In this last blog post of my evaluation of triads series I am talking about the triads I love most. This is a hard one, because most of the triads were charming in one way or another. Sometimes I liked the whole triad, sometimes I liked the mixes with two of the colors, and sometimes the mixes with all three colors. With other triads I only fell in love after I painted with them.
Favorite Triads
First, an honorable mention goes out to my all-time favorite triad containing Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150, I use several brands, they are all good), Ultramarine Blue (PB29, moderately or wildly granulating, the brand doesn’t matter as much) and Quinacridone Rose (PV19, in my collection it’s Schmincke Ruby Red). It’s one of the triads I described to be a boring triad. And it is. But for versatility and everyday use I just love it. With that said, back to the more adventurous triads from Triadvent.
Quinacridone Opera from Holbein is an absolutely stunning color. Only its fugitive nature holds me from using it more. In a triad with DS Indanthrone Blue (PB60) and Rosa Gallery Golden Brown (PY43, PBr7) it was an amazing triad. The glow of the Opera and the deep mixed purples are to die for! I loved painting with these colors as they offer a wide value range, bright color and a lot of mixing fun!
Looking at the color wheel with Rembrandt Transparent Yellow Medium (PY128), White Nights Hematite Mist (PB29, PR101) and Schmincke Atoll Blue (PG50, PB16) just makes me happy. The glow is stunning! And again: I love the deep muted mixed purples. It’s a color I am really drawn to. When I painted the lamp, I didn’t feel as if I used the whole glowing potential of that triad.
Two-color mixes
The nice thing about Triadvent was that I mixed colors that I usually wouldn’t mix. I discovered some mixes I really like.
I never intended to use my selfmade (and therefore lightfast) mix of Holbein Twilight Purple for mixing. But I absolutely loved the mixes with the very opaque and velvety Titanium Gold Ochre (PBr24) from Schmincke. But I didn’t love the mixes from Titanium Gold Ochre with Rembrandt Spinel Grey (PBk26). I don’t like these mixed greens. For me, greens mixed with Titanium Gold Ochre always felt wrong. Therefore I painted something with the colors I liked most. The grey nicely complemented the brighter colors to let them shine.
I picked two triads with a green and a pink. To my surprise, I really liked the mixes of these colors. The deep reddish colors are stunning. I don’t remember mixing such a color before. So when I picked this color combination a second time, I had to paint with it. That’s why I picked the red heart ornament as a painting subject. In the end, I used more of the dark colors … but at least the object itself was red.
Triads that I loved because I painted with them
And then there were the two triads that really surprised me. They offered a lot of subtlety that I really enjoyed. And they both have deep muted purples to offer, what’s not to love about that?
The feathers were painted with a really pretty earth triad (DS Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7), Rosa Gallery Caput Mortuum (PR101) and my self mixed Moonglow (PR209, PB29, PG18)). I am usually more into bright colors, but I can appreciate such a muted palette as well.
Bright purples as in the mixes with Rembrandt Quin. Red Violet (PR202) and Roman Szmal Cobalt Blue Light (PB28) are really not my favorites. I like my purples muted. But to my surprise, the mixes with Rosa Gallery Carbon Yellow (PBk7, PY150, PR101) were gorgeous. I didn’t really see the potential of these mixes until I painted with them!
Conclusion
For Triadvent, nearly every triad made me happy in one or another way. It was hard to pick favorites, because I see beauty in (nearly) all of them.