TIM BAKER

Sorry for the delay in posting, I had a bit of a holiday from posting over the ‘silly season’, but I didn’t stop working so I have a backlog of new work to post! Also weather was a bit odd in August, nice at the end but weeks of grumpy skies and rain made it difficult to even photograph my work, let alone continue my landscape painting. Very depressing.

This session was a good one, harking back to some older session using pastels as you can see below, and some brush and ink paintings/drawings.

But I think the most successful was the Rorschach watercolour I left in the box and forgot to photograph – hence delaying this set to be posted, most were ready weeks ago. It’s an experiment with some new watercolour pigments I’ve gotten recently, I bought a whole load of yellows to experiment.

Here comes the science!

Yellow is always a complicated pigment, like red in watercolour and other mediums. Lightfastness is an issue (you will rarely get the best ASTM I / AA rating in yellow bar I think Nickel Titanate aka Lemon Yellow and Transparent Yellow, mentioned below) and also cost, and also they all seem to react differently to other pigments.

Opacity is also a big bugbear – for the more lightfast yellows are either very ‘chalky’ and stiff and opaque – I personally like that contrast unlike many who seem to despise Nickel Titanate – but the more transparent ones can be more variable/transient in their lightfastness, especially in glazes and mixtures. And manufacturers can be rather optimistic in their ratings (see Aureolin for instance)

I’ve avoided Cadmium pigments until now, because of worries about health and safety and the fact I tend to get these paints all over my hands…which I now agree was overstated (although I do have some lead-based oil paint, will be more careful with that – sounds like it’s not very lightfast either). Also concerns about where they source the Cadmium…and the biggest reason is they are really expensive in the W&N and main ranges. Which is annoying since all the Cadmiums are usually the brightest and have a good to excellent lightfastness. So upto now I was using Nickel Titanate as my cool yellow, and Winsor Yellow.

So rather replace my big tube of Winsor Yellow, I decided to get several tubes of different makes and pigments to experiment. I found Lukas do a cheap Cadmium Yellow (being a German firm, I’m pretty sure they have to prove their green credentials of sourcing Cadmium). French historical make Sennelier can be found fairly cheaply (well, for Cadmiums and Sennelier, got a tube of Cad. Lemon Yellow also PY35 which was a treat to see what the fuss is about).

Schminke Horadam Lemon Yellow which is Hansa Yellow PY3, also German made, because like Sennelier never tried them and not that pigment which some swear by but it slightly less lightfast.

And as a bonus there was an eBay sale on really cheap 5ml tubes of W&N Transparent Yellow so bought many of those.

Transparent Yellow aka Nickel azomethine yellow PY150 has really interesting effects as you can see from the head and body below…that speckled leather/leopard skin effect? Totally caused by Trans. Yellow, and it creates really interesting mixes with Pthalo Green and Blue. Metal azo pigments have special properties – shame they seem to be under threat of being discontinued (and I wonder if that’s the same Metal Azo that used to be in CD-Rs and DVD-Rs?)

You can also see the Cad Yellow in the brighter yellows – love how it blooms, similar to Nickel Titanate but also see how it blends with reds and purples. I just LOVE it – luckily I only have a bit left of my large Winsor Yellow, which seems boring after these, and I have barely touched it. I’ve also gotten some cheap Cad Yellow and Red oils, so we shall see if Cadmium steals my heart (rather than stops it!).

And I think Lukas might have stolen the show, but when I shift to Sennelier or the Schminke we will see how those compare (really cannot afford Sennelier full time, but thought I’d better see what the fuss is about). Apparently according to an oil-painter friend Lukas oils are good too, so might experiment with those as well.