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November 24, 2012 at 10:56 am #990331
This thread is intended to contain actual reports of the various stages of each participant’s lightfast testing work. If you want to discuss ideas or make suggestions use the Watercolor Lightfast Testing Project thread.
Some Requirements
1. Only test paints where the manufacturer has shown the pigment numbers on the labels, paint names only are completely unreliable.
2. As much as possible indicate when you purchased the paint, paint manufacturers do change their formulations in response to economic and technical pressures and for example the Windsor Yellow made by W&N in 2000 in England might be different from the the same paint made by W&N in 2012 in France. We will report results on the basis of recent (2011 forward), older (2000-2010), and perhaps ancient (1950 to 2000) for older fugitive paints you might consider testing.
3. You can test whatever paints you have on hand and that you usually use, there will be, hopefully, lots of duplication which will allow us to “average” the reports and provide better information.Basic Directions
1. Paint your initial swatches and label them carefully with the manufacturer, the paint name and the pigment number(s)
2. Take a photo of that with the highest resolution available in your camera (yes you might need to reduce the color density of the image in order to post the image but having a high quality image available may be important)
3. Post that photo in this thread including in the text of the post the information on each paint being tested in the photo
4. Indicate the date test started, the place (city, state-province) and the window exposure (south by preference but whatever is possible for you)
5. when you post a follow up on a 4 month basis include the original photo and the current then include your comments from what you can see which may not always come across in our lower resolution post photos.Starting Date
We intend to start the testing on January 1, 2013 to provide a baseline for all the tests and to allow us to use December in order to organize the effort and register as many participants as possible.However once underway if you wish to participate please feel free but it would be helpful if you would start your testing at the beginning of a month so that our exposure times of 4 months, 8 months and 12 months can be duplicated by you.
"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." (Robert Henri)
January 2, 2013 at 10:27 am #1175069Here’s my list of paints that faded over the 11 month period of my test:
HOLBEIN:
Scarlet Lake PR 48 – Dilute faded after 9.5 weeks; Full strength, no change after 9.5 MONTHS, very small shift in full strength at 11 months.Carmine PR 83 – SLIGHTLY in dilute at 6.5 mos, Full strength slight change after 9.5 mos.
Brown Madder PR 216 – SLIGHT shift, barely noticeable in full strength at 11 mos, slight shift in dilute at 11 mos.
DALER-ROWNEY
Alizarin Crimson PR 83:1 – at 6 months, dilute MAY have started to fade; Full strength at 7.5 months, MAY be going brown – at 9.5 months, full strength and dilute showed slight shift – at 11 months, full strength has browned slightly.Cadmium Yellow – PY1 – SLIGHT shift in dilute at 6.5 months; at 11 months, NO SHIFT in Full strength, dilute still slightly lighter.
Sandra
January 2, 2013 at 12:36 pm #1175054Sandra,
Your accounting of the tests is interesting, but as artists, we tend to be visual people and it sure would help to have some photos to accompany your tests both at the beginning and after time has past. Did you take any photos during this testing period?Sylvia
January 2, 2013 at 1:01 pm #1175070No, I haven’t taken any photos. I suspect the subtleties of the colour shifts wouldn’t be visible though, particularly part way through. Here’s a scan at 11 months that includes the faders, but it’s very unsatisfying – the reds show fairly true to life, but the yellows are off.
The faders are, across the top, Scarlet Red, Carmine, Brown Madder and Alizarin Crimson.
Across the bottom, the second from the right is Cadmium Yellow, the diluted part is the part that has faded.
Sandra
January 2, 2013 at 1:07 pm #1175071The only colour across the bottom that I’m pointing out at this moment is the Cad Yellow, but I know someone might want to know what the others are, so left to right:
Ochre, Naples Yellow-Red, Naples Yellow, Gamboge, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow, Aureolin and Quin Red.
I can see that the slight fade in Cad Yellow, dilute doesn’t show at all. It’s very subtle.
The top half the red row and the bottom half of the yellow row were the halves kept in a drawer.
Sandra
January 11, 2013 at 9:42 am #1175079Thanks for all of this Sandra, excellent information and also a caution to us in that our cameras and the digital manipulation to get images into Wetcanvas do result in an image that is not as sensitive or accurate as the original. So we do need the personal report as well.
Just to make sure people understand Holbein’s “Aureolin” that you have tested is NOT PY 40 but is clearly a light fast combination of PY 3 (arylide yellow) and PY 42 which is synthetic yellow iron oxide.
thanks again for this work, I will combine it with the end of the year results.
Bill"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." (Robert Henri)
January 12, 2013 at 7:50 am #1175072You’re right on both accounts, Bill… my above scan really doesn’t do every colour justice – nothing beats looking at it in real life. Mind you, at the same time I guess it shows that the variation in my full-strength Alizarin, for example, is very, very slight after a year.
You’re correct, the Aureolin shown has 2 pigments.
I highly encourage everyone to try their own tests and share the results. Getting started a year ago, I thought ‘this is just going to take so long’ (I tend to like instant gratification)…but by the end of the first month I started checking and noting changes. And from that point on, I started looking forward to checking out my strips every month or so.
After being away from home for several days, and realizing I hadn’t checked for a few weeks, that was the first thing I looked forward to and did after returning home. Yes really It’s fun. Everyone, a group cheer!!!!
Sandra
January 31, 2013 at 7:33 pm #1175061Crosspost from registration thread:
I’ve done a series of tests, results posted here:
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=540692
Window is north facing (southern hemisphere), in New Zealand, where we have a high UV incidence.
Test time one year, May 2008 to end April 2009, sunshine hours 2247. Samples were examined at one year, then after a further 9 months or so in a drawer (some continued to fade despite the absence of light).
Pigment numbers and paint names and brands as listed.
Results include before and after photos.
Swatches are 1″ wide and most samples except the yellows include a 1/8 dilution. The “masstone” samples are a 1/4 dilution. The big samples on the left side of each set of dilutions are a bit random, mostly selected for being the dilution I would mostly use in practice. A few of the earlier test samples I did, especially the yellows and alizarin, are 1/3, 1/6… dilutions, but most are 1/4, 1/8,….
There is also a thread of mixes possible with a palette drawn from the most lightfast of the paints, though the photos don’t show the chroma well, and of course the mixes have not been independently tested for lightfastness:
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=593117.
February 11, 2013 at 1:36 pm #1175075This is an older test I did on the popular Sakura Koi watercolor sketch kit. They don’t list pigments or even color names, so they were just applied in the order that they appeared in the kit starting with the second color on the top left (the first color is white).
This was left in a sunny window for about 2 months, and then I put a new strip next to it to show the original color. Some colors faded a little, others were fugitive. I would only recommend this kit for a sketch book that would have very little UV exposure. It’s a great design – I might clean out the wells and put my lightfast tube paints in there instead.
The first picture is the catalog picture for the kit from fineartstore.com, and the second is my chart.
Jan
February 19, 2013 at 3:51 pm #1175073janinco, I just bought this same set. Thanks for the information on lightfastness. I just starting out in watercolors, so I guess this will have to do for now. BTW, the color names are listed on Dick Blick, here:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/sakura-koi-watercolor-sketch-box-travel-pan-sets
Hope this helps.May 22, 2013 at 9:49 pm #1175084I have been running lightfast tests on Mission Gold for the past 5 months. I just posted latest results to my blog ”I’m Painting As Fast As I Can.”
I hope this isn’t outside the criteria you used when you set up this group. I didn’t discover you until today.
I received a complimentary set of the paints from the distributor and began my tests in mid-January. The sun-exposed part was in a south-facing window, but has had less and less direct sun as the seasons changed. I’ve now moved the card to an east window which gets 4-5 hours of direct sun daily and will continue the tests until I’ve had the sample up for 6 months. However, it is very clear that many of these paints are made up of fugitive pigments and there has been significant fading of many of the colors.
May 24, 2013 at 1:59 pm #1175080Hi, since I finished my test before this one got started I think I shouldn’t post it here, but I did it in a very similar way for almost 18 months -results here, https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19630923#post19630923
The dumb thing I did was write the paint info across the bottom — the ink faded away on the sun side! Don’t do that.
If this is wrong please move it to the right place. Have to say I found the testing thread months ago – and couldn’t figure out how to find it again! Someone on another forum gave me the link
June 5, 2013 at 8:38 pm #1175062Most of the paints I have tested remain lightfast (but many have undergone other changes…I will wait a while and see what happens).
But, Dang, there were two pigments that about knocked me over! Horrific. Schmincke Manganese Violet PV16: All that lovely granulation faded out to white spots…VERY noticeable. Old Holland Mang. Violet PV16 kept some granulation, but the color changed to a dull brownish violet. Ick.
The other color, Opera/Opus has most definitely lost its “glow” the PR122 is still there, but is not as nice as my “regular” PR122!!!! I did expect this.
Except for a few that may go bad (the D/S Duos) all my other colors remain unchanged so far.
When he, the Spirit of truth is come...he will be your Guide... Holy Bible (Old and New Testament)
Under the Concrete are Flowers Yet to be Born...from a Chilean PoemJune 10, 2013 at 1:06 am #1175074June 10, 2013 at 1:57 pm #1175063A Great Disappointment!
Here are the photos. The first line is sun-damaged. Schmincke is No. 24, Old Holland is No. 23.
Margarete
When he, the Spirit of truth is come...he will be your Guide... Holy Bible (Old and New Testament)
Under the Concrete are Flowers Yet to be Born...from a Chilean Poem -
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