Best Yellows in Watercolor Painting: Tips and Picks

My Thought Process for Choosing Yellows in Watercolor Painting

Have you ever wondered how I choose the yellows for my watercolor palette? Whether I’m putting together a new color palette or considering a new yellow that has caught my eye, I tend to follow the same thought process.

Yellow is a primary color, and because I use a split-primary palette, I like to have at least two yellows: one cool and one warm. This gives me much more flexibility when mixing colors and is the starting point whenever I compare different yellow paints.

So, which yellows do I actually use? This is a question I receive quite often, so in this article I’d like to take a closer look at the yellows I’ve tried and explain how I decide which ones deserve a place in my palette.

I’ll be using Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour as my main reference, since this is the brand I use, but I’ll also mention comparable Daniel Smith colors where helpful. If you use another brand, you can refer to my color conversion chart to find similar alternatives.

As always, this is simply my personal approach to choosing colors. There is no single “correct” watercolor palette, so what works beautifully for me may not necessarily be the best choice for you.

I’ve accumulated quite a collection of yellows over the years. Looking at them side by side, you can already see some clear differences: some lean cooler, others are distinctly warmer, while a few move toward earthy, golden tones.

Before looking at pigments, names, or technical properties, I like to simply look at the colors themselves. What do I actually see? Which ones appear cool? Which feel warm? Which ones stand apart from the others?

That simple visual comparison gives me a useful starting point. From here, I can begin narrowing down the options—but appearance alone isn’t enough. There are several other things I consider before deciding whether a color deserves a permanent place in my palette.

Looking more closely at my collection, I can divide the Winsor & Newton yellows into four general groups. To make the comparison more useful, I’ve also included similar colors from Daniel Smith alongside them.

These comparisons aren’t meant to represent every yellow available from either brand. They simply show the paints and swatches I currently have, arranged according to how they appear to me when painted out.

A Yellow of Its Own

Let’s start with Winsor & Newton Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24). This one stands apart from the others, so I’ve given it a little group of its own. The closest Daniel Smith color I have for comparison is Naples Yellow (PW4, PY97, PR101).

Cool Yellows

Next come the cooler, brighter yellows. In Winsor & Newton, Winsor Lemon (PY175) and Winsor Yellow (PY154) fall into this group. Daniel Smith offers plenty of yellows with a similar cool character, as you can see below.

Warm Yellows

The third—and largest—group contains the warm yellows. These lean more toward orange and include colors such as New Gamboge, Winsor Yellow Deep, and Indian Yellow. Again, Daniel Smith offers several alternatives within this range.

Earthier, Golden Yellows

Finally, there are yellows that move away from a clear, bright yellow toward something deeper, earthier, or more golden. In my Winsor & Newton collection, Transparent Yellow and Quinacridone Gold fall into this group, with comparable options from Daniel Smith.

And this brings us to an important question: do you really need all those yellows?

Probably not.

When you see them individually in an art store—or, even more dangerously, online —each color can seem unique and tempting. But put them side by side and many are very similar. Paint manufacturers offer enormous ranges of colors, which gives us plenty of choice, but that doesn’t mean every variation needs a place in our palette.

For me, the goal isn’t to collect as many yellows as possible. It’s to identify the ones that give me the most useful range of properties and mixing possibilities without unnecessary duplication.

So how do I decide which colors actually earn a place in my palette? There are several things I look at.

Considerations When Choosing Colors for My Palette

Because I use a split-primary palette, having one cool yellow and one warm yellow is essential for me. Those are my must-haves. Other yellows can certainly be useful—or simply beautiful to work with—but they aren’t as important to the foundation of my palette.

When deciding whether a color deserves a permanent place on my palette, I consider several things:

1. Number of pigments. I generally prefer single-pigment colors. Paint names can vary considerably between brands, so I always look at the pigment number rather than relying on the name alone. It also makes it much easier to compare similar colors from different manufacturers. Most colors on my palette are single-pigment paints, with a few exceptions, such as Payne’s Gray.
2. Transparency. I have a strong preference for transparent colors. If a paint is opaque, I’m much less likely to choose it when a good transparent alternative is available. Semi-transparent and semi-opaque colors can still find their way onto my palette, but transparency is always a plus for the way I paint.
3. Lightfastness. I want my paintings to retain their colors over time, so good lightfastness is very important to me. Fortunately, many modern watercolor pigments have excellent or very good lightfastness, but there are exceptions. This is something I always check before adding an unfamiliar color to my palette.
4. Granulation. Given the choice, I usually prefer non-granulating colors. They produce the smoother, more even washes that suit my painting style. That doesn’t mean I never use granulating paints—I simply don’t tend to choose them for my core palette unless they offer something I particularly want.
5. Do I actually use it? This may be the simplest consideration, but perhaps the most important. A color can be beautiful and technically excellent, but if I rarely reach for it, it doesn’t need to occupy permanent space on my palette. Naples Yellow, for example, isn’t particularly useful for the subjects I usually paint. Cobalt Turquoise Light is another gorgeous color, but I might use it only once a year. I’d rather squeeze out those occasional colors when I need them and reserve my palette for paints I use regularly.

Cool Yellows

Now let’s take a closer look at the cool yellows and walk through my process of elimination.

At the coolest end of this group are yellows that lean slightly toward green: Winsor Lemon, Nickel Titanate Yellow, Bismuth Vanadate Yellow, Hansa Yellow Light, and Lemon Yellow.

From experience, I already know that I rarely use yellows this cool. They simply don’t suit the subjects I paint or the way I mix colors. Even when painting something like a lemon, I prefer to start with a slightly warmer yellow—I can always cool it down with a touch of blue if necessary.

So, for my own palette, I can eliminate these five immediately.

The remaining colors are much closer to the kind of cool yellow I actually use. With Winsor & Newton, the choice is easy: Winsor Yellow (PY154) has been my cool yellow for years. It’s transparent, single-pigment, lightfast, non-granulating, and—most importantly—I know from experience that I use it constantly.

But what if I were choosing from Daniel Smith?

Narrowing Down the Daniel Smith Yellows

I can eliminate a few options based on the criteria we discussed earlier.

Aureolin (PY40) is out because of its poor lightfastness.

Mayan Yellow (PY223) can also go. Its lightfastness is lower than I want for a core palette color, and I don’t find it as vibrant as the other options.

The Cadmium Yellow Hues require a little explanation. Daniel Smith’s Cadmium Hues do not contain traditional cadmium pigments; they use alternative pigments designed to provide similar color and opacity without cadmium compounds. They are therefore not being eliminated because of cadmium toxicity. However, their opacity and multi-pigment formulations still make them less appealing to me for this particular role.

That leaves Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97) and Azo Yellow (PY151). Their properties are quite similar, so at this point the decision comes down largely to color. Looking at my swatches side by side, Azo Yellow appears slightly cooler, while Hansa Yellow Medium is a little warmer and closer to the type of yellow I prefer.

For that reason, my Daniel Smith choice would be Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97).

My Cool Yellow Picks

So my choices are:

Winsor & Newton: Winsor Yellow (PY154)
Daniel Smith: Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97)

Despite using different pigments, the two are remarkably similar in appearance and would serve essentially the same purpose in my palette.

Warm Yellows

Still with me? Choosing yellows is serious business. 😄 Let’s move on to the warmer side of the spectrum.

One of my all-time favorite warm yellows was the original New Gamboge made with PY153—the first swatch on the left. It had a beautiful, rich, sunflower-like warmth without leaning too far toward orange. Unfortunately, PY153 is no longer available, and I still haven’t found a perfect replacement.

Today, Winsor & Newton New Gamboge is made with PY150 and PR209, while Daniel Smith New Gamboge uses PY97 and PY110. Both are beautiful colors, but neither looks quite like the original PY153 version to me.

Searching for a Replacement for PY153

A popular alternative is Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65), and this is the pigment I eventually moved toward as well. It comes reasonably close, although compared with the original PY153, I find that it leans more toward yellow-orange.

There are other possibilities. Permanent Yellow Deep (PY110) moves even further toward orange, while Isoindoline Yellow (PY139) also appears too orange for what I want from my main warm yellow.

Applying my usual selection criteria makes the decision relatively straightforward. In Winsor & Newton, I can eliminate the current New Gamboge because it is a two-pigment mixture, and Indian Yellow is also a mixture. That leaves Winsor Yellow Deep (PY65) as my preferred single-pigment warm yellow.

Among the Daniel Smith colors shown here, Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65) is also the best fit for what I’m looking for.

But there is another solution—and I actually think it’s a better way to recreate the character of the old New Gamboge.

Mixing a New Gamboge Alternative

Instead of searching endlessly for one paint that perfectly replaces PY153, I can mix something really close using the cool and warm yellows already on my palette.

With Winsor & Newton, I mix:

Winsor Yellow (PY154) + Winsor Yellow Deep (PY65)

With Daniel Smith, the equivalent combination is:

Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97) + Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65)

Mixing the cooler yellow with the warmer, more orange-leaning PY65 brings the color back toward that beautiful middle ground I loved in the original New Gamboge.

Another Daniel Smith possibility is Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97) + Isoindoline Yellow (PY139), although my preference remains the PY97 + PY65 combination.

My Warm Yellow Picks

My choices are therefore wonderfully simple:

Winsor & Newton: Winsor Yellow Deep (PY65)
Daniel Smith: Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65)

And in both cases, I can mix the warm yellow with my chosen cool yellow whenever I want something closer to the old PY153 New Gamboge.

Other Yellows Worth Considering

Once I’ve chosen my essential cool and warm yellows, I can look at other colors in the yellow family that might offer something useful enough to earn a place on my palette.

I can eliminate Naples Yellow fairly quickly. It’s a beautiful color, but I simply don’t use it often enough in the floral and bird paintings I typically create. For me, it makes more sense to squeeze it out only when a particular painting calls for it.

That leaves us with some deeper, more golden yellows.

Do I Really Need Quinacridone Gold?

Let’s start with Quinacridone Gold, a color loved by many watercolor artists—and for good reason. It has a gorgeous glowing, golden quality, produces beautiful greens when mixed with blues, and can create lovely warm salmon tones when combined with pinks and reds.

The original Quinacridone Gold was made with a single pigment, PO49, but that pigment is no longer produced for artists’ paints. Modern versions therefore recreate the color using mixtures of two or more pigments.

And this is where things become interesting.

One pigment that frequently appears in modern Quinacridone Gold mixtures is PY150. On its own, PY150 is available as Transparent Yellow from Winsor & Newton and Nickel Azo Yellow from Daniel Smith.

PY150 already provides much of that beautiful transparent, glowing golden quality I like in Quinacridone Gold. The remaining part of the mixture generally comes from warmer reddish-brown pigments.

So I started wondering: if I already have PY150 and a suitable reddish-brown on my palette, do I actually need a separate Quinacridone Gold?

For me, the answer is no.

Mixing My Own Quinacridone Gold

I can create a similar golden color by mixing Transparent Yellow (PY150) with a reddish-brown such as Burnt Sienna (PR101). By adjusting the proportions, I can move the mixture from a glowing golden yellow toward a deeper, warmer gold.

That gives me much of what I want from Quinacridone Gold while allowing me to work with two versatile single-pigment colors that are useful for many other mixtures as well.

So rather than giving Quinacridone Gold a permanent place on my palette, I choose PY150:

Winsor & Newton: Transparent Yellow (PY150)
Daniel Smith: Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150)