DS New Gamboge is one of the first colors I ever tried since it’s in the Daniel Smith Essentials starter set. I did previously make a Color Spotlight of it but I shifted the page to be about PY110, one of its components, when I got on a single pigment kick. But I’ve decided to separate it out again, since it serves a slightly different palette role than either of its components and I think it deserves separate consideration once more. I’m come full circle!
History
Natural Gamboge (NY24) was originally a pigment made from a resin of the garcinia tree in Cambodia. It was discontinued due to the high toxicity, fugitivity, and difficulty sourcing. Originally it was replaced in many lines by PY153, but this pigment was also discontinued and New Gamboge is usually now a mix.
Components
This post will mainly discuss Daniel Smith’s New Gamboge, which is a mix of:
- Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97)
- Permanent Yellow Deep (PY110)
Observations of DS New Gamboge
Hue: Bright orangey-yellow hue, somewhere between a middle yellow and an orange yellow; closer to orange yellow. More orangey in masstone, and more yellowy in dilute.
Gradient: Smooth gradient
Transparency: Transparent
Other colors with similar names
Winsor Newton – New Gamboge
Winsor and Newton offers a New Gamboge which is quite different, made from Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150) and Quin Coral (PR209), which I find to be a slightly brownish combination but which, from what I can tell, is more similar to the original Gamboge.
Holbein – Gamboge Nova
A golden-yellow mix of Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150) with two yellows, middle PY154 and orangey PY110. This is essentially as if someone took DS New Gamboge and added Nickel Azo Yellow, so it’s less orangey, more mid-yellow, slightly lower chroma, and even more transparent.
I like this mix because it has the lovely glow and dispersion of Nickel Azo Yellow but without the ugly brownish masstone. As it becomes heavier, it gets more orange like PY110.
I quite like this color, though I found my batch inexplicably stinky.
MaimeriBlu – Gamboge Hue
MaimeriBlu, a single pigment only company, has a Gamboge Hue made from PY139.
Other commercially mixed colors with similar formulas
Schmincke Horadam – Indian Yellow
Schmincke Horadam offers a very similar color, also a mix of PY110 and a neutral yellow (this time PY154). I find Schmincke’s version to be a bit more orangey than DS’s, seeming to have more of the PY110 in this mix and less of the yellow.
Like other Schmincke colors, water control can be more tricky compared to DS, etc. I also found this particular color to have a bit of an unpleasant plasticky smell when wet or rewet, though it might have just been this batch.
Comparison to other orange-yellows
From left:
- DS Permanent Yellow Deep (PY110). PY110 is one of the components of both New Gamboge and Indian Yellow, is itself an orange-yellow. It tends toward the orange side and is one step closer to yellow than PO62 orange.
- DS Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65), a step brighter and yellower; a lovely sort of mango yellow.
- SH Indian Yellow (PY154, PY110) occupies a similar orange/yellow space as PY65 but has more of a variation in hue between the oranger masstone and the yellower dilute.
- DS New Gamboge (PY97, PY110) is a similar mix balanced a bit more toward yellow.
Student Grade Alternative: Cotman Cadmium Yellow Hue
WN Cotman’s Cadmium Yellow Hue (PY65, PY97) is quite similar. It just swaps the PY110 for PY65, which is almost exactly the same hue.
Color Mixes
Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255)
Wow, these scarlets/oranges are pretty bold!
Perylene Scarlet (PR149)
Perylene Scarlet is a deeper, darker color than Pyrrol Scarlet, and the oranges it makes are strangely desaturated.
Perylene Red (PR178)
Oranges that are intense and medium saturation. Despite Perylene Red being a less orange-toned, more middle red, it seems to mix more cleanly than Perylene Scarlet.
Quin Coral (PR209)
The oranges here are even bolder and cleaner than those with Pyrrol Scarlet!
Quin Red (PV19)
Also great, similar vividness to the Pyrrol Scarlet mixes; also mixes a fire engine red with mostly Quin Red. I really like the coral-ish feel of these.
Quin Magenta (PR1220
For a color that, unmixed, looks pretty similar to PV19, this makes mixes that are strikingly different, much more subdued and desaturated.
Quin Fuchsia (PR202)
These are even browner and more subdued than the oranges with PR122. You can basically only get a 1970s rust color and a brownish yellow.
Indanthrone Blue (PB60)
Grayish slate blues. Not really green. Adding yellow is pretty rough.
Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:1)
Semi-desaturated blue-green mixes. I do not like the yellower ones.
Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3)
Intense, jewel-tone teals to middle (Hooker’s) greens. Again, I’m not a fan of the yellower colors.
What others say
About Daniel Smith New Gamboge:
New Gamboge was a fun one to have for painting the cottonwoods at their peak, when the leaves varied from a lighter yellow (often painted with Hansa Yellow Medium) to a deep golden color that New Gamboge was perfect for. Interestingly, New Gamboge is a mix that also includes Hansa Yellow Medium, which might be why they work so well together. I also found myself adding New Gamboge to stone mixtures much more often than the Hansa yellows, because I wanted that rich and deep yellow tone.
Claire Giordano, Fall in the Southwest: Favorite Colors
My review of DS New Gamboge
Despite this being one of the first colors I ever tried, I got on a single pigment kick and replaced this, alternately, with component PY110 or very similar PY65. But I kept coming back to New Gamboge. To me, this is the quintessential color that gives a lie to the idea that “mixed pigment paints are muddier.” Because PY110 and PY97 are so similar to each other to begin with, the mix of them is really not muddy in any way. If anything, mixed New Gamboge makes “cleaner” mixes than single-pigment PY110, because it’s closer to primary yellow.
Whether you prefer this or more orangey options may depend on how you use your palette. PY110 is more distinct from other primary yellows, and makes a wide range of mixes. If you have a middle yellow (e.g. PY97, PY154) in your palette anyway, then you can mix a New Gamboge hue, or balance it this way and that, using PY110 (or the very similar PY65). But if you are after convenience or building limited palettes, then I think New Gamboge is worth considering as an alternative because it already has a lovely balance and is more able hold its own as the only/primary yellow in a triad.
Favorite version: DS New Gamboge is great if you want a bright orange mixer (similar to PY65). Schmincke Indian Yellow is quite similar if that brand is easier for you to get. In student grade brands, Cotman Cadmium Yellow Hue is quite similar.
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Daniel Smith – New Gamboge 5ml: Jackson’s US
Holbein – Gamboge Nova 5ml: Jackson’s US
Comments
2 responses to “Color Spotlight: New Gamboge”
Have you tried mixing New Gamboge with French Ultramarine Blue? I find it mixes fine with water but then separates while drying, and you are left with spots of blue and yellow. I suspect it has to do with the granulation of FUM but haven’t been able to find anything online about how New Gamboge doesn’t mix well with French Ultramarine Blue.
I don’t especially recall having that experience mixing those colors, but I suspect you are right that it’s because of the FUM granulation. I suspect it would happen with almost anything and FUM in the right dilution. (Actually, I haven’t used FUM in a while because I don’t like how much it granulates/color-separates.)
Possibly similar situation: for awhile I thought that TRO was uniquely bad with Phthalo Blue because the resulting mix was weirdly pale and splotchy, but I think it had less to do with the precise combination of those colors and more to do with the fact that I happened to be mixing with Phthalo Blue when I diluted just the right amount to hit TRO’s maximum granulation sweet spot.