Color Spotlight: Italian Orange (PO5)

Letter Sparrow – Italian Orange (PO5)

A red-toned orange that’s neither fully transparent nor opaque. The only version of this pigment I’ve ever tried is this Letter Sparrow version from the Grow Untamed palette, where it is meant to be used for the red rocks of the desert.

Experiment Results

Gradient: Nice smooth gradient, but it resisted forming its darkest tone (I wrote “difficult masstone” in the margins) and preferred to stay in the dilute peachy space.

Glazing: Strong, red-orange glaze much darker than I could get in one layer.

Transparency: Semi-transparent or perhaps semi-opaque (if I could get a masstone).

Color Mixes: The other Letter Sparrow/Grow Untamed palette colors are shown on the left column. The sienna hue with Violet Ochre and the peachy mix with Buff are especially nice. I tried some more of my colors from my Summer Palette in the right column. I like the top three – the pinky red from mixing with Quin Magenta; a maroon with Diox Violet; and a lovely neutral gray with Phthalo Turquoise. We’ve found a complement!

What Others Say

Admittedly speaking about a different brand – Lukas Permanent Red Light – handprint.com is not into this pigment.

AVOID. Given its poor lightfastness and the more lightfast pigments with identical color appearance, this is an irrelevant pigment for professional artwork. Substitutions: Cadmium orange (PO20), pyrrole orange (PO73) and perinone orange (PO43) are more intense (an average chroma of 88 compared to the benzimidazolone’s 85) and far more lightfast pigments, and have better tinting strength than the Lukas paint. See also the section on naphthol pigments.

Bruce MacEvoy, handprint.com

Please note I have not done lightfastness tests on the LS paint I demonstrated. LS says the lightfastness is “good.”

Conclusion

On my palette? No, leaving aside the question of lightfastness, I didn’t love the handling of this one, with its elusive, difficult-to-get masstone.

Preferred alternatives: In the category of semi-opaque red-oranges with a bold, pop color, my preference is for Winsor & Newton’s Winsor Orange Red Shade (PO73). My most commonly used orange is DS Transparent Pyrrol Orange (PO71).

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