Paint testing for drying time and opacity

 

General Brand observations

All of these paint brands tested have a different feel. Some are more stiff, others more sticky, others more oily. However, when mixed with sufficient medium (in this case Walnut Oil) all of them felt exactly the same. There will be different levels of extenders, fillers, stabilisers in the brands of course, but it raises the question: If you don’t use paint directly from the tube do you really need the more expensive brands?

From the tube I would say Schminke Norma and M Graham had the nicest flowing feel when applied to the surface. I suspect this is to do with the oil used as Schminke Norma adds Sunflower oil and M Graham Walnut oil which are lighter more flowing oils than linseed. In comparison the paints with safflower oil sometimes felt sticky and stuck to the brush more than the other which is perhaps a characteristic of the oil as it’s less yellowing than walnut?

Daler Rowney’s Georgian brand is an oddity. It looks dry, more matte than the others and waxy (I’m sure it contains waxes) but when pressed with a brush it’s actually nice and soft on the brush.

Van Gogh and Rembrandt have the same oily feel. Winsor and Newton’s Artist oils is firmer, while Winton feels stiffer in general.

 

Earths

 

PY42 / PY43 – Yellow Iron Oxide

Name

Pigments

Oil

Brand

Days Partially Dry

Days Totally Dry

Yellow Ochre

PY42

Linseed Oil

W&N Winton

8

9

Yellow Ochre Pale

PY42

Linseed Oil & Safflower Oil

W&N Artist Oils

11

12

Yellow Ochre

PY42

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Van Gogh

11

16

Yellow Ochre

PY42

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Rembrandt

3

5

Yellow Ochre

PY43

Walnut Oil

M Graham

11

12

 

Observations

I was surprised by the Rembrandt Yellow Ochre. I thought it took longer to dry when I used it previously, but it was completely dry in 5 days, compared to 16 for the Van Gogh version. As both are ground in linseed oil it appears that the Rembrandt version has driers.

All of the paints were opaque, but the Winton version was slightly more translucent than the others. It also appeared slightly more chromatic than the other brands as well. But also felt slightly more clumpy and sticky then other versions. In terms of colour though there was very little difference between the brands in hue, Chroma and value.

Daler & Rowney’s Georgian version was not listed as it was listed as only semi-opaque on their colour chart.

M Graham’s version is listed as a natural iron oxide (rather than the synthetic PY42 version). Despite that it was not only opaque but the backlighting photo revealed that it was more pigment dense than all the other brands tested. However is the extra pigment load necessary?

 

Conclusion

Any of these paints are fine to use if you want an opaque yellow ochre. The Winton version is slightly less opaque but still perfectly fine. If you paint with no medium (or very little) than the feel of the paint is more important, otherwise there is really no difference apart from the drying time.

If you are painting large scale or using a lot of paint I would definitely recommend large tubes of student grade paint instead of Artist grade for this colour.

 

Photos (please ignore the numbers, they aren’t accurate compared to the spreadsheet, which is accurate)

 

Backlight test (placed against my monitor displaying pure white)

 

 

PR101 / PY42 – Red and Orange Iron Oxide

Name

Pigments

Oil

Brand

Days Partially Dry

Days Totally Dry

Light Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

W&N Winton

4

5

Terra Rosa

PR101

Linseed Oil

W&N Artist Oils

4

5

Light Oxide Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Van Gogh

7

8

Light Oxide Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Rembrandt

2

3

Venetian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

D. Rowney Georgian

2

2

Venetian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil & Safflower Oil

W&N Artist Oils

2

2

Venetian Red

PR101

Safflower Oil

Sennelier Artist Oils

1

2

Orange Ochre

PY42

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Rembrandt

3

3

Venetian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Rembrandt

2

2

Terra Rose (Venetian)

PR101

Walnut Oil

M Graham

8

10

Indian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

W&N Winton

4

6

Indian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

W&N Artist Oils

4

5

Indian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Van Gogh

5

6

Indian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

R. Talens Rembrandt

4

5

Indian Red

PR101

Linseed Oil

D. Rowney Georgian

3

4

 

Observations

I have included Orange Ochre (PY42) in this section as although it is listed as PY42 it is much closer to a PR101 in terms of hue compared to the other Yellow Iron Oxides tested. I thought it might take longer to dry as it is a PY42 pigment, but it dried in only 3 days. We can see a similar pattern with the Rembrandt Light Oxide Red compared to the Van Gogh student grade version (3 days, and 8 days totally dry respectively). So it seems there is some dryer in their Rembrandt line in these pigments that is not in the Van Gogh range.

The M Graham Terra Rose took the longest time to dry (10 days), whilst the Sennelier Venetian Red being ground in Safflower oil should have taken even longer to dry but was partially dry after only 1 day and totally dry after 2 days. I believe Sennelier add a generous amount of driers to their colours.

These 15 different Iron Oxides span a hue range from orange learning red (Light Reds, Terra Rosa) to blue leaning reds (Indian Reds). Despite that the differences in hue and saturation are small. The more orange leaning the colour the more chromatic the paint, but unless you were using a very limited palette these differences would probably be unnoticeable when used as a mixing colour. Some of the Indian Reds are a higher price series (W&N Artist), or not available in a large size (Van Gogh), so that’s why I mention how similar they are to the more orange learning or middle of the road Venetian Reds.

The W&N Artist Terra Rosa and the Georgian Venetian Red were the most chromatic and orange leaning reds (very similar in hue).

In terms of opacity the Orange Ochre (PY42) was slightly less opaque when shown in the backlight test, but in reality opaque. All the others are totally opaque (even in the backlight test).

 

Conclusion

Any of these paints are suitable if you want an opaque, lightfast and dull red. Apart from the feel of the paint I can see no difference between the student and artist grade paints.

If you are painting large scale or using a lot of paint I would definitely recommend large tubes of student grade paint instead of Artist grade for this colour.

 

Photos (please ignore the numbers, they aren’t accurate compared to the spreadsheet, which is accurate)

 

Backlight test (placed against my monitor displaying pure white)