12 New Opus Essential Acrylic Colours: Expand Your Palette, Expand Your Possibilities
Choosing the right colours is about more than filling gaps in a palette—it’s about unlocking new ways of seeing, mixing, and making. We’re excited to introduce 12 new colours to the Opus Essential Acrylic Colours lineup, thoughtfully selected to support everything from expressive colour mixing to subtle neutrals and atmospheric effects.
Opus Essential Acrylic Colours are artist-grade, heavy-body acrylics that deliver professional performance at a reasonable price. Produced in small batches in the United States, these paints feature high pigment concentrations, a creamy, brush-responsive consistency, and excellent versatility—whether you’re working with bold palette-knife strokes, nuanced layering, or fluid applications using acrylic mediums.
These new additions build on the strengths of the existing range, offering artists more control, more mixing potential, and more expressive range. Experiment with adding new colours to your palette and see where they take you!
Meet the 12 New Colours
Diarylide Yellow
A bold, high-chroma yellow with excellent tinting strength. Diarylide Yellow is ideal for sunlit landscapes, florals, abstracts, and expressive colour mixing. It creates vibrant greens when mixed with blues and brings warmth and energy to any palette.
Great for: sunlight, flowers, abstracts, colour-forward work
PIGMENT CODE: PY83/PY65
SERIES: 4
TRANSPARENCY: Semi-Transparent
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Mars Yellow Light
An earthy, opaque yellow with excellent coverage and stability. Mars Yellow Light is a go-to for natural landscapes, architecture, and underpainting, offering a grounded alternative to brighter yellows.
Great for: terrain, stone, architectural elements, tonal underpainting
PIGMENT CODE: PBr24
SERIES: 2
TRANSPARENCY: Opaque
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Cobalt Green Deep
A rich, cool green with depth and presence. Cobalt Green Deep works beautifully for botanical subjects, water, shadowed foliage, and cool atmospheric passages, adding sophistication without overpowering a composition.
Great for: foliage, water, shadowed greens, moody landscapes
PIGMENT CODE: PG26
SERIES: 5
TRANSPARENCY: Transparent
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Aquamarine
(Phthalo Blue + Phthalo Green blend)
A vibrant blue-green that feels fresh and luminous. Aquamarine excels in seascapes, skies, reflective water, and contemporary colour palettes, offering clarity and intensity straight from the tube.
Great for: oceans, skies, reflections, modern colour work
PIGMENT CODE: PB15:4/PG7
SERIES: 3
TRANSPARENCY: Transparent
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Medium Violet
A balanced, versatile violet that bridges cool and warm palettes. Medium Violet is ideal for shadows, florals, expressive portrait work, and colour transitions, adding richness without becoming overpowering.
Great for: shadows, florals, expressive colour mixing
PIGMENT CODE: PR122/PW6/PV23
SERIES: 4
TRANSPARENCY: Opaque
LIGHTFASTNESS: II (Very Good)
Mixing Gold
Designed as a replacement for the discontinued Quinacridone Gold, Mixing Gold offers similar warmth but with softer strength and easier mixability. It’s perfect for artists who love complex, glowing colour mixes and organic transitions.
Great for: glazing, warm neutrals, complex colour mixing, natural light effects
PIGMENT CODE: PY83/PR101
SERIES: 3
TRANSPARENCY: Transparent
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Yellow Cinnabar Green
A muted, yellow-leaning green with an earthy character. This colour shines in landscapes, botanical work, and naturalistic palettes, especially where subtle, believable greens are needed.
Great for: grasses, foliage, natural environments
PIGMENT CODE: PY154/PG36
SERIES: 3
TRANSPARENCY: Semi-Opaque
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Light Grey
A soft, balanced neutral that’s invaluable for tonal studies, highlights, and contemporary compositions. Light Grey helps control value without the starkness of white.
Great for: highlights, modern palettes, value control
PIGMENT CODE: PB29/PBk6/PW6
SERIES: 1
TRANSPARENCY: Opaque
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Neutral Tint
A classic studio essential, Neutral Tint is perfect for darkening colours without muddying them. Ideal for shadows, atmospheric depth, and tonal adjustments across a painting.
Great for: shadows, value shifts, toning down intensity
PIGMENT CODE: PBk6/PB15/PV19
SERIES: 2
TRANSPARENCY: Semi-Transparent
LIGHTFASTNESS: II (Very Good)
Titan Buff
A warm, off-white that’s gentler than Titanium White. Titan Buff is excellent for skin tones, sunlit surfaces, and softening colour mixes, adding warmth and subtlety.
Great for: portraits, highlights, muted mixes, warm light
PIGMENT CODE: PW6/PBr7
SERIES: 1
TRANSPARENCY: Opaque
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Opera Rose
A high-chroma, eye-catching pink that brings energy and vibrancy. Opera Rose is perfect for florals, abstracts, contemporary work, and expressive accents where intensity matters.
Great for: florals, abstracts, bold accents
PIGMENT CODE: PR122/ Red Dye
SERIES: 4
TRANSPARENCY: Transparent
LIGHTFASTNESS: II (Very Good)
Warm Grey
A neutral with subtle warmth, Warm Grey is ideal for urban scenes, interiors, shadows, and atmospheric depth, offering softness without flattening colour relationships.
Great for: architecture, interiors, soft shadows, moody palettes
PIGMENT CODE: PBr7/PY43/PW6
SERIES: 1
TRANSPARENCY: Semi-Opaque
LIGHTFASTNESS: I (Excellent)
Professional Performance, Accessible Price
Like the rest of the Opus Essential Acrylic Colours range, these new colours feature a thick, creamy heavy-body consistency that holds brushstrokes beautifully and performs just as well with palette knives. They can also be thinned generously with acrylic mediums to increase flow or adjust sheen—without sacrificing pigment intensity.
Whether you’re painting in the studio, outdoors, or working on large-scale projects like murals, Opus Essential Acrylic Colours are designed to support serious artistic exploration at a practical price point.
Build a Palette of Acrylic Colours That Grows With You
These 12 new colours were chosen to help artists experiment, refine, and expand—adding vibrant mixing options, nuanced neutrals, and expressive accents that work across subjects and styles. Whether you’re a student building your first serious palette or a professional looking for reliable, mix-friendly colours, these additions offer more ways to push your work forward.
Explore the new acrylic colours and see where they take your next painting.