i bought a second yellow because the first one stopped telling the truth
the tube's got maybe a fifth left and i still can't throw it out. something happened to it about a year ago, it went chalky, and now every mix i make with it comes out looking like a laundromat wall. but here's the thing, i know where it goes. i can mix with it blind. so i keep squeezing it and pretending.
new one arrived tuesday. cadmium, same brand, and it's loud in a way that's honestly kind of upsetting. i did two hours of studies with it and hated every square inch, which i'm choosing to read as a sign it's working.
anyway the dead tube is still on the table. it's not sentimental, it's that throwing it away means admitting i spent a year painting around a color instead of fixing it. which, now that i type that out, is probably also a thing i do with other stuff lol
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Cadmium yellow does that. The pigment's fine, it's the binder that goes. Tube sits around, the oil or acrylic medium starts separating and hardening and you get exactly what you're describing, chalky and flat and dead in the mix. A year is about right for a tube that's been open and squeezed off and on.
The part I don't buy is keeping the dead one on the table. You know where it goes because you've mixed it a thousand times, that's muscle memory, not the tube doing anything. If it's not sentimental, then it's just clutter telling you you're not sure of your own hand. I'd toss it and find out.
Two hours of hating it is a good sign though. New color never sits right until your eye recalibrates. Give it a week.
I don't know, I've got a tube of burnt sienna I keep for the same dumb reason and it's not doubt, it's that the color it makes now is the color I actually want for one specific thing and I can't get it out of a fresh tube. So maybe squeeze the dead one on a scrap of paper first before you bin it, sometimes the chalky version is the answer for distant trees or whatever. Also thanks for the binder explanation, I have definitely been blaming pigments for things that weren't their fault.
ok the burnt sienna thing is actually a good point and now i'm annoyed i didn't think of it. my dead yellow's chalky ass is probably perfect for exactly one thing and i'll find it in six months at 2am. so it lives on the shelf now. congratulations, you've enabled me.
also "i've been committing slander against cadmium" is going straight into my vocabulary, thank you for that. pigments are innocent, binders are the liars, that's the whole takeaway from this thread apparently.
ok the binder thing makes sense and i hate that it makes sense. so i've been blaming a perfectly good pigment for a year. the tube's innocent, i've been committing slander against cadmium.
but "clutter telling you you're not sure of your own hand" is a hell of a thing to say to a guy on a wednesday. i was gonna agree with you and then i reread it and felt personally attacked. that's not the same as being wrong though, so.
counterpoint: i've been mixing off that chalky thing so long that when the new one came out loud i didn't trust it. hated two hours of studies. so maybe the dead tube isn't doubt, maybe it's just... the accent i learned the language in. some of the mixes i actually like have that washed quality baked in.
that said i moved it off the table while i was reading this. didn't throw it out. but it's on the shelf now. we're calling that progress.