The colour assortment of the Golden Heavy Body acrylics is one of the largest among all the professional level artist acrylic paints: it consists of over 100 colours, shades and tints including 7 Neutral greys, 14 Historical colours, 14 Iridescent metallic and 6 shimmering Interference colours.
Attributes/Application: The heavy, buttery consistency of these acrylics makes them especially great for use when employing the impasto painting technique with a brush or a palette knife. It contains no fillers, extenders, opacifiers, toners or dyes that would influence the true nature of the pigments used.
When dry, the various colour hues run from glossy transparent to semi-matte opaque: Each colour has the highest level of pigment load possible; the level of glossiness depends on the nature of the different pigments. When dry, colours with a higher pigment load appear more opaque and display a rather semi-matte surface because the pigment tends to rise to the top of the film coating. More reactive colours do not allow as much pigment loading and therefore tend to have a more transparent and glossier finish. A sample of the paint is applied by hand to the product container, thereby providing a perfect example of the paint´s appearance when dry. The Golden company has established a scale of 1 to 8 (from opaque to transparent) to indicate the level of transparency or opaqueness of each colour. A colour chart with data about coverage and lightfastness (non-fading) is provided below in a downloadable PDF file format.
All Heavy Body colours are intermixable with each other and with acrylic paints from other manufacturers. A large assortment of gels, painting media and pastes with which the consistency, transparency, drying time and glossiness level of the Heavy Body acrylics can be adjusted are also available.
Neutral grey hues: When mixed with the neutral greys N2 to N8 (grey tones without a “colour cast” towards warm or cold), the brightness and saturation of other colours can be changed without altering their hues. The Bone Black is recommended for use as a neutral black while Titanium White is recommended for a neutral white. The neutral greys are designed according to the Munsell Color System´s grey “value” scale (the respective lightness or darkness of a given colour).
Historical colours: Heavy Body acrylic Historical Colors are basically reproductions of classic colours from the past that were originally made from natural materials like blood, urine and sienna. They are produced as close to the original as possible while still satisfying the requirements of modern paints concerning lightfastness, colour intensity, durability and miscibility. These 14 Historical Colors are integrated into our colour tone range and display the designation “Hist.” in front of the actual colour designation (e.g. Hist. Aureolin Hue). A colour chart with data about coverage and lightfastness (non-fading) is provided below in a downloadable PDF file format.
Interference colours: When viewed from different angles the Interference Colors (which are identified in our colour range with the designation “Interference” before the actual colour) flip between a bright opalescent colour and its complement. Interference Blue, for example, reflects a light shimmering blue that from another angle changes into a light orange colour. The effect of the colour is thereby dependent on the lightness or darkness of the substrate it is applied to: when applied to a light surface the colour is not as strong and the shimmering effects are more intense. When applied to a darker surface the colour will be stronger and the shimmering effect weaker. When dry, the colours are relatively transparent and are also very lighfast and age-resistant. For especially intense shimmering effects, Heavy Body Iridescent Colors can be mixed with painting gels or media in a ratio of 1:10. It should be noted that if other acrylic colours are added, the shimmering effect will be diminished.
Iridescent metallic colours: The so-called Iridescent Colors provide a selection of metallic colours for shimmering, light-reflecting effects. These paints will not darken with time and are suitable for outdoor use because they consist of mineral-based mica platelets that are coated with titanium dioxide or, alternatively, iron oxide. Each Iridescent Color comes in a fine or coarse version: Fine-grained colours are silky-matte when dry, the coarse versions provide a greater brilliance. Every Iridescent Color can be mixed with other Heavy Body paints, gels and media in order to achieve other effects like, for example, a mother-of-pearl effect. Because the colours are relatively transparent when dry, a diversity of effects can be achieved through the selection of different substrate (surface) colours upon which the paint is applied.Golden Mica flake gel in six different colours and which has a very coarse texture completes the metallic assortment range.
The colours Hansa Yellow Light, Quinacridone Magenta and Phthalo Blue (green shade) are suitable for use as base colours for the purpose of precise mixing of the greatest range of colour tones. They are supplemented in the set by Hansa Yellow Medium?, which helps make colour tones somewhat warmer when used. Pastell hues can be produced by using the opaque Titanium White in the mix. Black (and grey) tones can be made by mixing complementary colours; e.g. Naphthol Red Light and Phthalo Green BS will produce a simple black. The primary colours Primary Yellow (1530), Primary Magenta (1510) und Primary Cyan (1500), whose level of pigmentation is balanced to such a degree that they quickly produce satisfactory colour mixtures, are perfect for the purpose of learning about the art of colour mixing. These three colours, it should be noted, are not included in the set of 8.
