November 9, 2009

Deconstructing Daniel Smith's Moonglow

I'm in the middle of a quest to solve a pigment problem in my fourth christmas card. The choice I made yesterday doesn't seem like the best one, it was Daniel Smith's Moonglw, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL color, but not the right pigments for this card in particular.

Then today after some tests a bulb has lighted over my head, why not check all the pigments in Moonglow, see if I have them and replace the problematic one? so of course it's taken me 2 seconds to realize I didn't have all the pigments in Moonglow lol, but that's ok because it has let me go on research mode, handprint.com is fabulous for that.

So for Moonglow I need:
- Viridian (PG18) which I have (in fact it will give me the chance to try my untouched Yasutomo paints).
- Ultramarine Blue (PB29) which is the granulating color in the mix and the one I wanted to change for Indanthrene Blue since I've already used in the sky and is rich and staining.
- Anthraquinoid Red (PR177) which I don't have and after looking at the pigment it's not under another name at Winsor&Newton, so I won't be able to buy it locally, on the other hand after reading about its qualities I don't like the fact that it hasn't good lightfastness, one of the alternatives given at Handprint is Perylene Maroon which I happen to love and after reading more about the pigment it's staining, so it'll be good for darks and my mix wont granulate.


I feel so accomplished right now! LOL, so I guess I'll put here the info I wrote about both pigments, it's easier to take a photo than to rewrite it, sorry if my handwritting is a problem (one day I'll have to take all those scraps of paper I have around with info and put them together in a notebook or something).


Now after all the theory is time for making some tests and see if it does really work for my painting or I'll need to keep on looking for solutions, let the fun begin!

3 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

Isn't it fun to go on a mystery quest with a color to find out more about it? Thanks for sharing this (I don't think I ever wondered what was in moonglow but I love the color!). Now you can replace what you want - the blue - and get something very similiar that works better for you!
I am loving all the cards and looking forward to more. Did you say they were for sale as prints on Deviant Art?

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

It's fun indeed Rhonda, and there are so many possibilities having the same color with different properties :)

You can expect to see these cards up for sale at Deviantart and Zazzle today or tomorrow, I will share the link as soon as I upload them.

Anonymous said...

179 sent it to black/navy.... but ultra/crimson/Viridian was close..... you need to make the purple first.... very interesting..... but moonglow is still a favourite and great for shadows and moody sky. Still, those pesky rogue colours are a worry!! From Lismore Australia