Welcome to the comeback Color Spotlights! I posted new Color Spotlights every Saturday for two years (January 2022-March 2024), but I thought I’d finished about six months ago when I kind of ran out new paints to try. (It’s not like I’ve tried every brand of every pigment, but I had sampled enough that new colors were becoming increasingly a reach.) But this month, I’m cleaning up a few more unusual or forgotten colors, and I have new Color Spotlights going up every Saturday in October!
PY97 is an odd one for me to have missed, since it’s such a normal color: a straight-ahead middle yellow, and the most basic primary yellow Daniel Smith has to offer!
Pigment Stats
Pigment Number: PY97
Names: Imidazolone Yellow (Holbein), Da Vinci Yellow (Da Vinci), Pure Yellow (Schmincke Horadam), Winsor Yellow (Winsor & Newton)
Chemical name: Benzimidazolone
Invention Year: 1960
Toxicity: Nontoxic
Lightfastness: ASTM I (Excellent)
Transparency: Semi-transparent
Staining: Yes
Granulating: No
Experiment Results
Color Family: Middle Yellow
Gradient: Fairly smooth gradient from mustard to pale yellow.
Transparency: Mostly transparent.
Color Mixes: Both its oranges and its greens are quite vivid, though I would say its oranges are noticeably more so, with greens erring on the more muted side. This is often a quality that artists seek out, especially landscape painters.
Comparison to Other Yellows
- Not as cool and green-toned as Hansa Yellow Light (PY3)
- Nor as warm and orangey as Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65)
- Quite similar to Imidazolone Yellow (PY154), which I find to be a more common primary yellow in most brands’ lines (e.g. Schmincke, Winsor, Holbein). Da Vinci offers both, but their ‘Da Vinci Yellow’ is PY154.
- Because of its boldness and strength, it’s a possibly nontoxic replacement for Cadmium Yellow (PY35); however it is transparent rather than opaque (which may or may not be a plus for you, depending on what qualities you’re looking for.)
Color Mixes
Gold Ochre (PY42)
The Gold Ochre deepens the yellow in a pleasant autumnal way.
Transparent Pyrrol Orange (PO71)
Conventional wisdom would indicate that orange + yellow makes the boldest yellow-oranges, but I actually think these are relatively muted and rust-orange compared to PR209 or even PV19 oranges.
Perylene Scarlet (PR149)
Quite desaturated oranges considering that the unmixed color is quite warm and fairly bold.
Perylene Red (PR178)
Moderate vividness oranges – more vivid than those with PR149, but less than those with the upcoming quinacridones. Some trouble with water control.
Quinacridone Coral (PR209)
Bold oranges! It’s hard to tell from the varied lighting on these but trust me, these are the boldest – more vivid than those with Quin Red.
Quinacridone Red (PV19)
A bit cooler and less intesnely orange than the PR209 oranges, but still very strong, including fire engine red (with a tiny amount of yellow) to pumpkin oranges (a Transparent Pyrrol Orange hue in the middle there).
Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone (PV19)
Mid-vividness deep oranges, similar to those with Perylene Scarlet or Quin Red.
Indanthrone Blue (PB60)
I find these pretty ugly. For a muted green, I prefer using an earthy yellow instead of a bright yellow and muted blue.
Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:1)
Greens with middle vividness.
Prussian Blue (PB27)
Moderate jewel greens similar to those with PBRS, but a bit easier to get dark.
Indigo
Surprisingly nice pine greens, at least the versions with more Indigo. I don’t like the yellower ones.
Phthalo Turquoise (PB15:3, PG36)
As you might expect there are some really gorgeously vivid greens in this mix. You can easily get some really deep jewel tones too.
My Review of DS Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97)
It took me a long time to get around to spotlighting this color because I’ve been so satisfied with PY154. I can’t really tell too much of a difference between the two. Unmixed, both strike me as being the platonic ideal of primary yellow. I think that PY97 is slightly warmer, a quality more easily seen in masstone (PY97 seems to get a bit darker than PY154), and in mixes (greens are a bit more muted).
I have only tried DS’s version of this pigment, and I like it. Strong, bold, and easy to grade, with a straightforward and very useful middle primary hue, this paint is a pleasure to use. A possible hesitation I would have using this over PY154 is that it is possibly less lightfast, but I have not personally tested it, and ASTM II is still plenty good.
Favorite version: DS is the only one I’ve tried.
Alternatives: Imidazolone Yellow (PY154) chiefly; Azo Yellow (PY151) is a cooler primary yellow I like quite a bit; or consider other middle yellow options.