New Colors. New Inspiration.

Williamsburg is thrilled to introduce 22 new colors to our standard 37ml line, bringing new color formulations, beloved Specialty Colors, and curated set favorites into our everyday collection. From the luminous Transparent Iron Oxides and versatile Neutral Grays to our bold Fluorescents, these exciting additions are now available individually in 37ml tubes at your Williamsburg retailer.

Williamsburg Artist Oil Colors

Opaque and Semi-Opaque Colors

These Colors are especially good for dense application and building a surface with brush strokes and texture. Artists use opaque colors because they are structurally solid pigments that dry to a non-tacky surface and are excellent building blocks for multi-layered paintings. They can be used in the lower layers to establish color that can be adjusted with thin glazes or scumbles or used as the main colors in direct painting techniques. Opaque colors can be useful any time you want color to sit on the surface and engage the front of the picture plane.

Benzimidazolone Orange

Benzimidazolone Orange (ben-ZIM-ih-da-zuh-lone) is a single Pigment – PO64. This color is from a difficult to pronounce, but highly durable and lightfast pigment family. We also have Permanent Red-Orange, which is not named after the pigment type, but is also a benzimidazolone. This single pigment formulation, PO64, is semi-opaque with a reddish bias falling directly between Cadmium Orange and Pyrrole Orange. Tints to a creamy pure orange as opposed to the pinkish tint of Pyrrole Orange or the yellowish bias of Cadmium Orange tints. Can be used as a cadmium alternative. Fairly strong with excellent lightfastness.

Naples Yellow Deep

Naples Yellow Deep is a single pigment - PBr24. Absolutely opaque. This color is the base pigment used in Williamsburg Naples Yellow Italian. A great synthetic, more chromatic, orange-leaning substitute for Yellow Ochre or Mars Yellow Light, but slightly stronger with cleaner mixing. The color intensity is positioned on the earthy side between Yellow Ochre and a Cadmium Yellow. It joins Naples Yellow, Naples Yellow Italian, and Naples Yellow Reddish.

Light Value Colors - Titan Green Pale & Titan Violet Pale

Just like Chromatic Darks can be seen as alternative blacks, Light Value Colors, including Titan Green Pale and Titan Violet Pale, can be seen as alternative whites. These are great for keying the work toward a subtle color direction, setting the mood or capturing a certain type of light. Artists might use one of these throughout the entire painting and reserve pure white for the highlights or brightest parts. The Titan colors are opaque colors made from mostly Titanium White with a very small amount of 1-2 colors added.

Other colors in the light value category are Unbleached Titanium, Unbleached Titanium Pale, Titan Buff, Brilliant Yellow Pale, Brilliant Yellow Extra Pale, and N8 Neutral Gray.

Neutral Grays – N2, N4, N6, N8

Neither warm nor cool. Positioned between red, yellow and blue is gray. And sometimes gray is the exact color needed to complement higher chroma pigments on the palette. Grays can be used to desaturate colors while maintaining or shifting their value. They can also be used to create grisaille as an underpainting or as the final artwork. Our Neutral Grays are made from a blend of Titanium White, Lamp Black and natural iron oxides to create spectrally neutral colors that create an evenly spaced, achromatic selection between white and black.

For more information about practical uses for neutral grays check out this Just Paint article: The Value of Painting with Neutral Grays

Transparent Colors

While every color in this launch has utility and function for the artist, we are very excited about our new transparent colors. With a selection ranging from highly chromatic to rather subdued, all have a specific type of clarity that brings new opportunities to the palette.

Transparent colors can be used to tint and mix, but they are especially well suited for glazing since they are made from pigments that allow light to travel through their crystalline structure, like stained glass. These colors can be used in multiple layers to adjust underpainting color through subtractive color mixing, or optical mixing, where colors blend visually instead of being mixed on the palette. The following transparent colors are rich and dense and can be made more transparent with the addition of medium or oil. Keep in mind that the more oil that is added to the color, the thinner the glazes should be applied onto the painting.

Chromatic Glazing Colors

Chromatic glazing colors are always fun! In our ever-increasing world of screens and technicolor experiences, having some serious pop on the canvas is a great way to bring energy and invite excitement from the viewer. Bright, clean colors also mix down to wonderful grays and neutrals that seem a bit more saturated and alive than mixtures neutralized with white, black and earth tones.

Transparent Pyrrole Orange

Transparent Pyrrole Orange is a single pigment – PO71. Striking brilliant fire. No other single pigment orange is this transparent with excellent lightfastness and very strong tinting strength. This color opens a whole range of glazing options and mixes beautifully with Green Gold, Quinacridone Magenta, Permanent Alizarin Crimson (previously called Permanent Crimson), Egyptian Violet and Isoindolinone Yellow. There is no palette this color could not call home - skin tones and setting suns are just the beginning.

Isoindolinone Yellow

Isoindolinone Yellow (eye-so-IN-duh-lih-known YELL-oh) is a single pigment - PY110. Like an orange India Yellow with excellent lightfastness. It is beautifully transparent and great for glazing. Dulls down a bit in tints, so can work well as part of a naturalistic blend that needs enlivening, but not too much. Isoindolinone refers to the chemical name of the pigment, but for general use we call it ISO Yellow. Introduced to the market in the 60s, it has become widely used in fine arts and industrial applications known for good durability and lightfastness. Get to know this color as it is likely to have a place in the world of colored pigments for decades to come.  

Benzimidazolone Burnt Orange

Benzimidazolone Burnt Orange (ben-ZIM-ih-da-zuh-lone) is also a single pigment - PBr25. Super dark, ultra transparent reddish-brown. It is the same color used in GOLDEN Benzimidazolone Burnt Orange. Provides a similar color space to the discontinued Williamsburg Quinacridone Gold Brown. The perfect transparent brown for glazes and clean, earthy mixtures. Stronger and more chromatic than the Transparent Iron Oxides, but a little slower drying. Try blending the two together for the best of both worlds – a highly chromatic earth color with great drying properties. Tints to a deep caramelized reddish plum and makes an extra dark neutral chromatic black when mixed with Prussian Blue. We call it Benzi Burnt Orange.

Ultramarine Pink Deep

Sometimes artists want to adjust value and color temperature with subtlety. Not every mixture calls for powerful, highly chromatic color. Ultramarine Pink Deep is a single pigment - PV15 - that is a darker version of the discontinued Ultramarine Pink and more red than Ultramarine Violet. It has a beautiful hazy transparency and low tinting strength. A poetic color for nudging mixtures and glazes without overpowering.

Fluorescent Colors

Williamsburg Fluorescent Oil Colors have been available in an 8 color, 22ml tube set for a little over a year and are now available as individual tubes in our standard offering. Fluorescent Chartreuse, Orange, Red, Pink, Magenta, Violet, Blue, and Green are intense, brilliant colors, produced from dyes surrounded by a polymer coating. They work like other pigments by absorbing the full spectrum of color in visible light, except their own, which is reflected as the color we see. But they also absorb high-energy, invisible ultraviolet rays and shorter wavelength blue and violet. When they absorb UV light, their electrons jump to a higher energy state, then drop back down. When they drop back down, they release the extra energy as glowing visible light, causing them to look unnaturally bright and to fluoresce under black light.

Artists use and love fluorescents because the color provides similar intensity to screen color and is much more chromatic than pigment-based color. Fluorescent pops of luminosity in a painting can set the work apart even compared to digital or printed imagery.

Because fluorescent colors are transparent, greater intensity is achieved by applying them over bright white surfaces in thin layers. They can also be mixed with other colors to intensify the blend. Please note: Fluorescent Colors are not lightfast. For a longer life of brilliant color, use GOLDEN MSA or Archival Varnish with UVLS (Ultraviolet Light Stabilizers). The thicker the coating, the better the protection. But varnish and UV protective topcoats will eliminate the fluorescent "glow" under black light. 

Transparent Brown Iron Oxide & Transparent Orange Iron Oxide

Having earned a devoted following as Special Edition colors, Transparent Brown Iron Oxide and Transparent Orange Iron Oxide are now joining the Williamsburg standard line. Artists familiar with our Transparent Iron Oxide family already know the brilliance of Transparent Yellow and Transparent Red. With the addition of Orange and Brown, the range is now complete.

Among the most powerful and chromatically pure earth colors available, Transparent Iron Oxides offer exceptional transparency, rich color strength, and a luxuriously smooth, buttery consistency. Fast drying and highly versatile, they excel in underpainting, establishing tonal foundations, neutralizing mixtures, creating luminous glazes, and capturing the subtle nuances of naturalistic subjects.

Transparent Brown Iron Oxide is a single-pigment color (PBr6) and a finely ground version of our coarse-ground Dutch Brown (Transparent). As Transparent Brown joins the standard line, Dutch Brown (Transparent) transitions to our Signature Color collection. The smoother of the two, Transparent Brown, has a deep brown-black masstone with a subtle satin sheen. In mixtures, it produces clean, high-chroma umber-like browns, while glazes reveal rich translucent layers reminiscent of coffee, tobacco, and well-worn leather.

Transparent Orange Iron Oxide is a blend of PR101 and PY42 and the finely ground counterpart to Italian Pink. As part of this transition, Italian Pink will also move to the Signature Color collection. With its creamy texture and exceptional transparency, Transparent Orange creates glowing orange-red glazes and luminous reddish tints with a gentle yellow bias, making it an invaluable color for landscapes, portraits, and layered painting techniques.

In addition to Italian Pink and Dutch Brown (Transparent), Carl's Crimson will also continue to be part of the Williamsburg® legacy as a Signature Color. Originally planned for retirement, their distinctive character, artistic versatility, and contribution to the Williamsburg color story made them worth preserving.  While they may not appear in every store, these colors will remain available in our standard 37ml tube size through select online partners and specialty retailers.

Together, these 22 additions reflect Williamsburg's ongoing commitment to providing artists with colors that are not only technically exceptional but also inspiring to use. Whether building atmosphere with Neutral Grays, creating luminous glazes with Transparent Iron Oxides, or introducing electrifying accents with Fluorescents, these new colors offer fresh possibilities for every palette and every painting practice.