Battle of the PR202s: Quin Fuchsia vs. Quin Magenta

Daniel Smith offers two versions of pigment PR202: Quinacridone Magenta and Quinacridone Fuchsia. What is the difference?

Comparison

Looking at my swatches of the two paints, here are my observations.

Hue

• Quin Magenta is the bluer of the two, and is more of a primary magenta (as you might expect from the name).
• Quin Fuchsia is the redder of the two, appearing to have a sort of cranberry or raspberry hue in between magenta and red.

Chroma

• Quin Magenta is mid- to high-chroma. It is darker and less high-chroma compared to PR122, the pigment usually called Quin Magenta (which DS offers as Quin Lilac). But it is in the same general neighborhood.
• Quin Fuchsia is slightly lower chroma overall. This is especially noticeable in the dilute, which looks to me to be a greyer pink.

Smoothness

They seem to differ in how evenly the paint settles and dries. I’m not sure what to call this category because I’m not sure we have a technical paint word for it.

• Quin Magenta has a tendency to dry splotchy and shiny when it is highly concentrated. It is possible to paint this one too concentrated with too little water, and it becomes weird.
• Quin Fuchsia looks much more even and matte at high concentrations.

Price

Both paints are series 2 and they cost the same amount for a 15ml tube. However, Quin Magenta is the only one available in a 5ml tube. Quin Fuchsia can only be purchased in a 15ml tube. Don’t ask me why.

Color Mixes

Hansa Yellow Deep (PY97)

Both mix similarly with a middle yellow like PY97.

Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255)

Generally they also mix similarly with PR255, mixing to a crimson to middle red in-between them.

Maybe more than hue differences, my experiments demonstrated the relative ease of paint a flat wash with QF, compared to the streaky QM. For example, the smudge on Quin Magenta happened when I accidentally left a too-saturated, too-wet patch and it dried into a big, shiny, dark smear. This really shows a liability with this paint.

Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3)

The mixes with the PBGS are a little more muted with QF, a bit more grayish.

One interesting way to mix PR202 with Phthalo Blue is in dilute; this is a way I like to make skies that both become more violet-hued and lower-chroma in the zenith. Below, I did two diluted gradients of PR202/Phthalo Blue GS mix down to unmixed Phthalo Blue GS down to plain water.

They’re pretty hard to tell apart once they dry. Quin Magenta, left, is slightly higher-chroma (more violet/less gray); it looked even higher-chroma wet, but seemed to have more of a drying shift.

Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7)

I find these quite similar as well, though I do see some subtle differences on the more magenta side in both mixes. Quin Magenta mixes a Quin Violet hue, and some more purpley blacks, while Quin Fuchsia mixes more of a Perylene Violet hue, and more neutral blacks.

Conclusion

The two PR202s are actually quite similar in mixes, especially with warm colors. Mixes with cool colors are slightly more desaturated with the redder Quin Fuchsia.

So it’s sort of a toss-up! Some bases on which to decide:

• Which hue do you like better?
• Which hue do you like better for the situation? (Quin Fuchsia looks more “autumnal” to me, maybe good for my autumn palette.)
• Which is more distinct from your other palette colors? (e.g. the Quin Fuchsia PR202 is more different from PR122, while the Quin Magenta PR202 is more distinct from Quin Red PV19 or similar.)
• What palette roles do you need filled? (Quin Magenta might be more useful if you don’t have another primary magenta and are trying to have the PR202 as your primary magenta.)
• Are you bothered by having to commit to a 15ml paint? (Only Quin Magenta comes in 5ml.)
• How do you feel about the smoothness/streakiness?

Personally, I like the hue of Quin Magenta a bit better; closer to a primary magenta, it seems to mix in a more reliably pleasant way, and it gets darker as well. But the streakiness does strike me as problematic! For some reason, DS’s more magenta PR202 is super blotchy while the redder Quin Fuchsia is more smooth.

I do not think the splotchiness of the magenta style PR202 is inherent to the pigment preparation. For example, though I’ve only tried it from a dot, Da Vinci’s PR202 offering (which is called Quin Fuchsia) appears similar in hue to DS Quin Magenta but does not appear to be quite as streaky.

At some point I think I would like to give more of a try to the DV offering (beyond the dot), which might give me the cooler hue without as much streakiness. But in the meantime, I will probably use the DS options fairly interchangeably.