Celebrating My Favourite (Discontinued) Warm Red
Greetings! Summer is truly in full swing now, along with all the heat it brings. I’m not really a heat person, but I do love the vibrancy and life that’s buzzing all around. Give me warm sunlight with a cool breeze, the gentle salve of a summer rain, or even the fresh air after a summer storm any day. Muggy soupy air though? Not so much!
Musings about the weather aside, one of my recent art adventures has been centred around warm red watercolour paints. Specifically, finding an alternative to my favourite warm red: the old Transparent Pyrrol Orange by Daniel Smith. You can still find paint by that name (and even the same pigment number PO71) in their line of paints. However, the newer post-2019 version is a much more orange-orange matching the PO71s offered by other brands. The old PO71 by Daniel Smith was a red-orange that fit perfectly into the role of a warm red for me.
The middle swatch card is the old discontinued red-PO71 by Daniel Smith, the small card in front of it is the orange-PO71 by MaimeriBlu. At the back is Pyrrol Scarlet by Daniel Smith to highlight just how red the old version was.
Alas, the remaining tube I have contains about enough to refill my palette only two more times. After that, I will be left without my favourite warm red. I’ll leave what I’ve been up to regarding that for another day. Today I instead want to have a little self indulgent moment, and celebrate the pigment I love so much.
Painting a tiger, because it makes me happy
After spending so much time in my expansion/playground palette experimenting with new and lesser used pigments, I could feel a growing itch to go back to comforting basics. My main palette called to me, and I wanted to spend a moment of time indulging in my most used pigments with a comfort-zone subject. Naturally, big cats came to mind. A classic comforting subject for me at this point. With so much of my brain-space being focused on warm reds and oranges recently, tigers popped up immediately. Why not use the discontinued Transparent Pyrrol Orange too while I’m at it? For ease of writing and reading I’ll be referring to it as red-PO71 from this point forwards.
The early watercolour layers to establish tones and isolate the white of the paper.
For the early layers I started with three puddles of watered down paint. The first puddle was Yellow Ochre PY43 by Daniel Smith, a typical warm undertone pick for me. The second puddle was a mix of red-PO71 and Nickel Azo Yellow PY150 to make a yellow-leaning orange. The third puddle was a mix of Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber PBr7, and a touch of Indanthrone Blue PB60 to make a pale neutralised earth tone.
From there I kept modifying those three puddles with the addition of more pigment to adjust the saturation and/or hue. The second puddle gradually had more and more of the red-PO71, before I added some Brown Red PBr25 to boost its depth for the final orange fur layers.
A close-up of the finished painting, after applying white gouache details for the whiskers and eye highlights.
A fourth puddle was added mid-way through the painting process, to deal with the cooler rock and shadows. For this I primarily used different proportions of Dioxazine Violet PV23 and Ultramarine Deep PB29, neutralised to different degrees as needed.
Painting any animal with patterning such as spots or stripes does start to look rather odd in the midway point. All the layering I do only starts to come together once those integral elements join the show. Speaking of which, for the tiger stripes I used my own chromatic black mix (Brown Red and Phthalo Turquoise) and adjusted it cooler with Indanthrone Blue or warmer with more Brown Red. Look at the back leg of the tiger below and you may notice the slightly more reddish-brown tone on the stripes!
The finished original painting “Tiger on a Pale Rock”, watercolour and white gouache on Arches cold pressed paper 7 by 10 inches.
Colour harmony is something I try to always keep in mind. For that reason I try to modify and use the same puddles of paint for multiple applications. The puddles that were used to create the different orange tones of the tiger ended up being the base for the background greens and neutrals. The original yellow ochre puddle, which I had gradually added more pigment to along with some red-PO71, became an earthy yellow-green with the addition of some Phthalo Green BS PG7. The puddle with the red-PO71 and Brown Red became an earthy deep green with the addition of Phthalo Green BS. I also created a muted red-brown at the edge of the same puddle. Finally, I used the same cool tones from the rock to splash into the background as well.
Final thoughts
Despite having both the old red-PO71 and Pyrrol Scarlet on my palette, I often find myself reaching for the former over the latter. It’s not that I don’t love Pyrrol Scarlet - it’s on my main palette like I said - but for the subjects I paint and the favourite mixes I default to I almost always reach for that red-PO71. I love its incredible transparency, its glow, its undertones and mass-tone. I love the luminosity it provides in mixes, especially when paired with the equally luminous PY150.
It’s going to be a hard one to let go of. Nothing lasts forever though, as they say. Art supplies are no exception to that. Things change, demand changes, the old makes way for the new. Sometimes it’s gradual and sometimes it’s sudden. People have experienced similar not just with pigments but with a variety of art materials, such as sketchbook paper changing. I personally do not have much experience with Moleskine, but I have heard from others that the paper characteristics have changed over time. From the colour of the paper, to how it reacts to different mediums.
The old making way for the new does have silver linings. As the more recently discontinued Quinacridone Burnt Orange PO48 and Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet PR209 also starts disappearing from brand line-ups, new alternatives are rising in their place. Golden’s QoR watercolours have now officially discontinued their PO48 Quinacridone Gold Deep and PR209 Quinacridone Burnt Orange (yes, they called their PR209 Burnt Orange, but other brands used PO48 under that name- yay for paint name confusions!). In the wake of those two a new pigment has joined QoR’s line-up: Benzimidazolone Burnt Orange PBr25. Recognise the pigment number? That’s the same as the Brown Red I used in the tiger! Those two may be slowly disappearing now, but other pigments are becoming more commonly offered instead. I love me some PBr25, so I’m happy that it’s becoming accessible in other brands now.
I will inevitably miss the old Transparent Pyrrol Orange. However, I value not only the remaining time I have with it but also everything it has given me over the years. This may get a bit poetic, but artists are allowed to wax poetic about art supplies. It’s in the rulebook. Transparent Pyrrol Orange was one of the first professional watercolours I picked up (back in March 2018 - I just checked!) and it has been an integral part of my watercolour journey. I learnt most of my colour mixing from then to now with its help. Comparing it to other reds and oranges helped me not only with colour theory but with understanding what paint qualities I prefer for different applications. Just as some artists love the opacity and intensity of a cadmium red as an everyday-use primary, I discovered that I love other qualities for my everyday colours. I learnt when I value transparency and when I value opacity and why. Transparent Pyrrol Orange was one of the pigments that helped me discover my preferences.
So rather than discontinuations being all doom and gloom, I want to recognise the joy and value red-PO71 brought and still brings to my painting practice - and then share that with you! Go out there and love every second with your favourite supplies. Through all the highs and lows of creativity, they are right there along with you.
