Quinacridone Red is highly transparent. It appears to have strength in full saturation but is relatively weak when diluted. However, it can achieve a deep rich red that sits between the warm and cool spectrum, but its undertone is bright crimson pink and has a brilliance akin to the petals of the camellia outside my studio window. When applying the wet state colour, it moved easily across the paper’s surface. This pigment has uniformity in its application, and the tiny particles of colour feel the bumps and bruises of the paper. It can be diluted to achieve softness and yet presence. The lighter this colour becomes, the more brilliance it appears to possess. If this pigment were available in Field’s era, he would have described this quality of vividness as its inherent intensity and noted its extraordinary ability to reflect light more than many of the other red pigments.

The benefit of this brightness is that it makes it great for glazing when applying a coolness to an opaque warm red, such as Cadmium Scarlet, with a glaze of Quinacridone Red once the underneath layer is dry. Its transparent qualities and its lightness make this not a colour for covering. Its presence is either achieved by laying it out on the surface at the beginning of a painting or maintaining it. The truth of this particular colour pigment to be witnessed in a painting requires a white surface or ground. To procure the most beauty out of this colour is to work with its character of lightness. Otherwise, if only using Quinacridone Red in full saturation (colour squeezed in mass directly from the tube), there is no perspicacity of its qualities, and its potential may never be realised.

This is the colour that surprised me the most. I can see that its unique qualities have not been evident, and its potential could be hard to detect before I had experienced the covert colour challenge. The colour is deep and rich, but it sits flat on the surface. It's a heavy particle, much heavier than I had understood, which may contribute to its opacity. At first glance, it looks very much like Alizarin Crimson. Still, it doesn’t have the colour depth or intensity that a transparent colour like Alizarin Crimson possesses, and its tinting strength is also lower. The brush slides easily over the paper surface when working with the wet colour. There is an evenness with the way the pigment particles fall into the paper’s tooth. Managing the amount of pigment when diluted with a lot of water is much easier than with the more transparent colours. I cannot anticipate where I would best use this colour on its own, but it has its own unique presence and potential that I am yet to explore properly for the artist’s palette. The diluted dry state examples show a soft blush that has a coolness in its undertone. Its semi-opacity provides a presence on the paper that is unlike other crimsons. The mass tone of Winsor Red (although I applied many layers equal to Alizarin Crimson) did not reach the same depth of colour. This relates to its opacity and ability to reflect light from the top layer of its surface colour rather than allow light through.

This colour has been developed to emulate the traditional Alizarin Crimson but provides permanency and lightfastness. It is a transparent organic staining colour. The benefits of synthetic-coloured pigments are obvious when managing this colour, as it is easy to control the undertone and diluted tones on the paper surface. Controlling the amount of pigment in watercolour can easily produce intense mass tones with high-density pigment. It takes many layers, but great depth is achieved. The undertone has a cool bluish shade in it, and it is a red that recedes. Its sureness, or its condition of being without doubt, comes in knowing that it will last longer than Alizarin Crimson. But for the artist, this is not obvious when working from wet to dry state.

This traditional colour has a softness that is typical of organic lakes. It has a staining quality and, when applying another colour near, it has a propensity to bleed into it. Its natural attributes make it more challenging to manage, but this provides it with a beauty that can only be seen by coloured pigments with small staining particles. Its undertone in the most diluted palest applications makes them very suited for rendering flesh. It is the colour of pink in a cloud and blush on the cheek.

This colour is from a limited-edition range called the Twilight colour. Its pigment number is not identified. Its difference lies in its mass tone and undertone to other cool reds. Sanguine is suggestive of blood and it does have a blood-like presence. It is a colour that is difficult to reduce as it seems to also stain. The general appearance of the mid-tone range is a little duller and compares to Windsor Red Deep. I have previously left this colour out of my Gol Gol Layer Colour Observations, but have included it this time.

I originally included sanguine red so that I could see its comparison to Rose Madder Genuine. I believed their mass tone was similar and yet, after the CCC 2020, there are obvious differences. Rose Madder does appear blood-like in its mass tone but its real significance is in its ability to be reduced to very pale pink bushes. Its transparency and luminosity provide versatility for an artist. In mass tone it can reach the depth of a warm opaque, like Cadmium Red, and in its diluted form as a glaze, it can provide warmth to a sky/flower and is a versatile colour that has historically been crucial for colour mixing. It sits as a primary triad mix, where it's closer to magenta but with a more natural softness that's related to the natural world.

This colour carries brilliance and fluorescence. It does not seem to sit on the red palate and yet a red pigment it is. Its inclusion of a dye and its fragility of lightfastness makes it a colour that grabs for reflection. It’s intense and brilliant, but these are qualities that are on a timeframe. The brilliance of this colour is dependent on the whiteness or brightness of paper and the pigmented dye’s ability for light to envelop each pigment particle. It holds lightness within itself. The residue in the glass palate gives evidence of its chemistry, as the die and pigment particles separated.

There is always a debate over this colour in that, traditionally, Quinacridone Magenta has been categorised as a violet pigment. Currently in the Winsor and Newton watercolour range, Quinacridone Magenta is a red pigment, PR 122. Interestingly, they choose to identify their Quinacridone Magenta in Professional Acrylics and Oil Colour as PV 19.

Whatever the categorisation, the inherent qualities remain the same for the artist. It has very high transparency and its intensity and tinting strength proceed all of the crimsons on the artist palette. Its obvious description as a violet pigment becomes more evident in the dry state samples. With multiple layers this colour can produce a very dark crimson equal to the traditional Alizarin Crimson. But, with a much cooler tone, it distinctly looks more purple and could be described as a mauve. Working with this colour can be problematic as its staining properties make it more challenging to manage with volumes of water. It can be difficult to control and yet it holds great potential for mixing because of its variables of tinting strength and transparency.