Picking Primaries

Painters often ask us: which of your colors are closest to primary red, yellow, and blue?

The colors in Gamblin's line closest to what is traditionally thought of as primary colors are from the Mineral Inorganic (Impressionist) Palette: Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Medium, and Cobalt Blue. However, these primaries create more muted secondaries, as mineral colors tend to grey down a bit in mixtures.
                                       
In Gamblins view, using primaries from the modern organic palette provides more access to color space.
• Hansa Yellow Medium
• Quinacridone Red
• Phthalo Blue

By placing more single-pigment colors on the perimeter of the color wheel, the more access we gain in color mixing. A “Split Primary” color palette, incorporating a warm and cool of each of the primary colors, will give you greater color-mixing potential:
• Hansa Yellow Light
• Hansa Yellow Deep
• Napthol Scarlet
• Quinacridone Red
• Phthalo Blue
• Manganese Blue Hue
The dual warm/cool primaries of this color wheel mix higher chroma, more intense secondary and tertiary colors.