Why I Love Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) Acrylic Paint

If you’ve ever mixed a green and thought, “I want it to be REALLY green,” you need to know about Phthalo Green (Blue Shade).

This is not a shy colour. It is bold, intense and incredibly powerful—and once you learn how to control it, it can create an amazing range of greens and beautiful dark mixtures.

A Seriously Powerful Green

Golden describes Phthalo Green as one of the strongest tinting pigments available. In its full-strength form it is semi-opaque, while it can become very transparent when used in glazes.

And that strength is exactly what makes it so useful. I can start with the tiniest amount and gradually build the colour until I have exactly what I want.

Fantastic for Mixing

I rarely think of Phthalo Green as a colour I would simply use straight from the tube.

For me, its real magic happens when I mix it.

Add yellow and suddenly you have bright, fresh greens. Add blue and you can move toward deep, cool greens. Add a warm colour and you can create surprisingly complex darks.

It gives me a huge amount of control.

Deep, Dramatic Darks

Phthalo Green is also fantastic for creating deep dark colours.

Because it is so strong, it can turn an ordinary mixture into something rich and dramatic very quickly.

I particularly like using it when I want a dark that still has colour in it rather than a flat black.

Beautiful in Glazes

Its transparency also makes it useful for glazing.

A thin layer can add richness and colour without completely covering what is underneath. This can be particularly effective in foliage, landscapes and areas where I want to build depth gradually.

Why It Has Become a Favourite

Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) may be a little intimidating at first, but I think it is worth learning how to use.

• Extremely strong tinting strength

• Rich blue-green

• Excellent for mixing greens

• Fantastic for deep darks

• Beautiful for glazing

• Highly versatile

• Excellent lightfastness

My biggest tip? Start with a tiny amount.

This is one of those paints where a little dab can take over an entire mixing pile before you know what happened!

But when you learn to control it, Golden Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) becomes an incredibly useful colour.

You can find it on Amazon here: 

1 ounce / 30mL https://amzn.to/4wFfA6y

4 ounce / 119mL https://amzn.to/4wANbhT

8 ounce / 237mL https://amzn.to/4hLrcBe

16 ounce / 473mL https://amzn.to/4gmfM4j

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