Cool and Warm Yellows - [How to Tell The Difference]

In this video I share all the yellow pigments on my watercolor palette and show you how to tell the difference between cool and warm yellows. Learn how to determine if a yellow pigment is a cool yellow or a warm yellow. #warmyellow #coolyellow #watercolorpigments
To succeed in watercolor (or any painting medium) you need to understand the relative temperature of a pigment. Is the color on the cool side (closer to blue, green or purple) or is the color on the warm side (closer to orange and red).
In this painting I use the following colors:
Lemon Yellow (PY3) - Mijello
Azo Yellow (PY151) - M. Graham
Cadmium Yellow (PY35 + PO20) - Winsor Newton
Permanent Yellow Deep (PY65) - Mijello
New Gamboge (PY97 + PY110) - Daniel Smith
Nickel Quinacridone Gold PO48 + PY150) - Daniel Smith
Yellow Ochre (PY43) - Daniel Smith
Yellow Ochre (PY150 + PY42) - Mijello
⭐ Need help making sense of all the watercolor supplies out there? My free Getting Started in Watercolor course is launching soon. Add your name to the list to be notified when it goes live: studio.krisdebruine.com/getti... ⭐
If you found this video to be helpful, please hit the "Like" button and subscribe to my channel.
Other supplies in my watercolor studio include:
Arches 140lb Cold Press 100% Cotton Paper - amzn.to/2AoQzGj
Stephen Quiller Porcelain Palette - amzn.to/2Zugg2u
M. Graham Watercolor Paints - amzn.to/2YZbY3c
Daniel Smith Watercolor Pigments - amzn.to/2LrwmBK
Mijello 2-Liter Water Bucket - amzn.to/2ySbz7N
I am not paid to review the products in this video. However, I receive a small commission for sales resulting from the links above. Thank you for supporting this channel!

[@chopsticks51]

Thank you for this super useful video. The gradient bar at the top is a genius idea, so much more useful as an organizing tool to understand what we already have on our palettes. The swatches below add the super important info on granulation /tinting * pigments.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@leslie-annepepin8927]

I really appreciate your videos. I started watercolour to have something to pass the time during covid (I am 68 and love learning new things!) So I am totally reliant on videos like yours. There is so much to learn! I really appreciate how you get right to the subject at hand, and don’t ramble on for the first 10 minutes or so! I find your videos so informative, succinct and easy to understand. Thank you so much. I appreciate you!

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Thank you Leslie. I appreciate my viewers....and especially those that take the time to leave a comment. Thanks again.

[@memyself3895]

Just busted out my Christmas gift set of watercolors and darned if I could understand the difference between warm and cool. This was super clear and helpful, thanks, Kris.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback. This was all a mystery when I first started painting, but as I learned about the paints on my palette, I was better prepared to use them. Have fun!

[@everartokelli]

Thanks for sharing your yellow pigments! I struggle with opacity in yellows more than with color range. For a long time I used PY97 Transparent Yellow from Winsor & Newton, before they changed it to PY150. It's a lovely transparent mid-yellow and much like PY40 Aureolin, it had a luminous quality. PY40 is very fugitive and turns to grey very quickly, but I understand why artists still use it because it captures luminous light so well. I have other mid yellows that are lovely like Hansa Yellow Medium, but not as transparent and that does affect how yellow depicts light in paintings. Sometimes, opacity is a virtue in watercolor, it adds body to painting images, but I still find it hard to deal with the opacity of Cadmiums and Nickel Titanates when using yellow in watercolor. I love Daniel Smith's Yellow Ochre and Burgundy Yellow Ochre because they are so transparent. I don't need those colors to be strong, because again, they are adding light and warmth.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Thanks for sharing. Very helpful information.

[@barbieland7358]

👏👏👏👏👏

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Thank you

[@windywednesday4166]

Thank you so much for this... I'm just getting the basics down and this is exactly what I needed.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

I'm glad you found it helpful. Thanks for watching.

[@NotReplicatingEthereal]

THANK YOU!! I began painting again after an almost 40 yr break and I am rusty with color mixing.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Glad I could help!

[@memyself3895]

Kris, I'm a real beginner, so I guess I still don't know what I don't know.... would love to see a similar comparison of orange. There seems to be overlap between the two colors, which also happen to be among my favorite colors. New sub here and looking forward to your other videos.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Yes. There is definitely an overlap. Orange is just yellow, with red added. I would encourage you to get yourself a good color wheel that has lots of color relationship information on it. I like the wheel created by Stephen Quiller. Here is a copy on Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/pin/483785184952012491/ You can see where the various colors fall on the wheel, how saturated or neutralized they are and where are they positioned in relationship to other colors. This information is helpful as you learn to mix your paints.

[@debras3806]

Very helpful. Do you have one for reds?

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Here you go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJTZaqGjo5ecpdk

[@plreeve]

Hi Kris, Very interesting. I have a question for you please. The two Ochres you showed, was one warm and the other cool? Green mixing is very limited without a blue I'm trying to use the Zorn Palette. My black is a 35,35,35 on the RGB so in the blue area. What yellow would you suggest to get and orange and the green? Zorn is asking for ochre. regards Paul.

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Hi Paul. Thanks for the question. I was simply showing the difference between two yellow ochres - by two different manufacturers. One uses PY42 and the other PY43. They are both considered WARM colors. I have never used the Zorn palette for watercolor - only for oil or acrylic. That is because it is not that common to use white or even black, on a watercolor palette. In watercolor, I preserve the white of the paper for my whites. For blacks, I mix two complements. Or sometimes I use Ultramarine Blue and Raw Umber. Hope this helps.

[@plreeve]

Hi Kris, thank you for a quick reply. It is oil painting I am doing. I appreciate your feed back, regards Paul.

[@cynthiamarston2208]

@@KrisDeBruineStudio so ochre is always warm….because you must add red to a yellow base. Add red to green. Still warm. Add red to blue. Depends on how much red. Am i missing anything?. Oh add blue to green …cool color…. Yellow to green…..cool…. But not as cool as yellow to blue. Red and yellow warm. So if its orangey red its warm. Blue red cool. If anyone could ever think of red as cool that is…..violet….warm….grape is cool. How am I doing? Mint adds blue….cool. Turqoise or teal warmer than aqua….right?

[@maiakiselova8839]

Only oil paints have an actual color temperature!!! That's because they are made from earth materials and on molecular level they have positive or negative charges that makes the neutrons or protons move endocentric or exocentric of the nucleus. That being said the behave differently when applied to the surface, cools recead and warms come towards you. In oils colore temperature beats up value. Meaning you can use colors of the same value and create definition. You can make darks apear closer then lights, and that comes from color temperature. While in water color and acrylics you aply color of the same value it just looks flat no mater if you use greenish yellow next to yellow orange

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Thanks for sharing.

[@allenvoss7977]

What are your thoughts on Naples yellow ?

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Hi Allen. I don't have it on my palette. As far as the Daniel Smith color goes....it is a Cadmium yellow with a little red added. It also has Zinc Oxide added to make it semi-opaque. I really prefer transparent colors, so I have stayed away from it. However, I know a lot of artists use it. If you give it a try, let me know what you think. Thanks.

[@cynthiamarston2208]

Its clearly a mixing game. Want cool add blue. Want warm add red. Is it really that easy??

[@KrisDeBruineStudio]

Well, it can be stated that simply. However, since there are different pigments that are used for "blue" or "red" this mixing can give different results. I find it is just best to do lots of experimenting.