When deciding between paints, especially ones that I like equally well and that fill similar palette niches, I find it hard to juggle all the various factors to think about, many of which are not immediately obvious from first paintout: lightfastness, toxicity, drying shift, price series (cost), and tinting strength. That’s why I’ve come up with a needlessly complicated rating system!
The System Explained
Each paint gets a score out of 10. They can earn:
- Up to 3 points for lightfastness, per ASTM ratings or tests by Bruce MacEvoy or Kim Crick. (1 point for Very Good (II), 3 points for Excellent (I), and no points for III or lower.)
- 1 point for being nontoxic (A or A- on Art Is Creation, aka an AP rating by ASTM. No points for B or lower on Art Is Creation, or Cautionary Labeling by ASTM.)
- Up to 2 point for low drying shift (2 points for a “small” or “moderate” shift, or under 30% total change in hue, value, and saturation, per Bruce MacEvoy’s calculations or my own personal subjective supposition. 1 point for a “large” shift and no points for a “very large” shift.)
- Up to 2 points for being affordable (2 points for cost series 1, 1 point for cost series 2, and no points for cost series 3 or above).
- Up to 2 points for tinting strength (2 points for high, 1 point for medium, 0 for low; this is entire subjective.)
Results
I rated 95 paints that I have personally tested. The average score was 7.1, and the median score was 7.
Only 2 got perfect scores: Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7), and opaque PR101 (the color that may be called Indian Red, Venetian Red, or Violet Iron Oxide, depending on the exact hue). In other words, these colors are Lightfast I, nontoxic, have a low drying shift, are series 1, and have a strong tinting strength: all things I love!
21 colors got 9’s, meaning a slight compromise in one way. These include many more of my favorite colors, including Imidazolone Lemon & Yellow, Hansa Yellow Deep, Transparent Orange, Quin Coral, Quin Magenta, Phthalo Blue GS, Naples Yellow Deep, Raw Sienna/MANS, and Transparent Red Oxide (a PR101 which loses a point for its large drying shift).
Another way to look at this is by palette slot. Supposing I want to make a palette with the best (or one of the best) colors per slot; what are my options? Here’s what I came up with.
| Unique Slot | Max Points | Paints With Max Points |
|---|---|---|
| 01. Lemon Yellow | 9 | Imidazolone Lemon |
| 02. Yellow | 9 | Imidazolone Yellow |
| 03. Warm Yellow | 9 | Hansa Yellow Deep |
| 04. Orange | 9 | Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Pyrrol Orange |
| 05. Scarlet | 9 | Quinacridone Coral (Red) |
| 06. Red | 8 | Pyrrol Red |
| 07. Magenta | 9 | Quinacridone Magenta |
| 08. Violet | 8 | Quinacridone Violet, Ultramarine Violet, Lavender |
| 09. Violet-Blue | 8 | Ultramarine Blue |
| 10. Blue | 7 | Phthalo Blue RS |
| 11. Cyan | 9 | Phthalo Blue GS |
| 12. Turquoise | 8 | Phthalo Turquoise |
| 13. Green | 10 | Phthalo Green BS |
| 14. Earth Yellow | 9 | Naples Yellow Deep, Raw Sienna, MANS, Yellow Ochre |
| 15. Earth Orange | 9 | Transparent Red Oxide, Lunar Earth, Magnesium Brown |
| 16. Earth Red | 10 | Indian Red/Venetian Red/Violet Iron Oxide |
| 17. Brown | 8 | Burnt Umber, Raw Umber |
| 18. Gold | 8 | Quinacridone Gold/Deep Gold |
| 19. Dark Red | 7 | Naphthamide Maroon |
| 20. Dark Blue/Green | 9 | Indigo |
| 21. Black or Gray | 9 | Payne’s Gray |
| 22. White | 9 | Titanium White, Buff Titanium |
Between objectivity and subjectivity
I’ll acknowledge this is an awkward exercise that falls somewhere between too subjective (I made the scoring system and it reflects my values, it could be different) and not subjective enough (response to color is emotional, and there’s no spreadsheet I could make that would capture that.)
That said, I think it’s still useful to have a spreadsheet like this as part of a paint choosing system, since it can help to keep notes on the characteristics of a paint to be able to balance emotional response with more or less factual information (i.e. “this paint is lightfast” or “this paint has a large drying shift”). There are many paints I love and have a positive emotional response to that I’d be happy to have in my palette, but this information helps me to narrow it down to thos ethat perform in ways I prefer.
Now you try!
Are you a paint data nerd, too? It’s your lucky day. I’m allowing you to see and copy the Paint Scoring List for yourself!
Make your own copy, and you can edit it as you wish:
- Manipulate the scoring system to reflect your own values by assigning different point values to different situations. Perhaps you would weight things differently or consider different things good. I also have sections in the spreadsheet for granulating, opacity, staining, and single pigment, but I didn’t score them myself because I don’t care. But maybe you do!
- Add paints to the list of paints if I’m missing any, or correct any wrong information. (Hey, let me know if you find errors!)
- After changing the scoring system, see what happens to your list: re-sort it by total score or check out the “Highest Point Values by Slot” tab to get a table like the one above.
Enjoy!