Green-Gold - Pigment Yellow 129 ( PY129)

This is an interesting pigment which is given the `Top Forty' accolade by Bruce McEvoy of Handprint. It has never been a `must have' palette colour but is beginning to appear in an increasing number of ranges, although to date neither Holbein, Rembrandt, Schminke or Maimeri  offer it.

As usual naming isn't consistent, as apart from those who call it Green Gold, Winsor & Newton, Daler Rowney, Da Vinci, variations are Green Yellow (Lukas), Brown Green (Sennelier) Azo Green (Graham), Golden Green (Old Holland), all the same pigment PY129! To complicate matters Daniel Smith's Green Gold isn't, but a mixture of three pigments PY150, PY3 and PG36,  two yellows and a green. However we then find another Daniel Smith paint, Rich Green Gold, which is PY129! The Australian company Art Spectrum have two colours with PY129 as one ingredient with PG7 as the other, Australian Green Gold and Sap Green Permanent. It does not appear in any student ranges.

With that out the way I'll once again refer to Bruce McEvoy of Handprint. 

"copper azomethine green (PY129), commonly the ingredient in "green gold" paints is a lightfast, semitransparent, staining, mid valued, moderately dull yellow pigment,".......Unrated by the ASTM, manufacturer tests rate it as having "very good" to "excellent" lightfastness". Bruce agrees. 

The thing about this colour is that in tints it shifts from a yellow green  to a beautiful light yellow. I don't actually find it dull in the latter case, perfect for the colours of early Spring. Bruce rates it excellent for all genres, but especially for landscape and botanical painting. It also mixes well with several; other colours depending on what you wish to achieve. The Handprint information while still very valuable is not as up to date as one might like but even so is still worth consulting www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/watery.html .

Bruce states that if you are an advocate of the `split primary' palette then `copper azomethine' is the perfect lightfast, transparent "cool yellow" pigment to pair with it's lightfast, transparent "warm yellow" twin, nickel azomethine yellow PY150. This is Nickel Azo Yellow from Daniel Smith and Graham, Transparent Yellow Winsor & Newton, Translucent Yellow Schminke, Yellow Lake Sennelier. This latter pigment seems destined to enter most ranges although not yet universal. One of my members  Rui rates the Schminke paint highly. Any additions or corrections to the above welcome.

I have used Green Gold, mainly Rowney, for some time and also have the Winsor & Newton version. My use has been primarily in Spring foliage but Bruce suggest mixing with Qinacridone Magenta for portraits. I'll have to give that a try.

Complementary Colours

Amongst the amazing display of artwork that appears on Facebook I have been struck by the way many fine artists use complementary colours.

 A Colour Wheel

Colours opposite one another on the wheel are `complementary'.

A `Watercolor' Wheel with colours specified by name rather than shade.

 A `Pocket' colour wheel and Pocket Guide to mixing colour

Complementary colours. The top row are `pure' colours whereas the bottom three are `mixed'.

Red and Green. This isn't a watercolour but look at the striking effect of using the complements red and green.

 Olivia Quinton. Red and Green once more.

 Arnold Lowry. Orange and Blue.

Milind Millick. A variation on Red and Green using darker shades.

Valery Poppy. Red-orange and Green-blue.

Bro Insideouart. More red than green

 Olivia Quinton. Wow!

Wu Xinglian. Red and Green.

 Bea Diaz. Violet and  Yellow

These are just  examples as I haven't included every combination. I have noticed though that red and green and orange and blue seem especially popular. I hope you will agree  they make the case for using complementary colours as major focal points in paintings. However this is just one approach of many. The basic premise begins with the three primaries of red, yellow and blue. We then have secondary's - by mixing the primary colours, and intermediate's by mixing one primary and one secondary. 

With the primary colours Bruce McEvoy of Handprint maintains that orginally there were four, the fourth being green. The so-called printers primary colours comprise, Magenta, Yellow and Cyan blue, not just `red, yellow and blue'. As there are many different reds and yellows, not quite so many blues, numerous combinations are possible. Then we have Triadic Harmony colours - three colours spaced equally apart on the colour wheel and Split Complementary's, a colour and the two colours next to its complement. We haven't even touched on `cool' and `warm' colours with the complication of their being `cool' and `warm'  versions of each basic shade. Is your head spinning! It isn't really difficult to understand with a little study, taking things one at a time..

Schminke Translucent Orange (PO71)

In her latest book Jean Haines, when discussing her palette, waxed lyrical about Schminke Translucent Orange, which after having found it at an art fair, she regards as indispensable. What is so special about this colour? To begin with this pigment, PO71 Pyrrole Orange, was until recently only available from Schminke, although this has now changed with the addition of Permanent Orange from Lukas.

The best known orange is Cadmium Orange (PO20) which is very opaque and has the disadvantage of being a cadmium pigment, all cadmiums being toxic. It isn't the most popular of colours and isn't an automatic palette choice. Nevertheless Handprint rate it as a 'Top Forty' pigment.

According to Handprint PO71 is a lightfast, opaque and staining pigment of a red orange shade. Note the opaque. I'm aware cadmums are toxic but thought, wrongly it seems, that the newer oranges on offer were also supposed to be more transparent. Actually this question of opaqueness is not always what it seems because nearly all watercolour pigments will show varying degrees of transparency when diluted. 

Cadmium Orange (Maimeri PO20) is upper left. The two middle top swatches are translucent Orange with the left one more diluted. Upper right is Rowney Warm Orange which is PO73 also called Pyrrole Orange. PO73 is also available as Pyrrol orange from Daniel Smith, Winsor Orange Red Shade from guess who and Scarlet Pyrrol from Graham. Also shown is the compliment Cobalt Blue with underneath the result of mixing them together - grey. If you click on the image you should be able to read off what they all are. Incidentally Handprint also rate PO73 as a `Top Forty' pigment. There is a definate difference between the Schminke colour and the Rowney Warm Orange. Another orange is PO43 Perinone Orange, Orange Lake from Maimeri and Perinone Orange from Daniel Smith, ` delightful' say Handprint. There are a few other orange pigments of which PO62 is the most common in use and they are fully covered in the paints section on Handprint.

I haven't tried Translucent Orange yet so I'll leave the last word to Jean Haines : "At an art fair I came across a colour I would now be lost without -if you haven't tried Schminke Translucent Orange you are really missing out on something very wonderful! When diluted, it is really transparent, glowingly vibrant and works well with many other shades as a contrast". Wow praise indeed and with her soaring popularity I'd be amazed if Schminke have not seen a sudden huge increase in sales.

Indanthrone Blue - Pigment Blue 60 (PB60)

Indanthrone Blue PB60, one of the least known or popular blues is the darkest valued pigment available next to Black Pbk6. There have been suggestions it is gaining more supporters and certainly all the main manufacturers include it in their ranges. The main criticism is that it is dull. It can also dry much lighter, up to 50% according to Handprint.

Click to Enlarge

With these swatches for comparison purposes I have mixed in two versions of Indigo and for further contrast French Ultramarine and Ivory Black. Originally I planned to do a piece purely on Indigo brought on by my recent purchase of the Daniel Smith version, which I like very much. Indigo isn't a staple of many artists's palettes - the late John Lidzey apart www.johnlidzey.co.uk  - and can be mixed quite easily by adding black to one of several blues. I decided to major on Indanthrone Blue instead but include Indigo as the colours can be very similar.

The first swatch is DS Indigo followed by the Maimeri Faience Blue which is PB60. Once again we have manufacturers identifying their paints by a different selection of names. All the more important to have a basic understanding of pigments and select paints by this means rather than colours. Some mixed convenience colours are very popular but that's another story. Next is the Maimeri Indigo, a mixture of PB27 Prussian Blue and Pbk7 Black. This is a very nice paint that leans towards green in undertone. The Schminke PB60 Delft Blue is very dark and I don't like it  at all with last of this group the Rowney PB60 Indanthrene Blue. The Rowney version is quite bluish in tone, noticeably more so than Maimeri. For comparison purposes at lower right are swatches of Rowney French Ultramarine PB29 and Maimeri Ivory Black Pbk9. I'll get to those at the extreme right later. Pbk9 Ivory Black is considered by Handprint a `Top Forty' pigment but there are several other blacks ranging from Pbk6 up to Pbk31 Perylene Black. Look at the Handprint Guide to Pigments if you are interested in digging deeper. http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/waterfs.html
What mixtures do we have in the various versions of Indigo? Phalo Blue PB15 (which version?) seems to feature quite often, in the case of Rowney a PB15/Pbk7/PV19 mix, blue, black and red. Winsor & Newton is a similar mix while Schminke is PB15:1/PB66, Sennelier PB15/Pbk7 and Rembrandt PB15/Pbk6. I would say, just a suggestion, that if you like Indigo either mix it yourself by adding black to a dark blue OR stick to either Daniel Smith or Maimeri. Others may disagree having tried some of the other manufacturers paints. This assumes you have black in your palette which most artists don't, having been told (incorrectly) that black much like Paynes Grey, is a colour to avoid. Did you know that black was once regarded as `The Prince of Colours' by the old masters?  It may be better to stick to Indanthrone Blue or in a limited palette leave it out altogether in favour of Ultramarine.

The best compliments to Indanthrone Blue are deep yellows like Raw Umber, Raw Sienna (both PBr7), Gold Ochre (W & N PY42), Quinacridone Orange (PO48) and Gold (PO49). There are several others. For more suggestions see http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/mixtable.html .

I mentioned the three swatches on the far right. They are nothing to do with this topic but for the interested I'll explain what they are. Daniel Smith do a very nice paint called Rose of Ultramarine. Yvonne Harry has bought it and likes the colour very much. It has been mentioned by contributors on Wetcanvas. Curious I looked it up and found it was a mixture of PB29 Ultramarine and PV19 Quinacridone Rose. The first two swatches from the left are  attempts at matching it and the middle colour is very similar, a sort of mulberry shade. Forget the one on the extreme right I think I mixed in Perylene Maroon (PR179) by mistake OR it may have been the violet shade of PV19 from Rowney.  Comments (or corrections) welcome.