Evaluate of Michael Harding Tunbridge Wells Oil Colors

Michael Harding has introduced that over the approaching yr he might be including 40 new colors to his oil paint vary to rejoice 40 years of buying and selling. The primary launch is the Tunbridge Wells Choice. It includes 10 colors and is called after the city through which Michael Harding first began producing oil colors, which are actually among the many most famous on this planet. They’re formulated with out fillers, extenders, or driers, and provide a large spectrum of colors, from uncommon historic pigments to fashionable synthetics. This text evaluations every new color within the Michael Harding Tunbridge Wells Choice and explores a few of their color mixing prospects.

Evaluate of Michael Harding Tunbridge Wells Oil Colors

Impartial Gray N7

Pigments: PW6, PBk9, Pbr6
Collection Quantity: 1

Formulated to match N7 on the Munsell Worth Scale, this might be helpful for artists who’re on the lookout for a constant achromatic gray with out mixing it from scratch every time. It’s a very opaque color with a wonderful softness. It has a heat, barely sandy undertone, most likely because of the Brown Iron Oxide pigment that it incorporates. Due to this, it’s finest to deal with it as a heat color as a substitute of a strictly impartial one.

Impartial Gray N7 may be very simple to regulate. It already incorporates Titanium White and Ivory Black, so including increments of these pigments can both make it lighter or darker in worth, relying on what you want. If gray performs a central position in your portray, then Impartial Gray N7 would make an excellent place to begin for reaching many various shades of gray. Impartial Gray N7 may also take down the chroma of any color it’s blended with. I attempted it with Michael Harding’s Cadmium Inexperienced (PY35, PG18) and Vivid Blue (PW6, PB15:3, PG7), each of which made some muted, velvety mixtures. As a result of it incorporates a Brown Iron Oxide pigment, it imparted a slight heat to those cool colors.

Impartial Gray N7 with Cadmium Inexperienced and Vivid Blue

Phthalocyanine Blue Crimson Shade
Pigment: PB15:1
Collection Quantity: 2

This can be a variation on the traditional inexperienced shade of Phthalo Blue that many artists will already be accustomed to. It has a lot of the traits of an everyday Phthalo Blue; it’s clear, deep in masstone (the color straight out of the tube), and excessive in tinting energy.

Phthalocyanine Blue Crimson Shade 40 ml, 60 ml, 225 ml, 1000 ml

Nonetheless, not like the usual Phthalo Blue, it has a pink bias, and it’s most likely nearer to a Cobalt Blue in hue. When blended in tints with white it reveals its heat undertone.

Phthalocyanine Blue Crimson Shade in incremental tints with Titanium White

Turners Yellow
Pigment: PY216
Collection Quantity: 2

The historic Turners Yellow was a lead chloride pigment patented within the early nineteenth century by James Turner. It was not, as is usually believed, named after the painter (and well-known lover of yellow) J.M.W Turner, though it’s attainable that he used it. The unique pigment grew to become out of date by the start of the twentieth century, and lots of ranges provide a Turners Yellow made with fashionable pigments. Michael Harding’s model makes use of a contemporary complicated of titanium, tin, and zinc. For artists that take pleasure in utilizing Nickel Titanate Yellow (PY53), you’ll discover that this color handles equally however is far hotter in hue.

Turners Yellow’s extraordinarily excessive opacity is paying homage to a Cadmium Yellow, nevertheless it has a extra milky, barely earthy high quality. The earthiness disappears when it’s thinned out, and it turns into brighter and extra sunny. It’s a brilliantly versatile mixing associate for Phthalo Blue Crimson Shade, because it’s simple to achieve a wide range of greens, from chartreuse to teal.

Mixtures of Turners Yellow, Phthalocyanine Blue Crimson Shade, and Titanium White

Moss Inexperienced
Pigments: PY150, PB29, PR209
Collection Quantity: 2

Moss Inexperienced has a barely looser consistency than the opposite paints on this new launch, however this isn’t a nasty factor – variation is to be anticipated as a result of no fillers are added to Michael Harding’s paints. Moss Inexperienced is a mix of pigments that work collectively in a extremely fascinating means. In masstone, it’s a deep shade of forest inexperienced, nevertheless it thins out to a glowing shade of olive because of the Nickel Azo Yellow pigment it incorporates. It’s evocative of dappled solar on a forest ground. Anybody who has ever used Inexperienced Gold (PY129) will discover Moss Inexperienced fairly comparable, nevertheless it has a a lot darker and greener masstone.

I can think about that this might match properly right into a panorama painter’s palette. Its transparency and excessive tinting energy imply that it holds up effectively towards different clear high-tinting colors. For instance, with Phthalo Blue Crimson Shade it makes some deep, jewel-like emerald greens. With Michael Harding’s Sensible Orange, it produces some vibrant heat browns with golden undertones.

Moss Inexperienced and Sensible Orange

Vivid Blue
Pigments: PW6, PB15:3, PG7
Collection Quantity: 2

An opaque mix of Titanium White, Phthalo Blue, and Phthalo Inexperienced, Vivid Blue is sort of a clear spring sky. It’s fairly just like a Cobalt Teal (PG50) in shade and tinting energy however is far cheaper. It has extremely excessive masking energy, even in a really skinny movie.

With a vibrant, chilly blue, my first intuition is to pair it with a heat orange (as they’re complementary). Sensible Orange offers simply the correct shade, and it didn’t disappoint. Collectively they make some fantastically enigmatic, muted greenish-browns that will make pretty underpainting colors for portraiture.

Vivid Blue and Sensible Orange

Wisteria
Pigments: PW6, PR122, PB29
Collection Quantity: 2

Michael Harding first made Wisteria for his watercolour vary, however that is an oil-based model. It’s a reddish shade of purple not dissimilar in hue to a Manganese Violet however is paler and extra opaque. It’s, because the identify suggests, very floral. It incorporates Ultramarine Blue, which lends a definite fringe of coolness.

With Phthalo Blue Crimson Shade it creates some fantastically vibrant shades of violet. Nonetheless, the excessive tinting energy of Phthalo Blue Crimson Shade made it a fairly dominant mixing associate for the mild Wisteria, so a red-blue with a decrease tinting energy like Cobalt or Ultramarine Blue may be a more sensible choice. One other risk is including Titanium White to Wisteria to reinforce its cool tones and make some fairly, pastel shades that might be helpful for botanical work.

Wisteria and Phthalocyanine Blue Crimson Shade

Lavender
Pigments: PW6, PV15, PB29
Collection Quantity: 2

Like Wisteria, Lavender was additionally initially created for Michael Harding’s watercolour line. It has a wonderful luminosity and is so cool that it’s nearly blue. The shade is precisely paying homage to lavender flowers seen round Tunbridge Wells.

Pastel shades containing a number of pigments and white aren’t all the time the simplest colors to combine with as a result of their luminosity is normally dampened by different pigments. Nonetheless, considered one of my favorite mixtures I found whereas reviewing the Tunbridge Wells Choice is Lavender and Turners Yellow, with which it produces some elegant, mushy green-greys. Lavender would additionally make an ideal place to begin for mixtures with white, notably an opaque white like Titanium White to make varied floral shades of pale violet.

Lavender and Turners Yellow

Sensible Orange
Pigment: PO62
Collection Quantity: 2

Made utilizing a contemporary Benzimidazolone pigment, Sensible Orange is a vibrant and opaque shade that will make an excellent various to Cadmium Orange. Like Cadmium Orange, it shows a heat, peachy undertone when it’s tinted with Titanium White. Benzimidazolone Orange might be the closest that you may get to a fluorescent orange in a lightfast pigment.

Sensible Orange 40 ml, 60 ml, 225 ml, 1000 ml

Whereas orange will be blended with pink and yellow, a single-pigment orange is a extremely helpful color to have in a palette. For panorama painters notably, oranges are nice for adjusting greens to make them extra earthy and pure. Benzimidazolone Orange’s brightness can simply be tempered with a purple or blue pigment. Right here I used Lavender, with which it made some muted purple-greys that will work fantastically in a portrait palette.

Sensible Orange and Lavender

Rose Doré
Pigments: PY151, PV19
Collection Quantity: 3

Many ranges provide a color they name Rose Dore or Rose Doré, however the historical past of the color’s identify is kind of tough to hint. It’s attainable that it as soon as referred to a real Rose Madder pigment which has poor lightfastness, however Michael Harding’s model is made with lightfast Benzimidazolone and Quinacridone pigments. Rose Doré is a vibrant pink with a subtly yellow undertone and, like Wisteria and Lavender, it has a floral high quality that might be helpful in botanical work. Its heat undertone may equally make it helpful in portraiture.

Rose Doré is an fascinating and weird color that might be heat or cool relying on the way it’s used. As a result of Rose Doré already incorporates a yellow pigment, it mixes effectively with Turners Yellow to make some vibrant, but natural-looking oranges. With Moss Inexperienced, it makes some notably enigmatic mixtures. Moss Inexperienced’s glowing yellow undertone enhances Rose Doré’s yellow bias, and their shared transparency implies that the combination makes for some wealthy, heat brown glazes.

Rose Doré and Moss Inexperienced

Cadmium Inexperienced
Pigments: PY35, PG18
Collection Quantity: 4

Cadmium Inexperienced has a cool, acidic hue, and Michael Harding stated that he obtained many requests from artists for this color. Whereas it could be simple to combine it on the palette with Cadmium Yellow and Viridian, when the 2 pigments are milled collectively in the identical paint, the color is cleaner and extra vibrant.

Cadmium Inexperienced is extremely vibrant, nearly like a fluorescent highlighter, which can not instantly enchantment to many artists. Nonetheless, it has a reasonably excessive tinting energy so it’s simple to combine with and gained’t fully dominate a palette. For panorama artists, it may make an excellent place to begin for making a wide range of greens by mixing it with blues and oranges. The excessive chroma of Cadmium Inexperienced can simply be tempered by including a pink pigment (complimentary to inexperienced). I did this by including Rose Doré, with which it made some enigmatic brown-oranges which might be helpful for portraiture.

Cadmium Inexperienced and Rose Doré

Overview of the New Michael Harding Tunbridge Wells Oil Colors

The Tunbridge Wells Choice is flexible and various and clearly goals to supply one thing for artists working with many various types and topic issues. Solely three of the ten new colors are single-pigment colors (Turners Yellow, Phthalo Blue Crimson Shade, and Sensible Orange), which may be dissatisfying for artists preferring working with solely single-pigment paints. Nonetheless, the colors that I discovered probably the most uncommon and fascinating within the Michael Harding Tunbridge Wells Choice, Moss Inexperienced and Rose Doré, are made up of a number of pigments and provide prospects that single-pigment paints can’t. Total, the standard of the brand new colors is precisely what we’ve come to anticipate from Michael Harding; they’re buttery, wealthy, and filled with pigment. Artists who have already got Michael Harding paints of their palettes won’t be disenchanted.