Getting to Know You: Red Paints

Chronicling all of my paints compared to each other. This is how I become familiar with my paint personalities and know how they will work in my regular painting practice. You can find these cool boards to do your own here.

Testing squares are:

1. Fully Opaque – out of the tube

2. Slightly transparent – I try to just scrub the dry paint evenly. If the paint is too dry to do this I MAY add a tiny bit of oil to encourage transparency.

3. very transparent – I try to just scrub the dry paint evenly. If the paint is too dry to do this I MAY add a tiny bit of oil to encourage transparency.

4. Value 2 mixed with white – The White used is Natural Pigments Lead White #1.

5. Value 5 mixed with white – The White used is Natural Pigments Lead White #1.

Brand	Consistency Out of the Tube	Transparency	Temperature	Drying Time
Rublev Orange Molybdate	stiff, dry, strong tinting	Very Opaque, great glazing coverage	orange-ish	VERY SLOW
Gamblin Napthol Scarlet	Smooth,	Semi transparent, great for glazing	glazes red, mixes cooler pink – highest chroma mixed cool pink	Medium
Old Holland Vermillion Extra	Stiff, weaker tinting	Needs oil for glazing	orange-ish	medium
Holbein Cad Red Light	Smooth, butter-ish	opaque, needs oil for glazing	orange-ish, highest chroma mixed orange-y red	slow
Winsor Newton Cad red	Smooth, butter-ish	opaque, needs oil for glazing	red, drops chroma faster than cad red light	slow
Winsor Newton Bright Red	Buttery but kind of gunky clumps at first	Semi transparent	cooler pink, high chroma glazing, mixes high chroma pink	Medium
Gamblin Cad Red Deep	Dark, stiff and dry	Opaque	Cooler red, drops chroma SUPER fast, not super strong, glazes DARK	VERY SLOW
Micheal Harding Scarlet Lake	Buttery	Opaque	red	VERY SLOW
Michael Harding Quinacridone Rose	thin, super oily, high chroma	Super Transparent	cool pink, glazes high chroma cool pink, mixes even cooler high chroma pink	Medium
Winsor Newton Alizarin Crimson Permanent	thin, super oily, high chroma, dark	Super Transparent	cool pink, glazes high chroma cool pink mid value, mixes drop chroma quickly	Medium