Indian Red is strikingly opaque granulating earth red made from PR101, synthetic red oxide.
Pigment stats for PR101
A common pigment with many personalities, also used for Venetian Red and Transparent Red Oxide.
Chemical Composition: Synthetic red iron oxide
Lightfastness: Excellent (confirmed by me, see below)
Toxicity: Nontoxic
Observations of Da Vinci Indian Red
Hue: Deep red-brown to a peachy/pinky beige, all with a scarlet red undertone.
Granulation: Very granulating.
Opacity: Very opaque. (Da Vinci lists this as ‘transparent’ on their website but this is a mistake. This, like every version of Indian Red I’m aware of, is quite opaque. However, I do think the DV version is a normal level of opaque for a watercolor, not the like super-opaque DS version.)
Glazing: Glazes to roughly the same color as the masstone, typical of opaque paints.
Lightfastness
I don’t see any difference between these. This performed best of all the PR101’s I tried.
Comparison to Other Colors
The two most similar colors are also opaque PR101 variants: Venetian Red and Caput Mortuum Violet aka Violet Iron Oxide, which are more orange and more violet, respectively. I think of the Venetian/Indian/VIO trio as earth scarlet/earth red/earth violet, respectively. Here they all are in the Winsor & Newton range:
I think Winsor & Newton tends to be a bit warm across the board compared to other brands, with DS and DV Indian Reds falling somewhere between WN Indian Red and WN Caput Mortuum in hue. DS Venetian Red is almost the same hue as WN Indian Red.
WN’s opaque PR101s tend to be low granulating. Da Vinci offers stronger granulators.
Comparison to Other Brands
Daniel Smith – Indian Red
Daniel Smith’s Indian Red is even more violet-toned than the Da Vinci version. Note the color in dilute, which is a soft neutral pink, compared to Da Vinci Indian Red’s muted scarlet. Daniel Smith’s blue mixes are also a bit more violet.
I think Daniel Smith’s Indian Red is a good compromise if you’re not sure whether you actually want Indian Red or Caput Mortuum Violet. If you also have a Venetian Red on your palette, Daniel Smith’s Indian Red is more distinct from it than DV’s or WN’s.
Daniel Smith Indian Red has moderate granulation, somewhere in between Da Vinci’s intense granulation and WN’s almost nonexistent granulation.
Daniel Smith – Lunar Red Rock
Daniel Smith’s Lunar Red Rock appears to be roughly the same color as Indian Red.
Color Mixes
Yellow Ochre (PY43)
Warm, orangey browns/golds that remind me of Burnt Sienna. Perhaps not as bright as a single pigment PBr7 Burnt Sienna would be.
Raw Sienna Deep (PY42)
A granulating variation on Yellow Ochre.
MANS (PBr7)
Another granulating earth yellow; this one a bit brighter.
Raw Sienna (PBr7)
Compared to the other Earth Yellow variants, the slightly more orange Raw Sienna gives rosier, more reddish/peach mixes.
Quinacridone Red (PV19)
I wanted to see if it was possible to mix deep crimsons with this mix, but I think the IR is so opaque and granulating that it always kind of looks like Indian Red and never fully blends with the pink to make a uniform deep red.
Quinacridone Fuchsia (PR202)
The deeper/darker color of the PR202 is more effective at masking the IR in certain concentrations and creating a soft, velvety dark red that is suitable for rose petals. It’s kind of a shiny mix though at the necessary conventration.
Smalt (PV15)
Granulating maroons and purples.
Ultramarine Blue (PB29)
Muted, granulating, violet-greys.
Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15)
These are quite grayish. Indian Red mutes the Phthalo Blue very well. It does always have some color separation.
Cerulean Blue (PB36)
A lovely soft neutral gray. Very useful in landscapes. Slight tendency toward violet.
Cobalt Turquoise (PB36)
Also makes gray, but tends toward a warmer (greener) gray. There is a certain foggy paleness to the browns.
Chromium Oxide Green (PG17)
Khaki browns/tans. These get very muted but don’t get super dark value because both pigments are opaque.
What Others Say
Indian Red is an interesting paint. It is the most opaque of any Daniel Smith watercolour I’ve used. It is best to use it without fiddling with it as the heavy pigment can be hard to control. What I love about it though is that it is the perfect colour for lips and the ‘pink’ of eyes in portraits, provided it is very diluted. It can also be used in mixes to paint the more red-toned skin. It is also lovely as an earth triad with Cerulean Chromium and Goethite for subdued paintings, and can be very useful for painting landscapes and rust.
Jane Blundell
Indian Red: quite possibly the most opaque color besides white in my palette right now, this color looks like house paint at the highest concentrations. It likes to take over mixtures so I have to be mindful not to use too much. It also granulates a lot, especially in washes, which is sometimes amazing and sometimes very hard to get consistent results. My favorite way to use this color is in collaboration with one or two other colors that granulate less, such as a yellow or pink, and even in shadows with blues! That granulation also makes it amazing for creating the impression of sandstone textures.
Claire Giordano, Fall in the Southwest: Favorite Colors
Claire Giordano also uses DS Indian Red in her alpenglow limited palette.
My main use for this paint [Rembrandt Indian Red] is for skies. I like to paint a light wash of indian red before I paint the sky. I also like to mix with cobalt blue to create a nice grey and with phthalo blue red shade to make a violet for shadows.
Jay Nathan, Rembrandt Indian Red Watercolor
My Review of Indian Red
This is a pleasant warm reddish brown color and I like the pinky dilute end. The color and granulation are useful for certain “red rocks” paintings like those I painted in Nevada.
I do not often find a use for it in the northeast forest environment. I tend to prefer earth oranges (e.g. Transparent Red Oxide) which easily make a range of browns and grays with blues. IR tends toward being more violety, and because it’s opaque it doesn’t necessarily make as dark darks. It’s also quite strong, notable even on my relatively strong palette, and easily overwhelms mixes.
Favorite version: Da Vinci’s Indian Red offers lovely granulation and a middle ground hue, neither orangey nor violety. I think if you only have one opaque PR101 on your palette, it’s a great choice.
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Da Vinci – Indian Red, 15ml tube: Da Vinci | Blick | Utrecht