My last Earth Yellow showdown is not, it turns out, the last word on earth yellows! I love earth yellow and I collect them. I’ve added a few more to the comparison.
Here’s every color in the map above. I tried to put these in roughly cool-to-warm order (greenest undertone to orangest undertone).
Top row:
- Holbein – Yellow Ochre (PY42) – Note that yellow ochres can get even more green-undertoned; I like the Holbein one specifically because it is on the warm side, but compared to these other earth yellows, it looks green-brownish.
- DS – Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7) – In context I can see how weak this is. Perhaps it’s because I used a pretty old dry pan. It dries very hard.
- NEW! DS – Transparent Yellow Oxide (PY42) – Similar hue to MANS, but stronger and less granulating. It also uses a different pigment (a synthetic yellow oxide instead of a synthetic brown), so my guess is that MANS is also better at resisting green in mixes, even though it looks so yellow.
- DS – Quinacridone Gold (PY150, PO48) – Quin Gold is included for hue comparison though I think it isn’t quite an earth yellow as it can function more like a primary yellow and mixes such bright greens. Note the luscious orangey masstone and dramatic shift to cool yellow in dilute. Got an accidental bloom here.
Bottom row:
- WN – Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24) – Very smooth and opaque buttery yellow.
- NEW! DS – Chrome Titanate Yellow (PBr24) – Same pigment as Naples Yellow Deep; also opaque, but mildly granulating.
- WN – Gold Ochre (PY42) – Very orange-toned; looks even more orange in person. The photo kind of shifts the dilute end to yellow. In real life it looks more like a manila envelope.
- DV – Raw Sienna (PBr7) – Similarly orange-toned to Gold Ochre, but a bit more brownish/muted. Light brown in dilute. The photo also makes this look like a yellowy caramel but it’s really more like tan.
Types of earth yellow
Earth yellow can be used for many things, and each of these has different strengths and weaknesses depending on what you want it for. Here are some use cases:
- Mixing or glazing yellow-brown-tan colors, e.g. dry grass or buff bird plumage
- A base for warm-brown granulating mixes, e.g. sand, sandstone, or stucco
- Dropping warm, yellowy hues in sunrise/sunset skies that look a bit more realistic than primary yellow (and don’t turn green when next to blue)
Actually, you can think of these colors as falling into three categories that roughly map to these use cases.
The Subdued Yellow Mixer/All-rounder
The typical earth yellows include:
- Yellow Ochre
- Mars Yellow
- Raw Sienna variants that are lighter/yellower, such as WN Raw Sienna and DS Raw Sienna Light
My problem is that most earth yellows are too opaque to mix dark colors, so they’re not very useful for a limited triad or for glazing. That’s why I gravitate toward more transparent options, which include:
- MANS
- Transparent Yellow Oxide
- Quin Gold
I adore MANS in this role, because it is transparent, flexibly useful, and has a cheerful yellow color (it is the most yellow PBr7 I’m aware of). It’s also very granulating, which is fun. A nice side benefit of PBr7 is that it is super-effective at resisting green mixes, so it can also do double-duty in skies. It is quite weak, but that is kind of okay to me because its gentleness can be nice. It doesn’t overpower mixes, and is especially useful to add subtle warmth to grays without becoming too yellow.
Quin Gold is the opposite end of the spectrum: it absolutely overwhelms mixes and makes them super-yellowy, which can be fun too! It is really too vibrant to really use as an earth color, but it was my first love in this color category because I love vibrant colors. I’ve been known to have Quin Gold in addition to one of the others because it’s so unique. It goes green very readily, so you really need another solution for skies.
I have not really tried Transparent Yellow Oxide much, but it seems to kind of split the difference between the other two options.
The Earth Yellow-Orange
Warmer, more orange-toned earth yellows (or more properly, earth yellow-oranges) can be more useful for mixing up convenience brown/tan/beige colors, because they are easily cooled to brown by blue.
I love both my DV Raw Sienna and my WN Gold Ochre in this slot. The Gold Ochre is slightly more yellow, chromatic, and reads as gold, while the Raw Sienna may read more as brown.
Gold Ochre is (just barely) yellow enough to be suitable for a primary triad – I got a lot of use out of it in the blues & browns only challenge where it contextually read as very yellow. It’s also a very convenient color for fall leaves.
DV Raw Sienna really doesn’t look yellow at all, but it is a great convenience color when a lot of tan is needed, such as in my desert palette.
The Sunset Specialist
Over the last year, I’ve fallen hard for Naples Yellow Deep, especially as a light wash in sunsets. It resists going green and it is just muted enough to not look gaudy or fake, yet bright enough to be vibrant and mix cleanly. It makes great mixes with other sunset favorites like Quin Coral. It is opaque, which makes it a difficult mixer, but that doesn’t matter if I’m washing it into the background. Still, it’s a liability as a minimal triad because it doesn’t mix dark or glaze. (Chrome Titanate Yellow shares these properties; you wouldn’t need both. I’m considering playing with Chrome Titanate Yellow in situations where I might want granulation.)
If you don’t want a dedicated sunset PBr24, any of the other colors could be pressed into service as a sunset yellow, except maybe Quin Gold (depending on what other colors you have in the sunset: Quin Gold + Phthalo Blue GS makes a VERY green green.)
Conclusion
When I try to choose only one earth yellow for my palette, I freeze! It’s too hard to choose. I usually end up with two or three. Some of these are ideal for specific scenarios or palettes, while others complement each other. Generally I find that MANS and Naples Yellow Deep is my favorite one-two punch, but Quin Gold is also a gorgeous option; Gold Ochre is great for autumn; and Raw Sienna is great for winter or sandy environments.