Orange Yellow

Orange-toned yellows, somewhere in-between yellow and orange. Some people call this slot “warm yellow.”

Deep yellow comparison: DV Cadmium Yellow Deep (PY35) vs DV Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65) vs DS Permanent Yellow Deep (PY110)

Color List

Single pigment colors, roughly in opaque-to-transparent order:

Mixes:

Discontinued:

  • Indian Yellow (PY153)
  • Turner’s Yellow (PY216)

My Thoughts

Necessary slot? It depends on the rest of your palette and what other yellow options you have. Katie Woodward is an example of someone who has a warm yellow (New Gamboge) as her brightest/yellowest yellow, but generally I would recommend having a middle yellow or a lemon yellow if you’re only going to have one yellow. For a split primary palette, such as the Daniel Smith Essentials kit, the combination of a lemon yellow and an orange yellow take care of the “cool/warm” divide and can mix to make middle yellow… but I find middle yellow more convenient.

One situation where I find orange-yellow indispensible is when I’m painting autumn leaves or another subject with a lot of bold oranges.

Autumn foliage sketches and color tests.

Many artists use warm yellows to mix naturalistic greens, with green or cyan pigments. This is a job that can also be done by a gold.

Favorites: PY110 and PY65 are both great (and difficult to tell apart). New Gamboge works just as well.

Mix your own: Middle Yellow + Orange, or in a more limited palette, Middle Yellow + a very small amount of Magenta, Pink, or Rose.

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