Schminke Translucent Orange (PO71)

In her latest book Jean Haines, when discussing her palette, waxed lyrical about Schminke Translucent Orange, which after having found it at an art fair, she regards as indispensable. What is so special about this colour? To begin with this pigment, PO71 Pyrrole Orange, was until recently only available from Schminke, although this has now changed with the addition of Permanent Orange from Lukas.

The best known orange is Cadmium Orange (PO20) which is very opaque and has the disadvantage of being a cadmium pigment, all cadmiums being toxic. It isn't the most popular of colours and isn't an automatic palette choice. Nevertheless Handprint rate it as a 'Top Forty' pigment.

According to Handprint PO71 is a lightfast, opaque and staining pigment of a red orange shade. Note the opaque. I'm aware cadmums are toxic but thought, wrongly it seems, that the newer oranges on offer were also supposed to be more transparent. Actually this question of opaqueness is not always what it seems because nearly all watercolour pigments will show varying degrees of transparency when diluted. 

Cadmium Orange (Maimeri PO20) is upper left. The two middle top swatches are translucent Orange with the left one more diluted. Upper right is Rowney Warm Orange which is PO73 also called Pyrrole Orange. PO73 is also available as Pyrrol orange from Daniel Smith, Winsor Orange Red Shade from guess who and Scarlet Pyrrol from Graham. Also shown is the compliment Cobalt Blue with underneath the result of mixing them together - grey. If you click on the image you should be able to read off what they all are. Incidentally Handprint also rate PO73 as a `Top Forty' pigment. There is a definate difference between the Schminke colour and the Rowney Warm Orange. Another orange is PO43 Perinone Orange, Orange Lake from Maimeri and Perinone Orange from Daniel Smith, ` delightful' say Handprint. There are a few other orange pigments of which PO62 is the most common in use and they are fully covered in the paints section on Handprint.

I haven't tried Translucent Orange yet so I'll leave the last word to Jean Haines : "At an art fair I came across a colour I would now be lost without -if you haven't tried Schminke Translucent Orange you are really missing out on something very wonderful! When diluted, it is really transparent, glowingly vibrant and works well with many other shades as a contrast". Wow praise indeed and with her soaring popularity I'd be amazed if Schminke have not seen a sudden huge increase in sales.