Find Your New Favorite Paints

We made a tool to help you search for paints across brands. This helps to discover new paint colors and broaden your painting horizons. You can also save your favorites to come back to later and build your own paint box with your favorite paints.

To get started, from the home page, just select your medium, and type in a paint name or a pigment code to search for paint across brands.

Search by Paint Name We recommend starting out with a paint you already know like Ultramarine Blue. From here you can explore the various paints that offer Ultramarine Blue across brands, and filter with various criteria.

Search by Brand You can also try typing a brand name to see the paints in a given paint line.

Search by Pigment Code Also known as a Colour Index name, the pigments that give each paint their color should be listed on the paint tube. Searching by Pigment Code is one of the most powerful ways to discover new paints. Try typing in a pigment code (like PB29, the code for Ultramarine Blue). More on this below.

But first, make sure you are searching within your desired paint medium.

The most basic type of search is for a paint name to see some of the options across brands. This will work well for most paint names, but it is even more helpful to search by Pigment Code (a painter's secret superpower, described below).

By typing in the paint name, you can find other tubes with the same name (but not necessarily the same pigments).

The search results show paints named Ultramarine Blue from across multiple brands. By default, single-pigment paints are shown first. Each card represents a paint. Just as a side note, bear in mind that screen colors are approximate and may not represent the actual color of the paint. The colors on the paint cards are from the supplementary materials provided by paintmakers and art supply companies.

While lots of mystery ingredients go into a paint, every painter needs to understand the pigment and the binder

Searching by Colour Index Name or Pigment Code (e.g. PB29) allows you to see all the paints with that color as well as the convenience blends regardless of what the paints were named. As a tip, we recommend omitting the spaces in the code (for example, type PB29 all together, without spaces).

Searching for paint by pigment codes opens up new opportunities for paint discovery. Every reputable paintmaker will publish the pigment codes for the paint on the back of the tube. This is extremely valuable information as there is a ton of information about each pigment code. We have shared excerpts from our own pigment research in the Pigment Notebook on Paint List.

Of the eight tubes matching the name Ultramarine Blue, a glance at the pigment code tells us some useful information. First, seven out of the eight are single-pigment colors. Second, there are no listed white pigments, so these are likely to be deep clear royal blue colors. Second, in the top row, the third tube from the left contains a blend of two pigments, Ultramarine Blue, PB29, and Ultramarine Violet, PV15, which is a related color that leans a bit more toward purple, so that one is likely going to be extra indigo-leaning. Last of all, Blockx has two different ultramarine blues with the same pigment code listed. These likely to be slightly different color variants of PB29.

So, we have selected the paints that include pigment PB29, Ultramarine Blue across brands. Now lets say we just want to see which ones of those are made by Old Holland. On the left, select Old Holland from the search results.

This is super interesting--Old Holland makes not just one but three Ultramarine Blues. Two are single-pigment PB29 paints, and the third is a combination between Ultramarine Blue PB29 and Cobalt Blue. There are also a number of really interesting blends.

However, some of the blends contain zinc.

Let's say that you're like us and don't wish to have zinc white in your paints. There are some companies that don't disclose the zinc (which is really problematic!) as well as ye olde human error (it's possible we could miss one - so do read the pigments), it's really handy.

So, while you'll still need to double-check the results and apply both research and common sense, this toggle will help to quickly remove results that list Zinc Oxide and help to highlight paints that do not have PW4 among their pigments.

When you search paints, the results are shown as Paint Cards.

This paint card shows key information at a glance like the brand, (e.g. Winsor and Newton) and sub-brand/paint line (for example, Winton vs. Artists' Oil Colours), the pigments, and a digital color swatch. Please note: the digital swatch is not representative of the paint.

As a note on the digital color swatches, unfortunately, it's impossible to portray the colors completely accurately for a number of reasons. First, paint is a material. It may look totally different when thinned vs. in masstone (think here Phthalos). Second, several important colors are out of gamut (here we have the cadmium yellow lights, ultramarine, and the blue-greens). Third, every display is different. So even when we color correct something it will look different from one screen to another.

The color swatches are not a reliable indicator of a paint's color. This lack of color correspondence is true for many reasons that go beyond the scope of this quick start guide. For now, don't trust the digital swatch (or any other online color approximations of paints for that matter)!

Have you ever had a favorite paint get discontinued, only to completely disappear from Blick and Jerry's without a trace? We hate it when that happens, and it was that experience that inspired us to make a place for every paint, regardless of its economic viability. As painters, we form relationships with our paints-- after all, they are with us every day in the studio. We get to know them. So, whether a paint is current or historical, our mission is to give every paint a place to live on the internet.

The pages are a constant work-in-progress. For some we have photos, reviews, and robust information. Other pages are waiting for more. Either way we will post information from the manufacturer and resources on where to begin looking if you'd like to acquire that particular color.

Also, every paint page has a heart at the top right where you can save that paint to your paintbox.

Lightfastness Rating

This is information from the brand, and it varies a lot. Basically lightfastness describes how well the paint is expected to hold up to light exposure over time. However, this may be a less reliable rating than once was thought.

A whole new lightfastness standard is being proposed because it turns out that lightfastness may have some complexity to it. Depending which mixing white is used, the lightfastness of certain pigments in oils appears to vary.

One of the reasons we made Paint List is to raise awareness of this issue for painters. More on this elsewhere on the site, but just know that the very best measure of lightfastness are the tests you do yourself.

Brand lightfastness schemas differ (sometimes a 1 is high, sometimes it's low) and so in the future we will be adding some additional information explaining each schema. ASTM I is considered excellent, however that is still a fairly wide category.

For some paints, we have videos that feature that specific tube or color. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel @thepaintlist for cross-brand reviews and spotlights on certain paint colors.

We also keep our eyes open for videos made about a certain color, and if a manufacturer has a video specifically tailored to a given color we may feature it on the Paint Page. If there is a video associated with a color, you'll find the video at the bottom of the page.

In our reviews you'll often see the same arrangements of test swatches. To make these reviews, we've selected paints that we've purchased and used ourselves. We've selected a handful of colors which all have similar names or similar pigments. Here's a brief tour showing how the panels are arranged.

At the top is row 1: This area shows what the paint looks like thinned.

Since we operate a solvent-free studio, we show what the paint looks like when it's been diluted with a bit of Rublev Oleogel. We find this to be a great way to show the glazing properties of a paint as it just loosens up the paint in masstone a bit.

Row 2 from the top: This shows the paint in masstone at full strength.

The paint has been applied with a palette knife on panel.

Row 3: This section is an exploration of a paint's tinting strength. The semi-circle area shows the color mixed 50/50 with Titanium White. This is the "C" shaped area. For consistency, we use the same white for all of our mixes- Williamsburg's Titanium White PW6 in Linseed Oil.

The rest of the panel explores properties of hue and color character when mixed with Titanium White. The rest of row 2 explores what the color looks like with just a bit of white- with varying amounts in each column to reach roughly similar values. The quantity/ratio of color to white needed to achieve a somewhat visually similar value varies, however here were are exploring undertone. Rows 3-5 explore this with greater additions of white.

Rows 3 and 4: Comparisons and hue exploration

Rows three and four continue the more subjective task of exploring undertone in the paint. Again, the ratios needed of color to white will vary to achieve somewhat similar results.

There are limitations in what can be conveyed through a monitor as the issues of color processing will vary from screen to screen and device to device. For this reason we often provide the nearest Munsell readings for the colors given by a spectrophotometer.

The swatches are painted on Ampersand Gessobord.