Color Roundup: Light Yellow-Greens

Da Vinci Leaf Green vs Schmincke May Green

I previously rounded up multiple versions of muted mixed greens, so now let’s look at a few bright mixed greens!

Colors

Da Vinci – Leaf Green

Da Vinci – Leaf Green (PG7, PY65)

Formula: Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7) + Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65)

A very yellowy color, especially in the midtone and dilute. I know an artist who uses this as the basis for all her leaf colors, and it certainly does have the look of the sun through foliage. I can imagine this as a great underpainting for a mass of foliage, that you can then shade way down with dark greens and shadows colors.

That said, this is not my favorite color, nor is it one that I find hard to mix.

Schmincke Horadam – May Green

Schmincke Horadam – May Green

Formula: Azo Yellow (PY151) + Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7)

I discovered this color through Nikki Frumkin’s Drawn to High Places Schmincke palette through Art Toolkit, which I reminisced in the Neon Palette post.

While still being a “yellow green,” this is somehow a much cooler color than Leaf Green, and one I find much more pleasant. To me it looks like a green-eyed cat. The mixes are also cooler.

Maybe it’s just because I don’t have Azo Yellow, but I find this particular shade rather difficult to mix; you can see my attempts on the right where I mixed Lemon Yellow and then Nickel Azo Yellow with Phthalo Green and came up with much more yellowish colors more similar to Leaf Green above.

Like all Schmincke colors, I found I did tend toward overdilution and harsh edges with this one, but it’s texturally not as sticky or unpleasant as I have found some other Schmincke colors.

Conclusion

In general I find yellow-greens relatively easy to self-mix with colors that I keep on my palette anyway, so this is not an essential palette slot for me. Between these options, I prefer the hue of the Schmincke May Green.

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