two tubes of yellow acrylic paint

Which cool yellow acrylic paint colours are best?

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Which cool yellow is worth including on your palette? I compare cool yellow acrylic paint with cadmium lemon and hansa light yellow to see if there’s much of a difference and give you an idea of which one you might want to use.

Yellow is one of the primary colours on an artist’s colour wheel. It is combined with blue to make green, or red to make orange. Yellow on its own can provide a sense of warmth or cheeriness, or bring attention to a certain part of a painting with it’s bright hue.

Watch my video comparing cool yellows on my YouTube channel.

Both Cadmium and Hansa yellows are considered modern yellows. Cadmium yellows were first created in the 1840s, while Hansa yellows were developed in the early 20th century.  

On this mixing sheet, I mixed cadmium lemon and hansa light yellow with:

  • Two reds
    • Quinacridone magenta
    • Cadmium red
  • Two blue
    • Ultramarine blue
    • Phthalo blue (green shade)
  • Burnt sienna
  • Titanium white, to show lighter shades of each mix

Ultimately, the two are very similar. I know some artists swear by the different cadmium colours, but once I use up my cadmium lemon, I will continue buying hansa light yellow. I don’t see enough of a difference in colours when mixing to keep a cadmium yellow on my palette. Cadmiums also tend to be a bit pricier, so the affordability of the Hansa colours are also a plus in my book. When you’re looking for hansa light yellow, it might be called azo yellow, as they come from azo dyes.

Learn more

Check out a listing of all my colour mixing blog posts and videos on my colour mixing roundup article.

Buy your own

Pick up your favourite shade of cool yellow paint at your local art supply store or on Amazon:

US

Canada

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