naples yellow
let me tell you a story about naples yellow.

at some point, i thought very little of naples yellow. and to be fair, tending to purchase pigments on the cheap, i doubt that the pigment i've got is the real deal. but in any case, the naples yellow i've been using seemed to get swallowed up by any color i mix with it. it took a painting class that forced me to mix all the colors i own together (in a big grid) for me to learn the power of naples yellow.

and now, i'm finding that any pigment that i scorn (and trust me, on my budget, there's lotsa flimsy colors in my palette), are the ones that stun me when i mix them with other scorned colors.

take prussian blue, for example.
(ahem. as an aside, free the color! don't link to the hateful band by the same name. link to the color! up with the color in google! dismiss hate to lower page rankings on google! push it to page 3 and beyond! ok, i'll link to different articles now, i promise...)
but yes, prussian blue was the least favorite of all the blues in my palette. unlike naples yellow it aroused my ire for exactly the opposite reason, but with the end same effect. pb overpowers most of the other colors in my palette. and where ny is opaque (irritating at times), pb is translucent/transparent (also irritating at times). and mixing it with reds, depending on the red, would result in greenish brownish purples that only further irritated me.

now, and especially when mixing pb with ny, i find that these colors are simply sublime. i can't imagine shadows without pb, and i've found that white is often much too garish next to ny. it's gotten to the point where i'll start painting (ok, rarely, but it happens) with an idea in mind, but then --WHAM!-- suddenly, it's all about the colors. how they mix, how they don't mix, how they feel.

and in case you missed the links above, lookit -- pb's good for treating internal contamination with radiation and for data storage! just goes to show what i know...

(did you really just read all that...?)
Labels: art, colors, naples yellow, oil painting, prussian blue

:: ewee 2:07:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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