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Years ago, I was taking a painting class and the instructor raved about quinacridone/nickel azo gold. I bought myself a tube, then promptly forgot about it. Recently, I heard quinacridone/nickel azo gold was taken off the market. A while later, Golden came out with an alternative paint: azo gold. I picked up a tube to compare the two, plus get to know why the colour is so special.
Quinacridone/nickel azo gold
Let’s start with the original, which isn’t available for purchase anymore. It’s a beautiful muted red-orange. Quin nickel azo gold is a mixture of two pigments: PO48, which is quinacridone orange, and PY150, which is nickel azo yellow. Quinacridone pigments are synthetic modern pigments which are very transparent. The word “azo” is short for diazotized amines, which are a synthetic organic pigment.
It’s labeled as Series 7. Paint manufacturers use a series number to price their paint. Series 1 is the least expensive, while Series 9 is the priciest. This means quin/nickel azo gold was fairly expensive.
PO48 was discontinued as a pigment, so paint manufacturers were no longer able to purchase it to make their paints.
Azo gold
Azo gold is also by Golden Artist Acrylics, and they market it as a replacement for the beloved quinacridone/nickel azo gold. It’s also a gorgeous muted red-orange, and very transparent. Azo gold is also a mixture of two pigments. Just like quin/nickel azo gold, it has PY150, nickel azo yellow. But instead of the quinacridone orange, it has PR101, which is synthetic iron oxide red.
Price-wise, azo gold is labeled as Series 4, so a mid-priced tube of paint. Less expensive than quin/nickel azo gold used to be though.
Comparing the two paints
Let’s get down to business and see if azo gold is as good as quinacridone/nickel azo gold. I started with comparing how each tube mixes with other colours. For this comparison I used:
- Hansa yellow lemon
- Cadmium-free yellow medium
- Cadmium-free red medium
- Quinacridone magenta
- Ultramarine blue
- Phthalo blue (green shade)
- Dioxazine purple
- Sap green hue
- Cadmium orange
- Titanium white
Watch me compare quinacridone/nickel azo gold and azo gold on my YouTube channel.
Is azo gold worth it?
I created a swatch sheet with a ton of colour mixes on it, and taking a close look at the two tubes, they are extremely similar. They are both very transparent, and both mix very beautiful colours. Since both colours are a muted red-orange, most of the colour mixes are reddish-orange as well. When mixed with phthalo blue (green shade), they make a really lovely muted blue-green. You can also make a wide variety of browns, as well as a grey using ultramarine blue.
I also painted a pair of quick sketches – one using quinacridone/nickel azo gold and the other using azo gold. Either paint will help work wonderful if you need a beautiful warm glow to a painting. Because of their transparency, either colour allows you to build a depth of colour.
Azo gold is an excellent option to try if you miss quinacridone/nickel azo. Or maybe you never had the opportunity to try the older pigment, and are looking for a transparent paint that will give add light and warmth to your painting.
Learn more
Check out a listing of all my colour mixing blog posts and videos on my colour mixing roundup article.
Get your own
While you can’t get quinacridone/nickel azo gold anymore, you can pick up a tube of azo gold acrylic paint at your local art supply store or on Amazon:
