A very transparent, deep, slightly muted orange-red.
Experiment Results
Gradient: I liked the overall handling of this color which dispersed easily and made a nice, glowing gradient from a deep, slightly textured barn red through to a light red. When it dried, though, I was disappointed to see that it had dried unevenly in masstone and the little bubbles dried without popping, creating a weird line of dots. I’ve never seen that before in another paint – usually any bubbles naturally pop before it dries.
Transparency: Transparent.
Glazing: Not the most dramatic glazing I’ve ever seen but it does glaze to a deep red similar to its masstone color.
Mix This Hue
I was able to get pretty close to a Deep Scarlet hue by mixing two Da Vinci colors: Alizarin Crimson (Quinacridone) and Burnt Sienna Deep.
Comparison to Other Colors
Pyrrol Crimson
Compared to straightforward crimsons, like Daniel Smith’s Pyrrol Crimson, Deep Scarlet is more orange-toned and a bit more muted.
Other Earth Reds (Quin Burnt Scarlet, Perylene Maroon)
On the spectrum of earth reds, it’s less orange than Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet (PR206), and more orange than Perylene Maroon (PR179).
Color Mixes
Lemon Yellow
A range of oranges more muted than those you’d make from LY + Transparent Pyrrol Orange. I’m especially happy with the high-pigmented pumpkin.
Rich Green Gold
I’m surprised by how nice I find this. I like the red-brown, which is sort of TRO hue.
Monte Amiata Natural Sienna
Nice glowing, yet slightly muted, corals
Transparent Pyrrol Orange
These are similar colors, so it’s a subtle grade, but you can see that the Deep Scarlet is a darker value and redder than the TPO. Deep Scarlet deepens the oranges to pumpkin shades (you can get a similar mix with Lemon Yellow).
Because Deep Scarlet is also orange-toned, these never quite get to a middle red.
Transparent Red Oxide
Quin Rose
Now, here is a combination that makes a middle red – a deep, crimson shade.
Indanthrone Blue
I’m kind of digging these black cherry and blackberry shades.
Ultramarine Blue
Dark, deep blues and muted purples. Although the actual sunset sky rarely gets super red like this, there is something sunsetty about this gradient to me.
Cobalt Blue
Deep Scarlet and Cobalt Blue mute each other, but are not perfect complements – the mix is a grayish-purple rather than an even gray. I like this gradient, too.
Phthalo Blue Red Shade
Slightly purplish grays in the middle. Redder mixes are Perylene Violet-hued. Deep Scarlet mutes the blue.
Phthalo Blue Green Shade
More orangey mixes than the Phthalo Blue Red Shade. Kind of gray in the middle, but difficult to get balanced without slightly pink or slightly blue undertones.
Prussian Blue
I found these grays so surprisingly realistically shadow-looking. Like they’re all slightly pinkish or bluish but it looks like real shadow more so than the PBGS mixes (in my opinion). Maybe because Prussian Blue is darker so the dark grays look more shadowy? IDK but I really like this combo.
Cobalt Turquoise
I find these mixes muddier, perhaps because of the opacity of the Cobalt Turquoise.
Phthalo Green
You can get near-black with deep color here. However, they’re not complements; the middle tone is more of a cool brown than a gray.
Serpentine
Better. The green turns the Deep Scarlet into red-browns, and the red turns the Serpentine into a brownish-yellow color. Dilute mix is a tan.
My Review
I initially found it difficult to find a palette role for this color; it’s too bright for an earth color but too muted for a bright. Of course, I am drawn to it as an earth color because I like things to be too bright.
When taking Liz Steel’s class, one of the exercises was to make a “master palette” included all the mixed colors (e.g. how to mix red, orange, yellow, etc. with your palette, even if you don’t have a specific paint for each shade), and that included dark versions of each one. After messing around with a few things, I found Deep Scarlet useful for mixing the dark versions of warm colors like orange and red.
On my palette? Currently trying this one out on my main palette!
Favorite version: Daniel Smith is the only company I know of that offers a PR175.