maroon – Billy Idyll

Color Spotlight: Imidazolone Brown (PBr25)

September 2, 2023 by Billy Idyll

A single pigment transparent brown with a distinct warm reddish undertone. Experiment Results Hue: A brown with a red/pink/coral cast, especially in midtone. Gradient: Smooth, strong, non-granulating. Transparency: Transparent. Color Mixes: A range of reddish browns. Neutralizes blues. Comparison to Other Colors Less orange (more red) than earth oranges like Burnt Sienna, Transparent Red Oxide, … Read more

Color Spotlight: Naphthamide Maroon (PR171)

September 20, 2023August 5, 2023 by Billy Idyll

Daniel Smith – Naphthamide Maroon (PR171)

A deep, violet-toned red, most comparable to the more common Perylene Maroon. As far as I know, this Daniel Smith paint is the only available watercolor with this pigment.

Color Spotlight: Perylene Violet (PV29)

August 28, 2023December 31, 2022 by Billy Idyll

A dark, muting color somewhere between maroon and purple. Botanical artists use it for deep floral shadows. With its leafy counterpart, Perylene Green, it mixes up a dark black.

Color Spotlight: Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet (PR206)

August 28, 2023November 26, 2022 by Billy Idyll

Daniel Smith – Quinacridone Burnt Sienna

A single pigment, transparent red-brown. (I am constantly misidentifying this as ‘Quinacridone Burnt Sienna’, so I’m lucky there is no color by that name.)

What’s the difference between Deep Scarlet and Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet?

August 28, 2023September 20, 2022 by Billy Idyll

In analyzing my palette, one of the “gaps” I identified was a dark red to help me mix reddish browns and deepen my red and orange mixes, especially for autumnal paintings. There were a few options for this slot:

Perylene Maroon (PR179)
Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet (PR206)
Deep Scarlet (PR175)

I’ve given Perylene Maroon a couple of shots and never really liked it, but I like both QBS and DS unmixed. They’re actually quite similar:

DS Quin Burnt Scarlet on top, DS Deep Scarlet below

In terms of hue, Quin Burnt Scarlet is a bit browner and duller, and DS is a bit closer to a typical red-orange.

It’s hard to tell from the above because I made a concentrated effort to make a dark pasty mix on the leftmost square, but in general I also find it more difficult to get a dark tone from Quin Burnt Scarlet; the second square is more representative the darkest typical tone. The Deep Scarlet is very easy to get dark.

Both are transparent, staining, and non-granulating.

Since they’re really similar unmixed, which is better in mixes?

Color Spotlight: Deep Scarlet (PR175)

September 10, 2023August 20, 2022 by Billy Idyll

A very transparent, deep, slightly muted orange-red.

Color Spotlight: Perylene Maroon (PR179)

August 28, 2023August 13, 2022 by Billy Idyll

Perylene Maroon sits somewhere between crimson and earth red, a deep red with a brownish cast; sort of brick-colored. It’s useful to deepen scarlets and mute greens and blues to make more realistic landscape tones. I became interested in Perylene Maroon after watching Denise from In Liquid Color paint a pigeon using shades of gray from a mix of Perylene Maroon and Cerulean.