I created a checklist with my favorite materials. I work with few and mostly inexpensive materials, so check it out. You can download it from the free library!
(This post contains affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission if you purchase after using the link. I only write about products that I truly love and use myself. Read everything about them on my disclosure-page).
Golden Fluid Acrylics: Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold
One of the most exciting things about painting is getting to know art materials.
The absolute number one of this list is one specific color in the Golden Fluid Acrylics series. The name of the color is Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold. Because that is such a mouthful, I will refer to it as QNAG.
I have used QNAG on almost every painting that I’ve made since I’ve bought it. If you look at my Daily Painting Blog, you can check this out.
The first thing that is so beautiful about this paint is that it is very highly pigmented. Even though it is fluid, it has the same amount of pigment as the thicker heavy body paint. It is not diluted to make it fluid.
Second, I just love the color, which is a beautiful golden yellow-brown. I always compare the effect of this color with the sunlight at sunset, which gives the world a golden radiance. Everybody looks beautiful in this light!
Below I will describe four different ways that I use this QNAG.
Straight out of the bottle
First of all, I use QNAG straight out of the bottle. When I make very simple and quick black & white 5-minute-studies, I add QNAG as a third ingredient. You can see an example below. I think the warm brown color gives the painting depth and contrast. I like the way the painting gets a ‘rusty,’ natural look.
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Making drips by adding water
You can see that the fluid nature of QNAG, as well as the fluid acrylic turquoise used below, makes it easy to create drips, by using water from a spray bottle.
Painting an underlayer
Third, I very often use QNAG as an underlayer when I paint a more complex painting with many colors. It creates a warm golden first layer, which is very inviting to paint the next coat. Everything looks good on top of this color in my opinion. Warm colors blend in beautifully, and cool colors make a lovely contrast.
In the end, most of the underlayer is covered (see the painting below), but the underlayer stays visible, which gives the painting depth. See, for example, the painting below.
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Glazing
The fourth way I use QNAG is ‘glazing,’ which means covering up some of the top layers with transparent paint.In the postcard-sizd painting below I covered some of the greenish color with QNAG. Because QNAG is very transparent, you can still see the painting through it. The green-blue and the QNAG mix to a beautiful green-brownish color. That connects the underlayer and the top layer, which makes a painting ‘come together.’
Let me know!
I hope you will get inspired by this post to paint with QNAG. I absolutely love this paint, although it is expensive.Still, I would advise even if you have a tight budget to buy at least one small bottle of this paint, and try it out. You only use QNAG in very thin layers, and since it is highly pigmented, a bottle lasts a long time. My bottle of 4oz/118 ml lasted a year, and I painted all the year through.
I hope you have fun experimenting with QNAG, and let me hear about your experiences below in the comments!
(By the way) I created a checklist with my favorite materials. I work with few and mostly inexpensive materials, so check it out. You can download it from the free library!)
Bye,
Would you love to paint, but never take the time? Sign up here for the free video series about collage making, and start painting now!
Would you love to paint, but never take the time? Sign up here for the free video series about collage making, and start painting now!
Funny, I just came looking to see what people thought of this color after trying it out for the first time since purchasing it (other than creating a small swatch awhile ago and using it heavily diluted to add a wash to blank Arches oil paper.) I was amazed by its ability to totally transform a failed work and I think it’s a bit of a “secret weapon.” It is definitely going to have a key position on my palette.
Awhile back I started two 11” x 14” paintings on stretched canvas. It was one of those situations in which I was just itching to work on something, but had complete creative block, and I just used a few colors straight from the tube and painted some abstract shapes. The result, frankly, was just an ugly amateurish painting.
I set them aside for maybe 18 months, and then decided I would just paint over them with titanium white and start over again. Then, I saw my bottle of QNAG and impulsively squirted it on straight and as soon as I started brushing, I knew I had made a good decision. It is a very interesting color, as you say – highly pigmented and intense straight from the bottle, but earthy… like a burnt orange. Diluted, it can go all the way down to a pale warm yellow. As a transparent glaze, it neutralizes greens, blues, and purples, and just makes every other color more interesting. It adds depth. I know I’m not done with my canvases and will probably use what I have now as an underpainting, but I could frame them right now and they would look pretty cool. It was as if this color, QNAG, took poor color choices and made them look far more sophisticated and cohesive.
P.S. Simone, I am happy to have found your website… I love your work and you have a lot of valuable information here.
Thank you, Elizabeth! You inspire me to keep going! I’ve been very busy lately (writing a book), so it’s difficult to start again. A comment like yours helps me to decide to try my best and start again 😉
Hi Elizabeth,
I absolutely agree with you, and I love the term ‘secret weapon’ ;-). It absolutely works like that for me!
Great to hear about your ‘ugly’ painting, I have had that kind of experience many times!
Bye, thanks for your reaction!
Hello I found your page to day. Intresting work!
I wonder if there is a cheaper brand with this very beatiful color QNAG
Hi Nina, Thanks so much for your comment! Answer on your question: no, I haven’t found any cheaper brand yet. I know, it’s very expensive, but at the same time: this stuff is miraculous. Everything you put it on looks warm, glowing, beautiful. So I would suggest: give it a try ;-)…
tank you for your ansver. (sorry for my english) iam just a beginner so after a while I will try it when I learned a bit more hov this acrylik pain works and how to mix colours. i see forvard to vork whit your workbook
I’m sorry Nina, that I didn’t react earlier.
A long time ago I used this color: ‘Finity Burnt Sienna’. It looked a little bit like this. But Finity is quite an expensive brand too, and the paint is thicker. What I like about the QNAG Fluid acrylics is that it’s … well… fluid ;-)!
If you happen to find a cheaper brand that has the same qualities, please let me and other readers know!
Are there any silver or blue paints that work the same way as this gold?
Have you ever sprayed alcohol on the wet paint for effect?
Excuse me for my late reaction! No, I’ve never used any paints that have a ‘silvery’ of ‘bluey’ effect. And no, I’ve never sprayed alcohol on the wet paint. I could try!
So THAT is the color. Love it in your work Simone. I should say, that is one of the reasons I was drawn to you work. I love learning more about how you create, and LOVE learning about new tools and paints. Really looking forward to this series 🙂 happy creating Simone!
Thanks, Sheila! Yes, isn’t it a miracle color? I LOVE it! Thanks for your comment!
Love this very specific recommendation, Simone! You are right in that there are so many paint colors it can be overwhelming just choosing just a few. I will save your thoughts for the next time I am buying paint! Have a great day!
Thanks, Beth, I’m glad it was helpful!
Hi Dotty! Thanks for your enthusiasm. This post is not officially published yet, that’s why the links are not there – thanks for the reminder!
Simone, good morning! I am having a travel day today as part of my holiday, shifting from my daughter’s home to a West Virginia state park. For the moment, I am in a coffee shop with wifi so I have the chance to see your blog and comment!
Congratulations on setting up an affiliate ink with Dick Blick. I want to let you know that I see no links in the article, however. Nor is there any “full disclosure about this on this page.”
Great article about quin gold! I love my own little 4 oz. bottle. Your article makes me eager to try other Golden Fluid Acrylics.
I particularly liked your reminder, through your article, about using a color as both an underlayer and glaze to bring a painting together.