I spent a stupid amount of yesterday making a chart. Six yellows, same brand, from the pale lemon up to the mars, each one spread with a knife on a piece of primed linen and left to dry so I could see what they do with the varnish on.

By the evening four of them looked identical. Two I'll use until I die. Voilà, that's my Sunday.

The real reason is I had a student who asked me why I don't use the lemon yellow for skin, and I started to explain and heard myself not being very clear. So I had to actually look. What I found is that the cheap yellow ochre in the middle of the range is perfectly good and I've been buying the expensive one for years out of habit. That is annoying. Ten years of loyalty to a tube that costs twice what it should because I liked the label.

I don't think I'll switch. I know how the expensive one behaves, and that is worth the money to me even if it's not worth it to anyone else. But I wanted to say it out loud somewhere.