PY128 is a highly transparent lemon yellow, known as Transparent Yellow Medium by the Royal Talens brands Rembrandt (artist grade) and Van Gogh (student grade). I was able to try this color thanks to my Discord friends’ dot exchange.
Pigment Stats for PY128
Chemical composition: Disazo condensation
Lightfastness: Not rated by ASTM in watercolor, excellent in other media
Toxicity: Nontoxic per ArtisCreation
Observations of Rembrandt’s Transparent Yellow Medium
Hue: Lemon to middle yellow. Similar to PY151 pictured below it.
Value range: Limited. The darkest this gets is still a very bright, light yellow.
Gradient: Extremely smooth gradient from bright to pale yellow as it becomes more diluted.
Transparency: So transparent. Many yellows are transparent in the technical sense that you can fully see the black line they’re painted over when dry, but this one feels extra transparent; the black line is also fully visible when the paint is wet, and the paint, even when heavily concentrated, has a thin, watery brushfeel. The heavy metal complex yellows Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150) and Rich Green Gold (PY129) have similar brushfeels. It’s unusual; most yellows (most paints in general) feel a little thicker somehow, even those by the same brand.
Granulating: No.
Lifting/Staining: Very staining.
Color Mixes: Mixes similary to Azo Yellow (PY151) or other lemon yellows. Notable for extremely bright, cool, leaf/May greens from the mixes with Phthalo Green or Cobalt Turquoise. The oranges aren’t bad either!
Palette appearance: Dries to an ugly dark tan-yellow similar to Nickel Azo Yellow.
Comparison to other yellows
My overall review of PY128
This is a totally valid primary yellow option that mixes vibrantly, especially in cooler green mixes. If you love the chameleonic mixability and lightweight brushfeel of a super-transparent color, this will be right up your alley. It feels like just the cooler/more diluted half of Nickel Azo Yellow’s range, without the darker tan masstone. While I find the darker part of NAY’s range useful at times, sometimes you just want a light, primary yellow.
As I’m satisfied with other yellows I have access to, I’m not tempted to switch to this. On a practical level, PY128 is much more difficult to source than my other yellows, as the only brands I know of carrying it are Royal Talens and Roman Szmal, both more widely available in Europe than here in the U.S. I could see it being a solid option if I lived in an area where Rembrandt were more widely available and my other brands less.
On a trivial level, I don’t like the way this looks when it’s dry in the palette; I prefer yellows that look, well, yellow! I like a cheerful feeling when looking at my palette.
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Rembrandt – Transparent Yellow Medium (PY128), 10ml tube [Blick | Utrecht]