IONIC Jade Green

A jade green between turquoise and green

Jade Green is named after the semi-precious stone, and the shade matches. It is a green with a strong blue component, cool and clear. In the numbering of the palette it sits in the band where the turquoise tones pass into the classic greens, so it can be used as a link between the two groups and transitions come out of it without jumps.

What it is for

Fantasy painters take it for dragon scales, for magic effects, for patinated bronze statues and for stone with greenish veining. For historical subjects it serves on the interiors of Soviet vehicles, where a greenish white appears, and on instrument glass. On dioramas it forms the base of still water in pools and shallows. Under a layer of clear gel it holds the impression of depth better than a plain green.

Advice on application

Greens with a blue component tend to have the trickiest transition of all, because after drying they shift a further step toward blue. If you are mixing your way toward yellow, add the yellow drop by drop and judge only a dried sample. The binder is a water-thinnable acrylic suitable for a brush, an airbrush and glazing. The product with a retarder from the same line will help when you want to shade scales wet into wet.

Combinations with other shades

With yellow it gives a bright tropical green, and with dark blue, by contrast, depth for the lower layers of scales. Mixed into white it creates a greenish light on glass and on porcelain. Anyone painting icebergs or shallows will appreciate that it keeps its color even in a very thin glaze and the area does not go gray the way it does after a plain turquoise.