Gotta pick a purple or two

I love purple paintings. I feel like I like my work in direct proportion to how much purple there is in it. Yet, I also claim not to keep a purple on my palette because “it’s easy to mix.” Then I find my paintings often don’t have enough purple in them. Where’s the logic in that?

My friends agreed and provided me with dots to try in the pursuit of the perfect purple. So here is a tour of watercolor purple options.

First off, I need to ask: do you, in your personal vocabulary, have a difference between purple and violet? I don’t, but I’ve read that purples are warmer/redder and violets are cooler/bluer. Paint color names don’t adhere to that, though, since Quin Violet and Diox Violet are warmer and cooler, respectively, than Quin Purple. I will use “purple” and “violet” interchangeably.

Single-Pigment Granulating Violets

The main contenders for a single-pigment granulating option are Cobalt Violet, Manganese Violet, and Ultramarine Violet.

Top row:

1. DS Cobalt Violet Deep (PV14)
2. DS Cobalt Violet (PV49)
3. DV Cobalt Violet Deep (PV14, PB28)
4. SH Manganese Violet (PV16)

Bottom row:

5. Qor Ultramarine Violet (PV15)
6. DS Ultramarine Violet (PV15)
7. DV Ultramarine Violet (PV15)

Note this brand list is not exhaustive; for example Holbein has a well regarded Cobalt Violet, WN has a well regarded Ultramarine Violet, etc. These were the dots I had on hand, mostly courtesy of paint pal Lynne, and the DV Dot Card.

Some find the Cobalt Violets irreplaceable as high-chroma, single-pigment, highly-granulating magic-makers. Personally, I find them to be quite weak and gummy, which makes them unpleasant for me. DV has a noticeably stronger hue, but it is a mix with stronger Cobalt Blue. It’s also less granulating than the other Cobalt Violets.

Personally, I think if you want a granulating purple, Manganese Violet is the way to go. It is also extremely granulating, moderate-strength and has a nicer brushfeel. While stronger than Cobalt Violet, it’s still a bit on the weak side for me.

If you want something cooler, Ultramarine Violet (PV15) is an option. Again all of these are fairly weak and hard. Folks occasionally say “Qor is a strong Ultramarine Violet” or “DV has a strong Ultramarine Violet” but that’s on a relative scale – even the strong ones are too weak for me. In my dot collection, DV has a cooler hue than the others.

Single Pigment Smooth Purples

Quin Violet & Quin Fuchsia

For a smooth, warm, plummy purple, single pigment options include: Quin Violet (PV19) and Quin Fuchsia (PR202). Thioindigo Violet (PR88) is a discontinued paint, but DV still offers it in a mix with PV19 (mostly, I suspect, PV19). Here’s a multibrand comparison.

Top row:

1. Daniel Smith – Quin Violet (PV19)
2. Qor – Quin Violet (PV19)
3. Da Vinci – Quin Violet (PV19)
4. Holbein – Quin Violet (PV19)

Bottom row:

5. Daniel Smith – Quin Fuchsia (PR202)
6. Daniel Smith – Quin Magenta (PR202)
7. Da Vinci – Thioindigo Violet (PV19, PR88)
8. Da Vinci – Quin Fuchsia (PR202)

Basic comparison of PV19 and PR202:

• The PV19s are cooler and have a bluish cast especially in dilute.
• PR202s are more magenta and are basically a true magenta that is slightly lower-chroma than a typical primary magenta like PR122.

I should have put the Thioindigo Violet with the PV19’s; it stands out in the bottom row but is really quite similar to the top row.

Brand differences are very subtle overall.

• DS Quin Violet is slightly warmer than other PV19s especially in masstone. I think if warm is what you want, though – a pink rather than a purple – you should go for another color, such as the rose version of PV19. The magic of the Quin Violet PV19s seems to me the bluishness.
• Daniel Smith offers two PR202s; the Quin Fuchsia is quite reddish and cranberry-colored, while the Quin Magenta seems to be a more typical hue for PR202.
• The Da Vinci PR202 appears weaker/lighter because I used a dot and had less paint. But in reality I suspect it is quite similar to Daniel Smith’s Quin Magenta.

I like all these colors and I feel PV19 and PR202 are contenders… although PR202 is arguably not purple, but magenta! Judged as a magenta, it is less vibrant than true magenta PR122, a color notable for mixing lovely purples.

Dioxazine Violet

The main single pigment violet is Dioxazine Violet (PV23). I tested four versions.

1. Daniel Smith – Carbazole Violet
2. WN – Winsor Violet
3. Holbein – Permanent Violet
4. Da Vinci – Da Vinci Violet

I found that Daniel Smith gets the darkest, followed by DV. Holbein is noticeably lower in tinting strength, strange for this pigment. WN was pretty balanced.

WN and DV spread out evenly, while DS and Holbein were streaky.

Daniel Smith’s version is slightly lower chroma than the others, looking slightly grayish especially in dilute.

In terms of brushfeel, I found DV too sticky for me. Holbein was kind of hard. DS and WN were fine.

As you can see, PV23 is a pigment I find quite finicky to get right. I like some of the qualities of some paints, and some of the qualities of others.

I am also not entirely sold on whether I need it. This is my main example of a “but I can mix a hue” paint. For example, I painted some morning glorys from this photo, which looks very Dioxazine Violet.

In the painting below, can you tell which flowers I painted with Dioxazine Violet, and which ones I painted with a mix of Phthalo Blue and PR122? I can’t.

(Answer: In both panels, the violet sections of the large flower were painted with PV23, and the smaller one(s) used the self-mix.)

Quin Purple (PV55)

Quin Purple is an interesting option because it’s neither warm nor cool, smack in the middle of the purple range. I only have one dot of this (courtesy of Lynne), which is from Daniel Smith.

Mixed Violets

Here’s a selection of mixed purples.

Top Row:

1. DV Permanent Magenta (PV19, PB29)
2. DV Joyce’s Mother Violet (PB33, PB15, PV19) [mix of Manganese Blue Mix and Quin Rose, per Joyce Hicks]
3. DS Imperial Purple (PB29, PV19)
4. DV Mauve (PB29, PV19)

Bottom Row:

5. DS Moonglow (PG18, PB29, PR177)
6. DV Artemis (PG18, PB29, PR177)
7. DS Cobalt Blue Violet (PB28, PV19)

It’s very popular to mix PB29 and PV19 (presumably equivalent to Ultramarine Blue and Quin Rose), and I get it. I like to mix those pigments, too. I can do it easily because I almost always have them on my palette. There is no need for a premixed color.

The bottom left pair use the same pigment mix; DS Moonglow and the DV dupe, which appears more neutral gray. But I find both of these too gray. I can also mix palette dirt on my own, thanks.

Don’t confuse DS Cobalt Blue Violet with a Cobalt Violet; there is no Cobalt Violet in it. It’s a mix of Cobalt Blue and Quin Rose (or perhaps Quin Violet – some kind of PV19). It looks to be mostly Cobalt Blue. I like it, but again it’s mixable.

Pastel Mixes

Pastels made from mixes with white.

1. DS Lavender (PW6, PV15, PB29)
2. Holbein Lavender (PW6, PV15, PB29)
3. DV Lavender (PW6, PV15)
4. DV Lilac (PW6, PV19, PB29)

I’ve tried at various times to convince myself that Lavender is useful, but it usually ends up getting bumped off my palette for something else. White is probably the most useful palette color if you like pastels, since these can basically be mixed from white and any of the mixes above.

If you like granulation, a prefab mix may be useful since they tend to keep the granulation better than my self-mixes do; I found the DS and DV Lavenders especially granulating. DV Lilac was not very granulating. Holbein Lavender struck me as being smoother and more opaque than the others, more similar to what I get when I self-mix.

So what shall I pick?

I want to be the kind of person who likes granulation, and I agree in theory with anyone who goes with Manganese or Ultramarine violet. I do think they look magical in swatches. But I don’t like the hard brushfeel, and I don’t actually like to use granulation that much in practice, so these tend to be the kind of paints I buy and don’t use.

I keep coming back to the smooth purples. Although I’ve tried them before, seen anew in the context of all the purples, Quin Violet (PV19) and Quin Purple (PV55) especially catch my eye. When I have tried to make them work in palettes before, I tended to find that I did not use them much. But I think it might be a matter of having realistic expectations. They are both surprisingly moody colors. When used to mix other purples, I found that despite looking bright unmixed, they tended to lower the chroma of mixes. For high-chroma mixes, Quin Magenta (PR122) was more useful.

It is worth noting that I don’t currently have PR122 on my palette. I keep bumping it for the similar Quin Rose (PV19). But Quin Rose’s purples aren’t as vibrant, especially when you tend toward redder PV19s, like Quin Red (which I do). So perhaps the lesson I need to take from this is to use more PR122! If I claim to eschew mixed violets because “they are mixable” I should make darn sure I have the right mixers on hand.

So my Purple Improvement Plan (PIP):

• Include PR122 as my primary magenta and see if that doesn’t make my purple mixes more to my liking.
• Give a palette chance to DV Thioindigo Violet (PV19, PR88) as a Quin Purple equivalent. Why this and not others? Because I have it already and I don’t need to buy anything!

What are your favorite purples?