Monday, June 4, 2012

New Colors II: Violet PV-19

Time for an update on the Caesar Purple/PV-19 confusion.

If you remember the color chart I made from all of my oil paints with the color index name of PV-19, Caesar Purple was much bluer than the others.

I did a bit more reading and discovered that there are two versions of PV-19:  a red and a violet.  So, I ordered some other brands of the violet PV-19.  Here is the color chart that includes Caesar Purple and the other new violets that arrived last week:

Color Chart for Violet PV-19 - Oil
Various Manufacturers
And here is the previous mostly red PV-19 Color Chart

Color Chart for (mostly) Red PV-19 - Oil
Various Manufacturers
You can see that color-wise, the violet PV-19 is pretty much the same for all of the manufacturers that I sampled.  The same goes for the red PV-19.

However, each manufacturer has its own formula for creating tube colors with different working characteristics, and, of course, each manufacturer has its own purchase price.  Here is a break down of the prices for the violet PV-19 tubes I recently purchased, most of them on sale:
                                             Purchase Price    Size of Tube (mL)      Price/mL
Schmincke-Mussini                   $ 15.57                     35                    $  0.44  
M. Graham Co.                             9.59                      37                        0.25
Rembrandt                                   13.35                    40                        0.33
Gamblin                                         9.57                    37                       0.29
Blick                                            22.25                    40                       0.56

The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that manufacturers who use the color index classification system are making paint that is consistent in color at vastly different prices.  So why buy the most expensive brand when the least expensive will do the trick?  You may prefer the working characteristics of the costlier paint, and that may make it worthwhile to you.

As for me, I now have plenty of violet PV-19 on hand, so I think I am set for the rest of my life a while.  I will eventually do this exercise for other paints in my collection, but it's time for me to get back to the easel!