Cadmium Red Mediums vs. Cadmium Red Lights- Premium Oil Paints

What's the difference between Cadmium Red Medium and Cadmium Red Light?

Does it really matter which brand you buy?

And are all Cadmium Red Mediums the same?

All this and more!

Cadmium Red Light and Cadmium Red Medium

A fiery lineup of tones fitted for painting a bowl-full of hot peppers or ripe summer tomatoes, these are integral reds to many mixes on the palette. These lightfast, opaque, and super highly-pigmented red paints are just what's needed for sunsets, gleaming apples, and even the delicate touches of blush for a variety of skin tones. This standout pigment, PR108, has good lightfastness (though not weatherfastness) and ranges in color. This pigment can be formulated to be a deep cherry red, a bright middle red, or the red-orange flash of a fresh bowl of salsa. Many super-high-chroma reds and red-oranges can be found among these reliable paints.

Here we take a look at some of the world's finest Cadmium Red Mediums and Cadmium Red lights. All of these are strong tinters when mixed with white, and we'll explore their differences in hue, handling, and color temperature.

A painted panel showing six different red paints mixed with Titanium White

Cadmium Red Mediums and Cadmium Red Lights in a Variety of Brands

Helpful to Have A Broad Range of High-Chroma Hues

High Chroma at Different Notes

With cadmiums, each brand chooses different points in the color spectrum at which to produce their paints. This means that one can find variations available in one brand that are not available in another. For beginners we advise choosing just one or two to learn how they work. However for more advanced artists, depending on one’s art practice, a professional may find a wide array of cadmiums very useful. Brands name their cadmiums differently (one brand's Medium might be another brand's Deep), which is where color comparisons can be helpful. In addition to differences in hue there are also differences in handling.

The wide array of colors in this space can be sorted out visually. However some generalizations can be made with the names. The Cadmium Red Lights are a kind of red that is just a bit closer to Cadmium Orange than Cadmium Red Medium and Cadmium Red Deep, which range from a middle red to a deep cherry red. Beyond the Cadmium Red Deeps one finds Cadmium Maroons. If you like to be specific (which we do), Munsell notes can be found at the end of the article.

Three panels show a comparison of Cadmium Red Lights vs. Cadmium Red Mediums in oil paint.

Cadmium Red Medium, Light, and Cadmium Orange compared. The featured panel of Cadmium Reds is at the bottom for comparison.

Groupings Within Cadmiums

Some Cadmium Red Lights Lean Oranger

Sometimes in the gradient of cadmiums there are big gaps between hues. Here, in the reds, there are a lot of options from various brands, and this makes a nice smooth gradient of colors. In other words, the internal categories between the pigments themselves was less obvious. Even so, we noticed two main categories of Cadmium Reds, those which were redder leaning vs. oranger leaning, and an in-between color, which was the Rublev.

The paints we're focusing on in this article are shown on the middle panel. They share a somewhat similar hue space as the paints to the right (which were from RGH, Gamblin, and Winsor and Newton).

The featured panel is the one in the middle. The panel on the left has cooler Cadmium Reds in premium brands, and that panel is discussed in our article on Cadmium Red Mediums and Deeps.

Paint Swatches of Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Red Light, and Cadmium Oranges.

Cadmium Red Medium vs Cadmium Red Light vs. Cadmium Orange. Three panels of painted swatches show the differences between these colors of oil paint across brands. This picture shows a few panels which are not discussed here, and yet we thought it would be helpful to show the colors in context. The panel in the middle is the featured panel. Context for Cadmiums: The featured panel is the one in the middle.

Two groups of Cadmium Red Light- Slightly Redder

Cadmium Red Light Seems to Come in Two Categories

Williamsburg Cadmium Red Medium and the Old Holland Cadmium Red Light were among the redder hues in this grouping. There are definitely colors which are redder still, meaning a bit cooler and further from orange. To contextualize these paints, these two paints are oranger than a few colors (not shown here), namely Old Holland Cadmium Red Medium (Vermillioned) and Michael Harding Cadmium Red, as well as many other Cadmium Red Mediums and Deeps, which are cooler than these. So for clarity, even though Old Holland's Cadmium Red Light is named "light" it has more of a middle red look to it and it isn't as orangey as some other colors by the same name.

An In-between Color

As we often find, there are clusters of cadmium colors and then a color or two in a given brand that bridges the two groups-- an in-between color. Rublev Cadmium Red Light falls between the two sets of paints. More on this hue below.

Colors Cadmium Red for Comparison across brands- swatches of cadmium red paint mixed with white to show color temperature

Predmium Cadmium Red Lights (and a Cadmium Red Medium for context)

Featured Paints that Lean Cooler

Two paints on the panel that leaned cooler/redder

The Second Group of Cadmium Red Lights - Slightly Oranger

Some Cadmium Red Lights Lean Oranger- Moreso Than the Ones on this Panel

The oranger Cadmium Red Lights on this panel include Michael Harding Cadmium Red Light, Vasari Cadmium Red Light, and Schmincke Norma Cadmium Red Light. For context, there are Cadmium Red Lights that go oranger still which are not shown here.

For the orangest among the Cadmium Red Lights we've tested (not shown here), we have another article on Cadmium Red Lights and Cadmium Oranges.

Two panels that display the cadmium red light colors in context with deeper hues from cadmium red mediums and deeps.

The top panel is cooler reds, explored in another article, and the bottom panel shows the featured paints. Cadmium Red Lights get even oranger than the ones shown here.

Featured Paints that Lean Oranger

Bear in mind there are Cadmium Red Lights that go oranger than these!

Premium Brands with High Tinting Strength

The paints tested here are all from premium brands, and as expected the pigment ratios are powerfully strong. Swatches of 1:1 paint and Williamsburg Titanium White are swatched on the third row. All the paints sampled had high tinting strength with Old Holland Cadmium Red Light predictably being the strongest. The brands with slightly less tinging strength were Michael Harding Cadmium Red Light, Vasari Cadmium Red Light, and Schmincke Norma Cadmium Red Light, with the Harding bringing up the rear. However all of these paints packed respectable punches.

Cadmium Red Light and Cadmium Red Medium Comparison. Brands of paint include Williamsburg, Old Holland, Rublev, Michael Harding, Vasari, and Schmincke Norma

All the premium cadmiums are strong tinters. In the back is the Cadmium Red Medium and Deep panel, while the panel in the foreground is Cadmium Red Light

The Strongest Tinter on the Panel

Old Holland Cadmium Red Light was incredibly strong and also had a fascinating chroma.

All of the colors were good tinters

The rest of the colors were all strong tinters. The Rublev and Williamsburg had a slight advantage

Differences in Handling

Paints Varied by Hue and Also by Feel

The handling of these paints varied considerably. Old Holland was stiff, Michael Harding and Williamsburg are generally softer than Old Holland but still impasto, and Vasari, Rublev, and Schmincke Norma were more gliding paints. Vasari and Rublev tend to be the loosest.

A panel of cadmium red light paints tinted with Titanium White

Closeup of Cadmium Red Lights

Stiffest Impasto Paint on the Panel

These are the stiffer colors right out of the tube

Soft Impasto Paints on the Panel

These have a soft impasto and are easily workable

More Gliding/Flowing Paints on the Panel

These paints are notable for having glide, and are quite smooth in consistency. It was a tossup as to whether to include the Schmincke in this category, but overall it has glide.

Munsell Notes

A Few Brief Notes on Hue

The redder set of these colors on the featured panel (the one in the foreground) is closer to 6.25R 4/14, while the oranger set is closer to 7.5R 4/16, though the chroma is much higher than the chips in the Munsell color atlas.

Three panels showing swatches of cadmium red light. The panels show similarities between premium and mid-tier brands in hue, as well as a panel of much cooler cadmium reds in the background for comparison.

Our featured panel in the foreground with some similar colors in mid-tier brands on the middle panel.

In hue, these colors displayed two main groupings with a color to bridge the gap. The redder paints were Williamsburg Cadmium Red Medium and Old Holland Cadmium Red Light. Rublev bridged the two groups. The more red-orange group included Michael Harding Cadmium Red Light, Vasari Cadmium Red Light, and Schmincke Norma Cadmium Red light. These colors varied in consistency with Old Holland being stiffer impasto, followed by Williamsburg and Michael Harding, which were softer. The most flowing colors included Rublev, Vasari, and Schmincke Norma. Please bear in mind that the binding oils of the Schmincke Norma are not precisely known.