After exploring lots of colors shallowly through Adventures in Daniel Smith Dot Cards, I thought I’d take some time to do deep-dives on selected colors: whether it’s because they’re my favorite, reliable, palette staples, or because they’re colors I want to investigate further and learn more about.
Today, we start with a palette staple and one of my first artist grade paints: Quinacridone Rose! This is the cool red/magenta shade from the Daniel Smith Essentials set (which I totally love and recommend as a starter kit if you’re looking to get started in artist grade paints).
Experiment Results
Graded Wash: Lovely wide range of colors from deep magenta to pale carnation pink.
Opacity & Glazing: Very transparent. Glazing it over itself deepens it to almost a deep crimson.
Salt: Not particularly reactive but I might have put the salt down too late.
Water droplets: Blooms nicely.
Comparison to Other Brands
Da Vinci – Permanent Rose (Quinacridone)
The closest analogue to Daniel Smith’s Quin Rose. It is extremely similar. Maybe infinitesimally warmer (more red and less purple).
I struggled a bit to get an even gradient but was easily able to get a nice, juicy, almost red mass tone.
Da Vinci – Red Rose Deep
This is, to be honest, almost the exact same color as Permanent Rose. I couldn’t tell the difference in initial swatches. After playing with it a bit, I think Red Rose Deep is a bit more red while Permanent Rose is a bit more purple, and Red Rose Deep gets darker/more crimson-ish in masstone.
However, I could be grasping at straws, since the two are EXTREMELY similar. If you don’t believe me, look at the comparisons below taken in the same light.
The two Da Vinci colors are in the middle, and in my opinion they are even more similar to each other than to the Daniel Smith and WN versions, but like you have to squint and look closely to even be able to tell any difference between any of them.
Greenleaf & Blueberry – Quinacridone Magenta
A rosy PV19 pink on the warmer (redder) side, similar to Winsor & Newton and Da Vinci’s offerings. I struggled a bit to make a smooth gradient but I think that was just because I was using an itty-bitty pan (I bought a demi CMYK palette from Art Toolkit with 1/8 pans, so I had to use a really small brush). The mixes are lovely and extremely smooth.
Winsor & Newton – Permanent Rose
To my eye, Winsor & Newton’s Permanent Rose looks extremely similar to Daniel Smith’s Quin Rose, but verrrry slightly warmer (more toward red and less toward purple). If you like a rose that’s a bit more pinky and cheery, this might be the one for you. But they are, again, almost identical.
(Don’t read anything into the weaker color mixes compared to DS – I used a larger brush so there was more water.)
Mission Gold – Quinacridone Permanent Rose
And – another! These are so similar, I don’t know. It’s another good one.
Comparison to Other Colors
Schmincke Horadam Magenta (PV42)
Although Schmincke Horadam also offers PV19 pinks, Magenta (PV42) is the color they describe as their primary magenta, and to my eye it looks identical in color to Daniel Smith’s Quin Rose. Look at the gorgeous smooth gradient I got here – this might be the best gradient I’ve ever done! There is definitely randomness involved here, but it’s not NOT a quality of the paint; some colors are easier to grade than others. In my experience SH colors grade extremely nicely.
To check for gradient flukes like that, and compare them side by side, I painted out three more gradients side-by-side.
Side-by-side, it looks more obvious to me that the WN color is the warmest, and the DS and SH colors are almost identical, but to tell the truth they are all extremely extremely similar.
The gradient smoothness also doesn’t look as different here. SH Magenta is still smooth, but not as ridiculously so. DS Quin Rose painted out just as well, getting a bit darker in mass. WN Perm Rose settled somewhat in layers rather than a totally smooth gradient, but it doesn’t look bad at all. I sort of like the end result and would be happy to have those interesting layers in, say, a sunset sky or a flower petal.
Schmincke Horadam – Purple Magenta (PR122)
Magentas made from PR122 can also be extremely similar to Quin Rose. For example, here’s Schmicnke’s Purple Magenta along a spectrum of purples.
Other examples of PR122 magentas include Daniel Smith’s Quinacridone Lilac and Winsor & Newton’s Quinacridone Magenta (not the Permanent Magenta shown here, which is actually another formulation of PV19! PV19 can be used to make lots of colors from red to pink to purple.)
PR122 magentas tend to be slightly more purple-toned and less pinky; you might especially notice it in dilute, where PV19 pinks dilute to a pale carnation pink and PR122 magentas dilute to more of a lilac purple-pink. PR122 is closer to a “true” primary magenta, though personally I find Quin Rose to be more lively and fun.
They mix extremely similarly, and either one is a good option for a primary magenta.
Da Vinci – Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone (PV19)
This color has a different appearance and role, but is also made from PV19, so I thought I’d showcase it to show how PV19 can also be used to make a crimson red.
Traditionally, Alizarin Crimson is made from a fugitive pigment PR83, but Da Vinci has come up with this PV19 version to be similar but more lightfast. It’s definitely redder and deeper than the PV19 rose colors, although the crimson has a pinky cast to it, and the colors are somewhat similar in dilute. Still, I think they’re different enough that it could be worth having both on your palette for convenience if you mix up a lot of reds.
Mission Gold – Rose Madder (PR176)
The deep pinkish crimson PR176 pigment, known as Rose Madder in the Mission Gold line or Carmine in Daniel Smith, is very similar to the color of Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone above, so this comparison is quite similar as well. Rose Madder is deeper and redder but dilutes to a similar pink. I found the Mission Gold version here, at least, to be highly dispersive and hard to control, so I find the PV19’s easier to handle even if they aren’t as deeply ranged.
Color Mixes
Most of these demonstrate Da Vinci Red Rose Deep, one of the less blue/more red examples of a Quin Rose.
Lemon Yellow (PY175)
A gorgeous range of golds and corals that remind me of sunset. Never quite becomes a straight “red.”
Pure Yellow
Mostly-RRD mix is a convincing red. Bold oranges, golds.
Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (PBr7)
Glowing peaches and tans useful for sunset clouds.
Rich Green Gold (PY129)
I wasn’t sure whether this yellow-green would act as a neutralizer or a yellow, and: it works like a yellow! Makes bold glowing sienna/gold mixes, never quite orange.
Transparent Orange (PO71)
This is the best mixer I have found to turn PV19 into a fire engine red or a scarlet!
Deep Scarlet
Mix the PV19 pink with a deep, earthy, orange-toned scarlet like Deep Scarlet to mix up a deep crimson that is darker than the reds mixed with Transparent Pyrrol Orange.
Indanthrone Blue
Dark purples/plums/wines. The highly pigmented version that’s mostly PV19 is the closest to what I’d call a “dark magenta.”
Ultramarine Blue
Both being purple-toned, a magenta (like Quin Rose variants) and a violet blue (like Ultramarine) make wonderful vivid purples. I like these mixes better than any single-pigment purple I’ve tried. With more PV19, it’s plum or lilac; with more Ultramarine Blue, it’s deep violet or periwinkle.
Daniel Smith offers a commercial mix of PV19 and PB29 called Rose of Ultramarine, which a lot of people like, but I like being able to mix my own to whatever balance I like.
Cobalt Blue
A bit ‘cooler’ (bluer) overall than the Ultramarine mixes, because Cobalt is less purple-toned. Granulation from the Cobalt floats above the pinker backdrops. A nice sunset cloud range.
Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)
These purples are duller than those with more purple-y blues.
Cerulean
Textured lilacs, too bright for realistic clouds (but could be neutralized with yellow ochre), but perfect for dreamy fantasy clouds or pretty petal purples.
Cobalt Turquoise
Interesting deconstructed violets with the turquoise floating above the pink. The very diluted version has a subtle sunrise-like quality of being blue yet also pink at the same time.
Cobalt Green
This greener and less granulating PG50 makes grayer and less textured mixes.
Viridian
This neutralizes somewhat, but Viridian is so granulating that the green remains floating above the background of pink. It’s pink and green at the same time! Sort of gray if you squint and stand back, but really a very strange gray.
Phthalo Green (Blue Shade)
This particular pair of PV19 and PG7 makes a blue-gray, but this is a rose on the red side and blue-green on the middle green side. Some other variations of PV19 rose/PG7 green (such as DS Quin Rose + DS Phthalo Green Blue Shade) actually mix to a purple!
Phthalo Green (Yellow Shade)
These mix to more blackish/brownish neutrals with less blue undertone thanks to the yellow tones of the PG36 green. I still find it difficult to get a “true neutral” that is neither pinky nor greeny.
What Others Say About Quin Rose
Quinacridone Rose is a powerful, transparent rose pink. It can form part of a primary triad is it mixes to create beautiful purples and natural oranges. … I use it as the third red in my [Ultimate Mixing Palette], along with a crimson and a warm red.
Jane Blundell
I just love this color so much. It’s just a perfect pink for me, and it is the perfect cool red for me. It is so bright and intense, but it’s not too cold and it’s not too warm. It’s just spot on.
Oto Kano, Top 8 (2018)
[An] old reliable and early color I found. A staple in the Northwest, and super fun to use in the desert because I get to use it in higher concentrations than back home. Super fun to mix with the burnt orange. Also fun to mix it with granulating colors because it will move differently across a wet page and separate a little from the heavier granulating pigment, which can be a really fun way to see interesting results (for this separation to occur I had to be out of direct sunlight).
Claire Giordano, Fall in the Southwest: Favorite Colors
Straight from the tube, it’s an electrifyingly cool pink that could possibly induce a migraine. Despite that description, Quin rose (Quinacridone Rose’s nickname) is a staple color in my palette and my go-to pick for pink flowers and rose-tinted skies. And because of Quin rose’s bright, transparent qualities, it will mix strikingly clear oranges, violets, and purples.
Tonya @ Scratchmade Journal
One of the most versatile and widely used crimson/rose pigments. Some manufacturers offer it as the artist’s primary magenta. Because it is warmer than a typical magenta, quinacridone rose creates clean, bright mixtures across the red to yellow span of a color wheel. Its violets are not as bright as those mixed from quinacridone magenta (PR122), but I find this creates a more natural color when the mixtures are used for shadows. Gamma PV19 works especially well in florals and, with raw sienna and cobalt blue, in mixtures for healthy pink flesh tones.
CAUTION. The variations in lightfastness ratings in my tests indicate that you should do your own lightfastness tests on this pigment, whatever brand you use, as paint companies can change their pigment supplier. See also the section on quinacridone pigments.
Bruce MacEvoy, handprint.com
My Overall Review
Pink is one of my favorite colors, so it’s no surprise that I’ve been using a PV19 Quin Rose heavily ever since I got it (and it was one of the first ones I got, in the Daniel Smith Essentials set!) Aside from being lovely on its own, it’s a fantastic and extremely versatile mixer, functioning as a primary magenta in mixes. It mixes up beautifully on both sides of the warm/cool divide (one of those rare ‘reds’ that makes both orange and purple, though its purples are better). Even its mixes with should-be complement green are exciting and surprising, from the muted but distinct purples and teal blues with Phthalo Green Blue Shade, to the balanced grays and blacks with Phthalo Green Yellow Shade or Perylene Green.
On my palette? This is definitely a palette staple for me, both as a primary mixer and a lovely joy-sparking color on its own.
Favorite version: Happy with any, tbh. Currently using Da Vinci’s Red Rose Deep because I like its wide range.
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