I like granulation now, so this is part of my effort to revisit colors I previously wrote off because of the granulation. Last week, I did Potter’s Pink for the same reason.
Goethite Brown Ochre is a highly granulating, low-tinting-strength yellow ochre, made with the traditional yellow ochre pigment PY 43. Jane Blundell includes it as one of the fourteen colors in her Ultimate Mixing Palette.
Experiment Results
Gradient: Grades extremely poorly, with the masstone all stuck in a straight line (that was high-effort to get) and everything else being very low-strength. Color is a medium yellow ochre to pale tan.
Opacity: Transparent
Glazing: Glazes to its masstone color, a medium yellow-brown.
Similar Colors
Da Vinci – Raw Sienna Deep
Also a granulating yellow ochre hue, though this one is based on synthetic yellow ochre (PY42) instead of natural yellow ochre (PY43) like Goethite. Still, it offers a similar yellow-brown hue, and it granulates. It is stronger in tinting strength.
Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7)
Made from the Raw Sienna pigment PBr7, MANS has a yellower hue, but tons of granulation similar to Goethite. This is the second choice Jane Blundell suggests to swap in for Goethite in her Ultimate Mixing Palette. See also my post What’s the difference between Goethite Brown Ochre (PY43) and Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7)?
Color Mixes with Goethite
Transparent Red Oxide
I like this variety of peachy brown shades, which I think give a range of mid to light skin tones that allow a good amount of realistic variation between gold and rose undertones, but I’m surprised that the mixes don’t look as granulating as I’d expect from two highly granulating components.
Deep Scarlet
Warm, dusty pink/peach/brown mixes. Lightly granulating, but I think the Deep Scarlet is having a smoothing effect on the Goethite. The pastiest mix is an orange that looks a lot like a Transparent Red Oxide hue to me.
Quin Rose
PV19 tames the granulation of Goethite a lot, so it’s mostly just a dull pink mix.
Potter’s Pink
Extremely granulating mixes! The PP and Goethite granulation compete but ultimately the PP floats on top. The middle mix has a sienna hue.
Cobalt Blue
Brownish-gray granulating mixes. Decidedly not green.
Cobalt Turquoise
Interesting light-value muted yellow/gray greens.
Phthalo Green Blue Shade
The mix makes a granulating, brownish green somewhere between Sap Green and Undersea Green. The large granules of Goethite tended to float on the top, remaining brown in diluted or Goethite-tilted mixes.
Serpentine
I guess these mixes are more brownish and granulating than base Serpentine, but I don’t feel like it looks different enough to be worth mixing.
What Others Say
This is a Daniel Smith exclusive and I love it for the granulation – it is wonderful for beach and landscape scenes, sandstone and rocks generally. It is also useful for skin tones, but a raw sienna is another option.
Jane Blundell
My Overall Review
I expected this to be, like Potter’s Pink, essentially a special effect paint to make other shades granulating. It is, sort of, but I found it mixed unpredictable results. Several of the mixes didn’t look more granulating to me, but less so!
The mixes with warm and earth tones were generally disappointing, though the greens were fantastic: it turned all of my greens into lovely textured/muted natural foliage colors. However, I can get similar mixes from Monte Amiata Natural Sienna.
I see why Jane Blundell likes the mix with buff for sand or sandstone, and I failed to find another mix that was as good. For example, the mix of Transparent Brown Oxide with buff wasn’t nearly as good.
However, ultimately I decided this wasn’t enough reason for me to promote Goethite to my main palette. For a special effects granulation paint, I kind of like Potter’s Pink better, and for my general yellow ochre/raw sienna needs, I’ll stick with MANS.