4 - Red Watercolour Swatches

There are literally hundreds of artist quality watercolours available from many brands. I have tested many of them and created swatches as seen on the right. The square box is painted into a damp wash at the top to show the colour mixed in water, with more pigment added towards the bottom. The rectangle is painted in a juicy wash to show the mass-tone. The small squares at the bottom of the swatch have the pigment number and characteristics - staining, lightfast rating, granulation and transparency. 

For more on Red pigments see the Artiscreation red pigment database page here. See the very comprehensive Handprint Red pigment information here, but note that the tests were done in 2004.

The size of my swatches

Single Pigment Red Watercolours

Many of the Red watercolours will have be denoted as PR for Pigment Red, then a number. You will also notice many made with PV19 (Pigment Violet 19) which is a lovely pigment that covers a range of paints from a rose pink through reds, crimsons and violets. Avoid any watercolours with PR83 - this is a fugitive Alizarin Crimson pigment that will fade in sunlight so should not be used. See also the earthy red-brown and orange brown watercolours made with PR101 and other red earth pigments in the 'Earths' tab. Magentas made with red pigments are also included here.

Unfortunately, I have difficulty capturing the exact hue of reds and oranges in particular so use these swatches as a guide to the behaviour of a pigment rather than the actual colour :-(

Cadmium Reds made with PR108 and PO20

You'll see that most cadmium reds are made with PR108, which has a more scarlet, a mid red and a more maroon red version. The sample of the Blockx 'Cadmium Purple' captures the more maroon colour of the cadmium deep colours best. Reds and oranges are difficult to colour match.

Reds made with PR188

Reds made with PR251, PR254 & PR255 - warm to mid reds

PR255 is a definite orange-red. I'll be re-scanning these swatches to better show the true colour. PR254 is a lovely mid red and better seen below.

PR254

Reds made with PR 170, PR 175, PR177, PR 178, PR179 and PR264 - crimson and deep reds

PR264

This is my favourite of the crimson reds - lightfast and rich in colour. Also available in Daniel Smith as Pyrrol Crimson, Winsor & Newton as Winsor Red Deep and Schmincke as Ruby Red Deep (and others).

Quinacridone Rose, Reds and Crimsons made with PV19

PV19 comes in a 'rose' version and a 'violet' version. I'd love it if the main two colours were called PV19R and PV19V, but they are not. It is also to be seen in crimson versions, such as the Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone and Carmine by Da Vinci and Sennelier - the first three swatches shown. The violet versions are shown in the purple section.

Reds (and red browns) made with PR206

The rather lovely Permanent alizarin crimson by W&N is a real surprise from this normally burnt scarlet pigment.

Reds made with PR207

Reds made with PR209

I have not been able to match the colour for this pigment - it makes a lovely true coral colour, but these tend to look too pink. See the last coral coour above for a better idea of this colour.

Quinacridone Magenta and Magenta reds made with PR122 and PR202

These two pigments make similar magenta colours, but the PR122 will be a cleaner colour for mixing oranges as well as purples.

Pinks made with PR233

This gently granulating dusty pink pigment is known as Potter's Pink or Pink Colour.

PR112

PR242

More single pigment reds, arrange by pigment numbers PO then PR then PV

PO36 - Titan Red White Nights 
PO63 - Vermilion Permanent Art Spectrum 
PO64 - Saturn Red Schmincke 
PO65 - Golden Barok Red Old Holland watercolour. 
PO73 - Scarlet Pyrrol M.Graham; Pyrrolo Vermilion Blockx; Scarlet Pyrrol M.Graham 
PR9 - Cadmium Red Hue Daler Rowney 
PR83 - Alizarin Crimson Daniel Smith; Winsor & Newton
PR83:1 - Alizarin Crimson Schmincke 
PR144 - Transparent Red Deep Schmincke 
PR149 - Perylene Scarlet Daniel Smith watercolour
PR168 - Bright Red Old Holland watercolour; Anthraquinoid Scarlet Daniel Smith watercolour; Permanent Red Light Maimeri Blu; Permanent Red Light Mission Gold
PR214 - Scheveningen Red Medium Old Holland watercolour
Permanent Carmine Winsor & Newton watercolour. Pigment number not given.
PV19? - Acra Crimson Permanent pigments
Rhodonite Genuine Daniel Smith watercolour
NR9 - Rose Madder Genuine Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith.
PR187 - Madder Red Light White Nights watercolour; Sanguine Winsor & Newton 
PR287 - Mayan Red Daniel Smith watercolour
PV42 - Quinacridone Pink Daniel Smith; Magenta Schmincke
Pigment N/A - Bright Red, Jackson's 

Mixed Pigment Reds

May be made from more than one red pigment, but all mixes of some sort. (I'll sort these further eventually and re-scan for better colour accuracy)

Mixed pigment orange-reds (warm reds)

Mixed pigment rose reds

Mixed pigment crimson reds

Opera Rose reds

I don't tend to use this extremely bright rose colour but many love it so I'll gradually add to this gallery. It is difficult to capture the vibrancy of a Fluoro colour.

FLUO PR81:1 - Opera Rose Jackson's watercolour
PR81:1 - Opera Rose Sennelier 
PR122 - Brilliant Opera Rose Schmincke and Rich Opera American Journey.
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These swatches are painted and added as a guide. The intention is show the characteristics of each colour when painted. The colour reproduction is not perfect but hopefully will still be helpful used in conjunction with the manufacturer's website.  Thank you to those of you, from Canada, Sweden, Australia and the USA, who have helped me with this section by sharing your favourite colours. If you notice errors please let me know so I can correct them. If you have artist quality watercolour that are not shown here and want to help me build up this resource, also please let me know :-)

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