I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect Salmon (or should I say Coral?) hue for a little while. Especially after my big switch from Winsor & Newton paints to Daniel Smith, I knew I needed a new Pink/Yellow go-to for all my florals and accents…

…there’s dozens of ways to get there, and you can take it more red or more yellow… and use the white of the paper to make it a lighter value to get SO many options…

At the beginning of my switch I was in love with Opera Rose (so vibrant, so good for color combos), but i quickly learned of its low lightfastness and decided its not meant or me after all, not long term, much to my little heart’s dismay…

Ok so Pyrrol Scarlet is an interesting choice but for me, a bit too yellow already and I want some of the feminine vibes of the bit of blue that you see in the cooler reds… And Quinacridone Magenta is too dark for most of my uses.

I even played with raw and burnt sienna, which are technically yellows. Not what I’m looking for right now, but intriguing nonetheless…

So I’ve settled on Quinacridone Rose + Lemon Yellow as my go to, being that they are the brightest options and best lightfastness (permanency). After all, to make the tone darker, you can always the complimentary color (blue)…

Quinacridone Rose is very similar to Opera Rose, perhaps bit less intense but still that perfect sort-of peoni-shade of pink. In the Winsor & Newton world, it is known as Permanent Rose. Hold up, my old go-to!

Another good one would have been Quinacridone Red, which is so similar to Rose that it’s hard to choose. Red is slightly more orange so I’ll stick with Rose which is the cooler tone as I tend to favor anyway…

…well, Lemon was the easy choice, besides vibrancy, it has high lightfastness as well as transparency (very important for gazing)