A mysterious yellow which can range from pale warm yellow to greenish yellow, and is a common inclusion in Naples Yellow Hue blends. When used as a single-pigment, this is one of our favorite lemon yellows (we have several but the others are more toxic- so this one is a better alternative). Some brands, such as Schmincke's watercolor line, actually include two different versions of this pigment-- one a warm pastel beeswax-colored pigment, the other an enchanting pastel yellow that leans a bit greenish. Perhaps it mixes is where PY53 truly shines. Nickel Titanate Yellow is one of the unsung heroes of the paintbox and is quite underrated.

Nickel Titanate Yellow is extremely useful for making lower chroma colors. Nickel Antimony Titanium Yellow Rutile or Nickel Titanate, sometimes called Nickel Titanium Yellow, starts out as a pale yellow without adding white. It is fairly opaque, and well suited to direct painting methods.

In terms of lightfastness, overall it tends to be rated as Excellent. We did notice in the Schmincke watercolor line they assigned it good or very good lightfastness (four out of five stars, with five describing the highest lightfastness, which is usually ascribed to earth tones). In oils, in most mixing whites, it performed as Excellent (ASTM I) in Golden's lightfastness tests. In the only exceptions to the rule it slid to Very Good in Williamsburg Flake White and Pure Zinc White.

Listed as a "B" for toxicity, we advise treating all pigments with great caution, and this one is no exception. Monona Rossol's work has a section on health problems from nickel and antimony pigments in the Artist's Guide to Health and Safety. Her most recent research can be found through her site.

This color excels in creating low-chroma mixes. In masstone it's an enchanting light yellow with a faint green in the overall color impression. It's not a replacement for Lead Tin Yellow, but it is a color that keeps us coming back. It's a hard-to-describe pale yellow color with secret-superpowers in mixing.