Cadmium Colors – Are They Worth It?

MAYBE? – Well, if I told you no right away, you wouldn’t read the rest. So, we are at that same Parisian cafe where the Impressionists used to hang out. Their methods were in stark contrast to the Academic Salons where tonal realism was in vogue. That is to say minimal color. The Impressionists had a desire for the strongest colors available and for the warm side of the palette, cadmium colors were it.

QUALITIES – Cad colors are bright and opaque as poop, and lightfast and come in a range between a warm red and warm green. They are formulated out of toxic heavy metals, but they were just what the Impressionists needed.

AND NOW – Well ever since, modern schools of impressionism have insisted that to paint like the Impressionists, to get the same effects, you had to use Cad colors. Even at a very high price for the series 4 tubes.

EXPENSIVE MEANS THE BEST, RIGHT? – Well sort of. In the 150 years since, there has been a lot of progress in pigment technology, formulated in labs to produce less toxic, stronger, purer, high-tinting strength colors. These colors are not as opaque as cad colors and have a slightly lower lightfast rating, but are good enough to stand the test of time, with an imperceivable loss of intensity after a bombardment of UV rays, and are about half the price. They have an ability to hold color when mixed with lots of white. Something that the Cad colors don’t do as well, and dull quickly when color mixing.

CAD SUBSTITUTES – Here are the Gamblin Artist Oils that can substitute for traditional Cad colors

Cad Red Medium = Naphthol Red
Cad Red Light = Naphol Scarlet
Cad Organge = Permanent Orange
Cad Yellow Deep = Hansa Yellow Deep
Cad Yellow Medium = HansaYellow Medium
Cad Yellow Light = Hansa Yellow Light (very transparent, need to mix with white or an opaque or semi-transparent color to get good coverage).

WWMD? – If the Impressionists had these stronger cheaper colors to choose from, they surely would have used them instead. I did a seance and Claude Monet, and he told me himself.

RECOMMENDATION – Save money and get better results with modern synthetic colors.