-orange, and diffuses to a warm glow. Glazes to a pumkiny orange.
Opacity: Looks 100% transparent to me.
Glazing: Achieves a very vibrant orange in glazing.
Comparison to Other Brands
Schmincke Horadam – Yellow Orange
This is an older Color Spotlight that I painted a long time ago, so it’s kind of terrible for that reason. I think the color is good. (Schmincke gives me a lot of hard edges in general, though.)
Comparison to Other Colors
Mission Gold – Permanent Yellow Deep (PY65)
PY65 is a common deep yellow that is often called Hansa Yellow Deep (e.g. in the Daniel Smith line). It’s a very comparable color, almost indistinguishable, though perhaps typically slightly yellower. PY110 is said to be more lightfast, but I haven’t tested them personally.
Mission Gold – Yellow Orange (PO73, PY65)
A slightly oranger hue with the same name, made from a mix of Pyrrol Orange (PO73) and Hansa Yellow Medium (PY65).
Color Mixes
Cobalt Blue
I like PY110 Yellow Orange as a sunset horizon color, but the problem is that it doesn’t mix in nice way with a neutral blue like Cobalt. I find this gray kind of ugly. A teensy bit does neutralize the blue just enough to make it blackish, which is nice for night skies.
Viridian
A small amount of PY110 is a great mixer with Viridian turning it from a bright blue-green to a more naturalistic and yellower leaf green. This mix is a great granulating Sap Green alternative.
Commercial Mixes Using This Pigment
Daniel Smith New Gamboge
A mix of PY110 and PY97 (Hansa Yellow Medium), New Gamboge was the canonical warm yellow to me for a long time because it is in the Daniel Smith Essentials starter kit.
I struggle to tell the difference between plain PY110 unless they’re right next to each other, then I guess I can see that New Gamboge has some yellow mixed in (making it more of a “warm yellow” to PY110’s “sort of orange”).
What Others Say
TOP 40 PIGMENT… My 2004 tests suggest it may be the most lightfast deep yellow pigment available…. PY110 is a beautiful warm yellow, with a hue between hansa yellow deep (PY65) and benzimida orange (PO62), but it is more transparent, slightly darker valued, somewhat more active wet in wet, and with a larger hue shift toward yellow in tints. It provides superior landscape green mixtures with both green or blue paints. For those concerned with paint lightfastness, toxicity and transparency, PY110 may be the optimal choice for a deep yellow paint, superior even to nickel dioxine yellow PY153.
Bruce MacEvoy, handprint.com
About Daniel Smith New Gamboge:
New Gamboge was a fun one to have for painting the cottonwoods at their peak, when the leaves varied from a lighter yellow (often painted with Hansa Yellow Medium) to a deep golden color that New Gamboge was perfect for. Interestingly, New Gamboge is a mix that also includes Hansa Yellow Medium, which might be why they work so well together. I also found myself adding New Gamboge to stone mixtures much more often than the Hansa yellows, because I wanted that rich and deep yellow tone.
Claire Giordano, Fall in the Southwest: Favorite Colors
My Review
PY110 (or the PY110 mix that is New Gamboge) is handy in mixing up oranges or even just using as a light orange on its own.
Some uses:
- Grade under blue to show the last fiery remnants of sunset
- Drop in to illuminate the sunny side of an object with warm Golden Hour glow
- Stripe with Transparent Red Oxide or Burnt Sienna for vibrant orange rock formations
- Mix with Phthalo Green or Viridian for muted, natural-looking greens
This is a frequent palette rotater for me. It’s nice but not essential. All of the use cases above can be taken care of by an earth yellow-orange (e.g. MANS, Raw Sienna), gold (e.g. Quin Gold) or even yellow (especially masstone Nickel Azo Yellow). I can get a very similar hue by mixing a deep red-orange (like Transparent Orange) with a bright middle banana yellow (like Pure Yellow (PY154)).
However, this is a really pretty color and it’s a nice one for situations where you plan to specialize on warm colors (e.g. desert or autumn), or if you want a brighter alternative to Raw Sienna.
On my palette? Not on my main, but on the Autumn Palette.
Favorite version: Holbein Isoindolinone Yellow Deep.
1 thought on “Color Spotlight: Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (PY110)”