Color Spotlight: Imidazolone Yellow (PY154)

Imidazolone Yellow (PY154) is often known by brand-specific names such as Winsor Yellow or Da Vinci Yellow. It is a bright, neutral, primary yellow: not warm/orangey, not cool/greenish, just good ol’ bright banana yellow.

Pigment Stats

Pigment Number: PY154

Names: Hansa Yellow Medium (DS), Arylide Yellow FGL (DV)

Chemical name: Monoazo Acetoacetyl Sulphamide

Invention Year: 1953

Toxicity: Nontoxic

Lightfastness: ASTM II; said to be less lightfast in tints.

Transparency: Transparent

Staining: Yes

Granulating: No

Experiment Results

Color Family: Middle Yellow

Gradient: Smooth gradient from banana to pale yellow. It doesn’t get very dark; in mass tone, it is very bright “caution sign” yellow.

Transparency: Totally transparent.

Color Mixes: Bright primary mixes! The oranges are more vibrant than the greens, but the greens are also really vibrant. They just aren’t neon like lemon mixes tend to be.

Comparison to Other Yellows

Here’s a cornucopia of near-identical yellows, compared. They are arranged from greenest to orangest, but I would consider all of these primary yellows.

From left: Da Vinci Hansa Yellow Light (PY3); Winsor Lemon (PY175); Daler Rowney Permanent Yellow (PY138); Winsor Yellow (PY154); Greenleaf & Bluberry Quinoxalinedione Yellow (PY213); Da Vinci Hansa Yellow Medium (PY74, reportedly identical in hue to PY97)

Our guy, PY154, falls in the middle of this pack of middle yellows, being more middle than anyone else.

Comparison to Other Brands

Schmincke Horadama – Pure Yellow

Schmincke Horadam Pure Yellow: Gradient, opacity and glazing tests, color mixes

This was the first PY154 I tried, and the brand that I was using when I fell in love with this pigment. Like all Schmincke colors, this does tend to be easily overdiluted and forms blooms and hard edges when drying.

Da Vinci – Da Vinci Yellow

A very bold option!

DV yellow is described by DV as being lightfast II (instead of I), although DV’s lightfastness ratings always seem super conservative so I’m not sure if it makes a difference; and semi-transparent rather than transparent (though I didn’t notice any residue at all on the black line and it glazes and mixes well so I’m not sure if that’s actually different either.)

Winsor & Newton – Winsor Yellow

WN describes Winsor Yellow as semi-transparent and semi-granulating (as opposed to SH’s transparent and nongranulating), and while I can’t really tell the difference in opacity, I can see in the mixes of the WN that everything it mixes up is subtly granulating! Granulating yellows are rare, so this is interesting.

(If you want a really granulating yellow, try WN Lemon Yellow Deep.)

Like most WN yellows, this one dries quite hard and can be challenging to rewet.

Mission Gold – Permanent Yellow Light

I painted out the samples of Mission Gold and WN above both wet. I found them both very bold and deep. Mission Gold is maybe a touch smoother. Both are matte in masstone. Mission Gold is maybe slightly more opaque (both are in the semi-transparent to semi-opaque range).

In terms of texture, Mission Gold is very sticky when dry, similar to Sennelier paints.

Quick Comparison

Here’s a redo comparison I did of the Da Vinci, Winsor Newton, and Schmincke PY154 yellows after obtaining a better lamp.

PY154 comparison: Da Vinci Yellow, Winsor Yellow, SH Pure Yellow

In this head-to-head, I found the hues to be nearly identical, but in terms of behavior, DV Yellow was my favorite – Winsor Yellow was harder to rewet, and the SH was too easy to overdilute. DV was well behaved. Still, only WN has that slight texture, if that’s important to you.

Commercial Mixes from PY154

Holbein – Aureolin

Holbein’s Aureolin should be called Aureolin Hue; traditionally Aureolin is PY40, a fugitive pigment, but this one is made instead from a mix of 3 yellows: PY154, PY175 (Lemon Yellow), and PY150 (Nickel Azo Yellow).

The color is very similar to Holbein’s PY154 Imidazalone Yellow in masstone, and it gets cooler through the midtone. The dilute is most similar to Nickel Azo Yellow. This is a good all-rounder if you struggle to choose between these three yellows.

Lightfastness

I tested Holbein Imidazolone Yellow (PY154).

I don’t see any difference between these. Grade: A+!

Color Mixes

Transparent Red Oxide (PR101)

Rusty TRO granulation floats above the yellow. In dilute, the TRO remains separated and looks peachy.

Transparent Orange (DPP)

Straight-ahead bold oranges.

Quin Coral (PR209)

Da Vinci Quin Red (PR209) + Mission Gold Permanent Yellow Light (PY154) on Canson XL

More oranges and scarlets; nearly as bold as those with Transparent Orange, and they can become redder.

Pyrrole Rubin (PR264)

Mixes with yellow are where you can see that the apparently warm/bold crimson PR264 is actually rather muted and/or cool-toned because the mixes do not look that bright/clean/orangey/bold to me. They are rather muted and bricklike.

Quin Rose (PV19)

Da Vinci Red Rose Deep (PV19) + Mission Gold Permanent Yellow Light (PY154) on Canson XL

Back to brights! Despite this color looking more like a purpley pink, the mixes are much bolder/cleaner than with crimson. Actually, these are very similar oranges/scarlets to those with Quin Coral (PR209), slightly less clean but still very intense, with perfect grapefruit/blood orange colors.

Quin Magenta (PR122)

These are similar to, but more muted than, the PV19 rose mixes.

Indanthrone Blue (PB60)

Muted greens.

Ultramarine Blue (PB29)

Holbein Ultramarine Deep (PB29) + Winsor Yellow (PY154) on Arches CP

These colors are somehow simultaneously yellow and blue but not green. Dull yellows or grayish blues.

Cobalt Blue (PB28)

Granulating, slightly dull greens.

Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15)

Wide range of hues, from turquoise through middle green to yellow-green, each with a wide range of values! The middle green is a very nice balance of intensity and naturalism.

Phthalo Turquoise (PB16)

Even bolder, cleaner, more intense greens compared to PBRS. I really love these: they are bright but not neon.

Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7)

Winsor Green Blue Shade (PG7) + Mission Gold Permanent Yellow Light (PY154) on Canson XL

Here are the neon greens! Bright as heck emerald to spring bud colors.

What Others Say

As a rule, benzimidazolone yellows seem not to be preferred in artists’ palettes to the cadmium yellows (which are more opaque and more intense in tints) or the less expensive arylide (hansa) yellows, I think primarily because the benzimidazolones are relatively newer and unfamiliar pigments. However, they have good tinting strength when compared with many other pigments, and produce rather crisp, vivid mixtures with the phthalo blues and greens. Well worth trying out as a basic yellow paint.
Bruce MacEvoy, handprint.com

My Review of Imidazolone Yellow (PY154)

Imidazolone Yellow is a great primary yellow! It doesn’t have the distinct cool or warm tone, and even though it’s transparent, it is also quite bold in mass tone. It can be used as glowing glaze or pre-wash, and it can also be used as a main primary yellow for mixes and bold yellow color pops alike.

Ash leaves. Colors: Winsor Yellow; Holbein Yellow Ochre; DV Cerulean Genuine; tiny amounts of DS Bordeaux and WN Phthalo Turquoise to warm and cool the cerulean.

It mixes well on both sides of the range, making bold oranges and greens. Being a bit on the warmer side, it keeps oranges bold, and greens are plenty bold without getting as neon as greens made from a lemon yellow.

Imidazolone Yellow is a true yellow’s yellow. It’s the perfect color for those elements of nature that just scream YELLOW: flowers like goldenrod and dandelion, fall leaves like ash and honeylocust.

Favorite version: Holbein Imidazolone Yellow. Da Vinci is also good. I found WN dried hard, Mission Gold was too soft, and Schmincke was a bit difficult to control.