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Both sap green and hookers green acrylic paint are popular choices that artists choose to keep on their palette. I spent some time trying out a few colour mixes to get to know each of the colours a bit better. Both are yellow-leaning greens, however Hookers green is a bit more blue. Keep in mind that manufacturers make their own versions, so a different brand will look and mix differently. I used Golden brand for both shades of green.
Sap green was originally developed from the juice of buckthorn berries. Now manufacturers make their own versions and are often labeled as a hue, to denote that it’s not the original pigment. Generally it’s a yellow-leaning green and is a very popular colour because of it’s usefulness when painting plants and landscapes. The Golden version of Sap Green Hue uses a mixture of PR 101 (Synthetic Iron Oxide Red), PY 150 (Nickel Azo Yellow), PG 36 (phthalo green yellow shade) and PBk 7 (Carbon Black).
Hookers green is named after William Hooker, who was a botanical artist. The original was a mixture of Prussion blue and gamboge, a shade of yellow. Gamboge is not lightfast, so now manufacturers have developed a version of Hookers Green that is lightfast, which is why you’ll often notice the word hue on the label. Golden’s version of Hookers Green Hue is a mix of PB 60 (Indanthrone Blue), PY 150 (Nickel Azo Yellow), and PR 122 (Quinacridone Magenta).
Now let’s see a few of the colour mixes you’ll be able to get using sap green and hookers green. Watch my video as I mix a series of different colours on my YouTube channel.
Mixing colours used
I used quite a few different colours to compare the colour mixes of these two greens. Two from each of the primary colours, plus one each of the secondary colours:
- Cadmium lemon
- Cadmium yellow medium hue
- Phthalo blue (green)
- Ultramarine blue
- Quinacridone magenta
- Cadmium red
- Cadmium orange
- Dioxazine purple
- Titanium white.
My thoughts
Both would be fantastic colours to add to an acrylic artist’s colour palette. While green isn’t a necessary paint colour, because you can mix it from primary colours, it certainly can speed up the painting process to have a convenience green or two on your palette. I have quite a few different greens in my paint collection, so I still haven’t decided which ones I want to keep and continue using. Of these two, I prefer the sap green because of it’s yellower tone. But it may depend on which manufacturer’s version of sap green I’m using.
Learn more
Check out a listing of all my colour mixing blog posts and videos on my colour mixing roundup article.
Get your own
Pick up your own favourite shade of green at your local art supply store of on Amazon:
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