From: Katharine Thayer (kthayer@pacifier.com)
Date: 08/20/03-05:45:15 AM Z
Judy Seigel wrote:
>
> On Sun, 17 Aug 2003, Katharine Thayer wrote:
> >
> > It's PY1, an arylide, which gets mixed reviews re lightfastness. The
> > Rowney permanent yellow faded in Hilary Page's test.
>
> Someone, maybe Sullivan, mentioned Hansa Yellow -- I don't remember the
> details well enough to tell this story, but it's so interesting I tell it
> anyway....
>
> Before WW2 we had a Hansa Yellow in oil & watercolor. Then a German
> company enforced its patent (someone will remember the famous name of that
> company i'm blanking on now) & during the war it was unavailable. After
> the war the patent was lost (spoils of war? expired? reparations? I
> don't remember), and we got Hansa yellow again in this country. As I
> recall it's same as arylide, which was the name they gave it when they
> couldn't call it Hansa -- and I believe some varieties are more lightfast
> than others.
>
> In any event, I liked it then, like it now.
>
Each to his own, and I wouldn't try to talk anyone out of using
something they like, but just for general information for the list:
there are quite a few arylides, each with their own characteristics. I
won't go on at length about the different characteristics of the
different arylides; it's much too nice a day to spend it either writing
or reading such, but in general the arylides have pretty good (II)
lightfastness, except for PY1, which was most recently (1999) rated by
ASTM as V. My best source lists only blockx as using PY1 now, (a
recent product listing I have from Rowney doesn't include permanent
yellow in the line, perhaps it's been discontinued?) and actually the
paint blockx makes with PY1 is rated lightfast by both Hilary Page and
handprint. So blockx might be a good choice for those especially wanting
to use PY1, although for my money PY3 would be a better choice in the
same color range, as PY3 is more transparent, more reliably lightfast,
just a better all-around pigment in my book, and my opinion seems to be
shared by manufacturers of artist-quality paints, who overwhelmingly
choose PY3 for a light arylide rather than PY1, even though PY1 is
considerably cheaper. I don't care for the lighter arylides myself; to
my taste they're too light, too opaque (though they are more transparent
than cadmium yellows, they are still only semi-transparent) too greenish
in color cast (though this is may be more true of PY3 than PY1) but
that's all just a matter of personal taste and preference.
Katharine
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 09/05/03-09:30:46 AM Z CST