Shiny! QoR Iridescent and Interference Watercolors

September 14, 2022by Cathy Jennings

Just Paint published by Golden Artist Colors, Inc.

From its introduction, QoR offered three shimmery shiny special effect colors in tube format: Iridescent Pearl, Iridescent Silver, and Iridescent Gold.

The summer of 2022, QoR added three Interference paints available in the “Reflective” six-pan set: Interference Violet, Interference Blue, and Interference Green.

The original three Iridescent watercolors are also part of this half-pan set. This article will focus on these shiny paints, and show some of the aesthetic possibilities they offer.

What they are:

QoR Interference and Iridescent paints use pigments formed by coating mica flakes with Titanium Dioxide. Iridescent Gold is an exception, and has both an iron oxide pigment and Titanium Dioxide over the mica. Coating the thin, translucent, and reflective mica platelets with very thin layers of pigment creates a situation where light reflects and refracts between the microscopic layers. The thickness of the pigment layers, the nature of the pigments used, and the interaction with light results in the different colors and effects we see. Other than the coatings on the mica, there are no pigments in these paints. Their reflective nature means the Iridescent and Interference paints cannot be read in a spectrophotometer. Because of this, they have a lightfast ratings of “NA”. All six of these watercolors granulate.

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