Watercolor Dirtbag
Naples yellow was historically made from lead-tin yellow (PY41), a toxic pigment that has fallen out of favor since the late 19th century when synthetic replacements began to overtake it. Presently, watercolors sold as Naples Yellow are either mixes (usually involving cadmium orange and white), or they’re made from PBr24. That’s what I’ll be looking at today. It’s an opaque, butter-yellow pigment that looks to me like a brighter version of Yellow Ochre.
Quinophthalone yellow (PY138) is a pigment I have only ever seen in one paint, Permanent Yellow from Daler Rowney Artists. It’s a bright, bold, permanent yellow, nearly identical in hue to Pure Yellow (PY154) or Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97), with handling properties that remind me of Hansa Yellow Light (PY3). This is my first paint … Read more
Yellow ochre is the most yellow of the earth tones, usually made from PY42 (synthetic yellow iron oxide) or PY43 (natural yellow iron oxide). Experiment Results Yellow ochres can have a wide variety of characteristics; some are granulating and some non-, some are more opaque than others. The color can also vary with some being … Read more
PY159 is a granulating, low-strength primary yellow. It’s available as Winsor & Newton Lemon Yellow Deep (shown here), or as Schmincke’s Volcano Yellow (from the Supergranulating line). Experiment Results Gradient: Slighlty dull granulating mid-yellow in masstone, pale yellow otherwise. Very difficult to get a masstone and doesn’t grade easily. Does not rewet easily. Opacity: Semi-transparent… … Read more
When I originally swatched Da Vinci, the only dot card they offered was a tiny one with just 24 of their 100+ colors. They finally released a full dot card set of all their colors, so naturally I jumped on it, as Da Vinci is one of my favorite lines!
The 110 colors come in a set of five 24-well clamshell boxes.
Just like the 24-color set, the dots are very generous – you could do a whole painting with one, and I did multiple swatches instead of the barely-one I could do with the DS and WN dot cards.
I ended up going a bit deeper in this dot card exploration than in previous dot card posts – because I have a pretty solid paint library already, I was able to compare several of the colors in the same light to colors I already have in order to make comparisons on-the-fly. So, I’ll be breaking this out into several posts to be able to give each one more attention.
First up: Yellows and oranges!
PY3 single-pigment yellow is usually called Hansa Yellow Light and sometimes called Lemon Yellow. It’s a semi-opaque, bold, bright light yellow with a cool/greenish cast. Similar to PY175 Lemon Yellows, but more opaque, and usually looks bolder as a result.
Hansa Yellow Deep is a deep orange-toned mango yellow, another option for the warm yellow slot in your palette where you might also be considering Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (PY110) or mixes like New Gamboge and Quinacridone Gold.
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.
A single pigment color made from copper, Rich Green Gold is a glowing, earthy greenish-yellow. Unmixed, it may read as green, but in mixes it functions more like a muted yellow.
