Raw Sienna Showdown

I’m on a long-term quest for the perfect earth yellow, as evidenced by my many past earth yellow comparison posts (What’s the difference between MANS and Yellow Ochre?; Earth Yellow Showdown; Another Earth Yellow showdown!) This time, I gathered together everything I could find that is called “Raw Sienna” from all my usual major brands (Da Vinci, Daniel Smith, Winsor Newton, Schmincke, Holbein).

The Showdown

Thanks to my buds for dots for this experiment.

Top row is Yellow Ochres, for comparison:

• Daniel Smith – Yellow Ochre (PY43)
• Holbein – Yellow Ochre (PY42)
• Da Vinci – Yellow Ochre (PY43)

Middle row Raw Siennas:

• Daniel Smith – Raw Sienna (PBr7)
• Daniel Smith – Raw Sienna Light (PY42)
• Daniel Smith – Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7)
• Winsor & Newton – Raw Sienna (PY42, PR101)

Bottom row Raw Siennas:

• Da Vinci – Raw Sienna (PBr7)
• Da Vinci – Raw Sienna Deep (PY42)
• Schmincke – Raw Sienna (PBr7, PY43)
• Holbein – Raw Sienna (PBr7, PY42)

My thoughts

The Two Raw Siennas: Yellow Type vs Orange/Brown Type

Of my Raw Siennas, the hues fell into two distinct categories:

• Yellower ones, made from PY42 or PY32 (synthetic or natural yellow iron oxide). This is the same pigment traditionally used for Yellow Ochre. Yellow-type raw siennas include DS Raw Sienna Light, DV Raw Sienna Deep (nobody can decide whether “Light” or “Deep” means “more yellow”), and WN Raw Sienna.
• Orangey-browny ones, generally made from PBr7. I think of PBr7 as being the “earth brown pigment.” It is traditionally also used to make burnt sienna and burnt and raw umber. Orange-brown raw sienna include DS Raw Sienna (not light), DV Raw Sienna, and Schmincke Raw Sienna.

Two of my paints fell in the middle between these two categories:

• DS Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, usually my choice, is made from PBr7 and it is brownish, but it has more yellow undertones than orange.
• Holbein’s Raw Sienna, made from a mix of PY42 and PBr7, also falls somewhere in the middle in its hue. (Schmincke uses the same mix but to my eye their result is much more on the PBr7 side.)

Granulation

My previous opinion had been that Raw Sienna tends to granulate and Yellow Ochre tends to not, but I didn’t really find that. Granulation varied along brand lines than anything else. All of Daniel Smith’s options granulate (Yellow Ochre and all 3 Raw Siennas). None of the others really do. Schmincke and Holbein Raw Sienna each have light granulation, perhaps from mixing granulating + nongranulating ingredients.

Yellow Ochre vs Raw Sienna

I was surprised to find so much hue overlap here. Many of the Raw Siennas were yellower than I expected. Mostly, the difference between Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna came down to transparency and strength.

It is typically said that Yellow Ochre is opaque and Raw Sienna is transparent. Certainly I find that in general Yellow Ochre tends to be opaque (Daniel Smith’s less so). I am not convinced that “transparent” is the word I would use to compare Raw Sienna though. More like “weak.”

To me, many of these Raw Siennas, especially the yellower ones made from PY42/PY43, just felt exactly like Yellow Ochre with the stronger part of the range missing. They’re transparent in the sense that Yellow Ochre is also transparent if you dilute it and use less pigment.

Tinting Strength (or lack thereof)

This brings me to my overall disappointment with many of these Raw Siennas, which is the weakness. I actually quite like the hue of most of them. I particularly think yellower hues are useful for things like sky underpainting, sunset golds, and mixing earthy greens. But every time I try to use one of these promising-looking Raw Siennas, I become frustrated with how difficult it is to work up a reasonably tinted masstone with paint that’s overloaded in binder.

Brushfeel

Because of the weakness issues, the brushfeel of most of these is lackluster. The one I most like to work with, in terms of brushfeel, is Da Vinci.

Conclusion

It’s too bad that Da Vinci is the one I enjoy using the most, as I find I rarely have a use case for its hue. In general, I find the yellower hue more useful than the orangeish. The orangeish hue is more similar to Burnt Sienna and other earth oranges that I am likely to have on my palette. Additionally, I have tried to use DV Raw Sienna as an underpainting in the sky and it ended up making my painting look eerie and wildfire-smoke-ish because of its orange tint.

In the past, I have generally concluded that MANS is my best option, bringing together the granulation and transparency of PBr7 with a yellower-than-normal hue for that pigment. It walks the line of being a best-of-both-worlds yellow type and PBr7 type Raw Sienna, as it can be used for underpainting and delicate sky golds. Because it is made from a brownish pigment, it does not readily turn green when exposed to blue, which can be useful in skies.

There are some drawbacks to MANS. You can’t go too hard on it or it will look brown; it only looks yellow in a soft dilute. As far as brushfeel, the consistency of MANS is my least favorite thing about it, because it tends to dry hard and to shrink up and flake out of the pan.

WN Raw Sienna probably has my favorite hue of the bunch. It is a really pretty golden-yellow. After trying it out on the advice of numerous old-school painters who swear by it, I have indeed found that it can be used in most cases as a primary yellow – one that looks gentler and more natural than a typical middle yellow in skies, foliage, and most other landscape uses cases. Yet, you can, if you try, mix surprisingly bright greens.

The problem with WN Raw Sienna is that it is so weak. Getting up a masstone is an exercise in frustration. That said, maybe you don’t want a masstone most of the time, especially for a soft streak in the sky, or if you plan to use it in mixes with other soft, gentle, earthy colors.

So the question is: is it better to have a paint where you need to carefully dilute it and not let it get too heavy-handed, or one where you can’t?

Do you like Raw Sienna? If so, which style do you prefer – orangey or yellowy? Strong or weak? Granulating or smooth?