My revised Palette for 2026

At the end of the year, I refined my watercolour palette, and vowed not to change it for a year, to give myself a chance to really get to know the colours and their colour mixing potential. Earlier in January, I removed my Phthalo Green and replaced it with Sap Green.

But as I progress through the Liz Steel’s watercolour course, I’m getting more knowledgable about colour and their pigments, and realise that I have to make another change, even though I told myself I wouldn’t.

Why I’ve been using New Gamboge as my Warm Yellow

The warm yellow in my palette is New Gamboge. I’m using this because it’s one of the base colours of six split-primaries in the Daniel Smith Essentials Watercolour Set. This set has a warm and cool version of red, blue, and yellow.

Theoretically, this warm yellow (New Gamboge), and the cool yellow (Hansa Yellow Light) are split primaries. When you mix them together to can create a true/balanced yellow to use as a primary yellow.

I like using this warm yellow, and it mixes well with my Opera Pink, Quin Rose and Pyrrol Scarlet to create lovely oranges. I could add a red to my Hansa Yellow Medium, or Hansa Yellow Light to create a warm yellow. But I use this premixed warm yellow often enough, that I want to have it readily available in my palette.

Why I want to Replace my New Gamboge

I was filling up my palette today, and realised that I didn’t have a tube of New Gamboge. My initial thought was to get online and order a new tube of the Daniel Smith New Gamboge from my favourite online art shop Ponto was Artes in Lisbon.

But then I looked at my zip lock back or languishing yellows that I’ve bought over the years, and don’t use, and wondered if I had a good replacement for New Gamboge.

Initially, I was thinking I’d just use up another warm yellow as a stop-gap, and then switch back to New Gamboge. But after my assessment of available yellows, I realised there was a better plan.

My New Gamboge Replacement Assessment

Looking at my available Yellows

I swatched out the other 7 yellows I have in my possession. Two Senneliers, 1 Winsor Newton, and 4 Daniel Smith. The Sennelier Yellow Deep and Daniel Smith Permanent Yellow Deep were both good candidates to replace the New Gamboge.

But New Gamboge and Permanent Yellow Deep have the PY110 pigment in common. So I chose that one to explore as a replacement.

Comparing New Gamboge to Permanent Yellow Deep

Both of these colours are transparent, non granulating, and with the staining level of 2, and both contain the PY110 pigment.

The New Gamboge is slightly cooler, and the Permanent Yellow Deep is slightly warmer.

What I like about the Permanent Yellow Deep is that it’s a single pigment (PY110) warm yellow, whereas the New Gamboge uses two pigments (PY110 and PY97). That extra pigment in New Gamboge cools it down slightly. This PY97 pigment in New Gamboge is the single pigment for Hansa Yellow Medium.

So I realised that if I added Permanent Yellow Deep to my palette, I could mix my own New Gamboge (PY97 and PY110) by mixing Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97) and Permanent Yellow Deep (PY110).

I’m happy to use Permanent Yellow Deep as my warm yellow version in my palette. It just means that the oranges I mix from the Permanent Yellow Deep will be slightly warmer. But if I want to cool down this warm yellow, I just need to add a little bit of Hansa Yellow Medium to mix my own version of New Gamboge.

Not only have I just saved myself some money but not buying a new tube of New Gamboge, I’m replacing this warm yellow with an even better one. I can’t see a downside to making this switch … except, I’m making yet another change to my palette that I said I wasn’t going to change.

Oh Well!

What Daniel Smith Writes about these two colours

Permanent Yellow Deep

SKU: 284600133
Pigment: PY 110 | Series: 2
Lightfastness: I – Excellent
Transparency: Transparent
Staining: 2-Low Staining
Granulation: Non-Granulating

Mixing beautifully with other colours, Permanent Yellow Deep yields a bright tangerine hue when used at full-strength and light washes are a soft peach. A warm and golden tone makes this yellow ideal for the fiery orange-yellows of a fall landscape.

Source: Daniel Smith Permanent Yellow Deep

New Gamboge

SKU: 284600060
Pigment: PY 97, PY 110 | Series: 1
Lightfastness: I – Excellent
Transparency: Transparent
Staining: 2-Low Staining
Granulation: Non-Granulating

Unlike other brands, DANIEL SMITH New Gamboge is an excellent lightfast formulation. It’s a transparent organic pigment from the yellow to orange zone of your color wheel. More staining than Yellow Ochre and equal in tinting ability to Raw Sienna. It’s a good substitute for those colors when transparency and non granulation is desired while avoiding thick, muddy passages.

Source: Daniel Smith New Gamboge