Previously, I’ve asked What’s the difference between MANS and Yellow Ochre? Today, I’m adding a couple more earth yellows for a big showdown between Da Vinci Yellow Ochre, Da Vinci Raw Sienna Deep, Daniel Smith Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (MANS), and Da Vinci Raw Sienna. Which of these belongs in the earth yellow slot in my palette?
Functionally, these are all extremely similar. I would say you only need a maximum of one of these, but I’m clearly an overcollector, so in this post I’m hoping to narrow it down to at most two.
Basic Differences
Hue: All of these are earth tones. I would describe Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna Deep, and MANS (the top 3) as being more yellowish and Raw Sienna as being more orangey. Weirdly, Raw Sienna is deeper than Raw Sienna Deep (at least I think so).
Pigment:
- DV Yellow Ochre is made from PY43, natural yellow oxide. Yellow ochres are usually made from PY43 or PY42, synthetic iron oxide.
- DV Raw Sienna Deep is actually made from PY42, synthetic iron oxide, making it a version of yellow ochre technically. It’s not raw sienna, which is usually made from PBr7, the brown pigment typically associated with most middle earth tones (burnt & raw siennas & umbers).
- DS Monte Amiata Natural Sienna is made from PBr7, like Raw Sienna.
- DV Raw Sienna is made from PBr7, as is traditional.
Opacity: Yellow Ochre is semi-opaque, and the rest are semi-transparent.
Granulation: Raw Sienna Deep and MANS are granulating. YO and RS are not.
Color Mixes
Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (PY110)
In these mixes with a warm yellow, I’m looking for a dupe of Gold Ochre (shown at the left), Da Vinci’s mix of PY83 + synthetic yellow oxide.
It should be unsurprising that RSD comes closest since I think that’s what is used in the actual mix. MANS is also good. I also rather like the warm mixes with Raw Sienna.
Burnt Sienna Deep (PR101)
These mixes with Burnt Sienna Deep – Da Vinci’s version of Transparent Red Oxide (PR101) – are meant to showcase each earth yellow’s capacity to mix a bright orangey/red rocks tone with a deep earth orange.
All of these are pretty good. RSD is a bit disappointing because I don’t feel it fully mixed, or it was just too dull and didn’t make the bold orange I was looking for. RS is a bit too close to the BSD color to make a huge difference. YO and MANS were nice.
Ultramarine Blue (PB29)
I wanted to compare mixes with Ultramarine to see which makes the best dry grass color.
Yellow Ochre was not my favorite set of mixes, and I got some weird hard edges for some reason.
Raw Sienna Deep has a similar hue but is slightly textured and a bit weaker. I like the rightmost color for dry grass pretty well.
I really liked MANS, which is similar to RSD but more granulating. Although in practice I find it difficult to do, in this test I really liked the dry grass color from mostly MANS and a tiny bit of UB.
The most neutral mixes come from Raw Sienna, which is expected because that’s the most orangey and orange is the complement to blue. I don’t think I did a great job of getting a dry grass color from it, but I have used ti before and I know it works. I also like the dark blues that are mostly UB.
Phthalo Turquoise
These mixes with WN Phthalo Turquoise (PB16) make muted greens, including olive and sap type greens, as well as warmer, more muted variation on turquoise.
Again, I got some hard edges from Yellow Ochre. RSD and MANS were both nice and very similar; perhaps I slightly like MANS more. Some of these would be good for earthy foliage greens and sandy turquoise seas. Raw Sienna mixes were the most muted and most able to get dark, good for dark pine greens.
Phthalo Green
I wanted to mix earth yellows with bright Phthalo Green PG7 (Winsor Green Blue Shade, to be specific) to see what kind of muted, naturalistic greens could be made.
Again the granulating mixes are my favorite. The MANS mixes are a little streaky but I like the hue and texture. The Raw Sienna mixes are a bit too muted for my comfort, but I can see how they might be useful for a swampy/undersea type green.
Conclusion
I’m concluding more or less what I thought to begin with: my favorite earth yellows are MANS and Raw Sienna. Both of these are the PBr7 ones, but they are also the most different from each other. MANS is probably the yellowest in hue of the colors I tested, the brightest, and the most granulating. Raw Sienna is the most orangey. If I’m only going to have one, I think MANS is still my favorite, but Raw Sienna is really useful for some cases; for example, I’ve found it more useful for orangey desert colors and muted winter mixes. I think I will keep MANS in my main palette, with RS as a B-team backup and for certain palettes.
Hmm. I was thinking this would be a subjective thing, but I agree with your rankings 100%.