Color Spotlight: Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7)

Daniel Smith – Phthalo Green (Blue Shade)

Phthalo Green (PG7) is a super vivid, deep, cool (blue-toned) green. To me, it feels like a glowing, hidden pond deep in the rainforest. It is incredibly bright; some folks find it “unnatural” so it may be most useful as a mixer than a natural landscape color.

(There’s another Phthalo Green – PG36 – which is more yellow-toned, that I’ll discuss in a future post.)

Like all the Phthalos, this green is extremely strong and staining. Some people don’t like that about it, and it does have a tendency to overwhelm mixes with weaker colors… but I love it! I’m lazy and I love a color that doesn’t make me work. I just have to make sure my palette is full of similarly vivid colors that can hold their own.

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