Turner’s yellow
I’d like to begin my discussion series about the individual pigments that I use with Turner’s yellow. I seem to have settled on a number of different yellows and I’ll explain why.
During my illustration diploma with the University of Hertfordshire (via the Interactive Design Institute aka IDI), they encouraged us to experiment with different physical media. My inital foray into colour experiments was with one or two simple gouache sets from Winsor & Newton + Holbein, which obviously has some yellow in it.
But my first true yellow watercolour was Scmincke’s cadmium yellow (because I thought cadmium yellow was “the best” since it’s relative expensive).
Most of the time I prefer single inorganic pigments
Most of the time I prefer single inorganic pigments, and cadmium yellow would fall into that group. But after using it, over time, it just seemed too powerful, too intense, it looked toxic (because it is) and a little… unnatural I have to say. Not that toxic paints bother me per sé. It just seemed, I don’t know, ‘powdery’, it had this… ‘insoluble’ look and feel to it.
And so I began to get rid of all my cadmium yellow paint. I’m happy to report that I’ll never buy anything cadmium yellow ever again.
As both a designer and artist, I’ve learned to trust my instincts, that supposedly assertive inner voice that sometimes grows all too quiet. So rather than throw it away, give it away or selling it for a pitance, I decided to make some abstract art out of it.
I got a whole bunch of other yellows and eventually I bought Turner’s yellow as well (because it’s inorganic). It’s a Rutile-Zinc-Tin oxide complex. It’s also known by its manufacturer’s name as “Solaplex Yellow”.
It’s much more of an orange-yellow really, a rich, warm, golden egg-yolk yellow. It’s not my main yellow, but when I want a very warm yellow or light orange, I go to this (along with titanium gold ochre).
The original Turner’s yellow was lead oxychloride by the way, and this is not that. I also learned today that the Turner who discovered the original Turner’s yellow is not the same Turner
as the famous artist Turner. So there you go.
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