OH NO, James why do you do this, now I really want to buy these paints!! You know I love vibrant colours!! Definitely would love to hear an update about the lightfastness when you get around to it! And of course as I said on IG I absolutely love this piece, these colours are right up my alley and you did such a great job with jumping out of your comfort zone!

Okay, I'm going to attempt to explain the little I know about the differences between coloured inks and watercolours, with a chemistry twist on things 😅 Some terminology to start: Pigment-based paints. Traditional watercolours are pigment-based, so when you add water, the pigment and binder are suspended in the water, meaning the particles remain solid and are surrounded by liquid, like vegetable chunks in soup. When you put down the paint, the pigment sits on top of the paper and once the water evaporates, the binder makes the pigment stick. This is called a surface stain: no chemical reactions. When you add another layer of paint, you're just adding more pigment particles, making the pigment more concentrated. This is why watercolours can lift-adding more water can move the pigment particles around again if there's not enough binder. Some coloured inks are pigment-based, though I suspect with much smaller pigment particles. Thus, when you apply the ink to paper, the pigment particles are small enough to get between fibers and into all the nooks and crannies of the paper. The water evaporates, and voilà, you’ve got pigment particles stuck in tiny gaps in the fibres that can’t be loosened by water. This is why those inks are harder to lift, and also possibly why (for me at least) inks tend to stain through the back of the paper more than watercolour. I suspect that liquid watercolours fall into this category, but not sure. The reason why layering won’t work as well is because you don’t get to choose the maximum concentration of your ink/liquid watercolour. With traditional watercolours, you can add as little water as you want and get a very high concentration of paint (i.e. paint-to-water ratio). Put brush to paper and by diffusion (particles moving within a fluid from high-concentration to low-concentration areas), the paint will migrate from your brush to the now-wet part of the paper. This is why a clean, wet brush lifts paint that’s sitting on the page surface and not stuck down by the binder-the brush has a 0% concentration of paint, so the paint moves from paper to brush. Inks have a maximum pigment-to-liquid concentration, though, since they’re already liquid. Unless you leave your inks out to evaporate, which would make them more concentrated, but since nobody does that, we have our max concentration pre-set. If you dilute your inks a lot to start with and use a more concentrated mixture each time, you can happily layer them to your heart’s content. But if the ink's not that diluted, then the ink on your brush has about the same concentration as the ink on the paper, and the ink on the brush doesn’t go anywhere. Dye-based inks are totally different-they have the pigment dissolved in solution. This is like adding sugar to a glass of water and stirring; the sugar dissolves and isn't solid anymore. Most dye-based inks are alcohol-based, though there are some dye-based India inks, too (Winsor & Newton’s Drawing Inks come to mind). These ink solutions create a chemical stain, meaning the ink has an irreversible chemical reaction with the paper. Considering there’s only so much paper surface that can be reacted with, I’d expect this is why layering doesn’t work after a while. The waterproofness of these inks is absolute, but they have the drawback of not being lightfast (apparently, UV can reverse the reaction?). Side note: Inks can be both dye- and pigment-based, so they may hold properties of both. And _wow_, that was a really long explanation 😅 Well, I hope this was interesting for you to read anyway! Beautiful video, as always!! ❤

I own all the 3 sets of Dr Ph Martin's Hydrus watercolors, and have been using them since the last 3 years. I just want to let you know they are extremely lightfast and they don't fade whatsoever. This brand is my go to watercolour inks! I just love them!! Yes they do come with a paynes' grey included in set 2. You can buy individual colors online or in your local store. I am glad you enjoyed these paints.

Look at the paints ruuuuun! I love how you used the gradient in the painting, it looks so good and you've had me contemplating those brushes for months!

This is the type of sponsored content I like 🙌🙌 still genuine

Thank you so much for taking the time to review these! I have been curious about them for a long time :) .

They look good and seems quite interesting! I don't think I have ever seen liquid watercolours. :3

I've started to use liquid watercolous last week and really find it really easy to use it. And today I discover you review this kind of watercolour :D

🖤🖤🖤🖤 you go James!!! I’m so glad 🖤🖤 but stop making me want to shop 😂

Ooooooooooo!!! I think I may have to try these!😁😍

GWASH!!! 😂😂😂😂I used my Betties today during your livestream - they are nice brushes! (And yeah, so pretty!) Oh and your stars and dots - just what I've tired to do tonight too, and I haven't even seen this vid until now. I wasn't copying you, honest. 😁

The PH Martin’s Hydrus are lightfast, it’s the PH Martin’s radiant watercolour inks that are not, and some people confuse the two. The lightfast is listed on the bottle and the packaging. If you give them a shake you will get less separation. You can purchase single bottles of all colours including payne’s grey. They are great paints 🙂

I got the pink one and then realised they’re not lightfast, so I didn’t buy anymore. Hope you do the lightfast test as they are fun to play with hey x

they look great for sure but they don't provide info about animal ingredients or not and that's for me a must to know. Great review 👍 I could see very well how the liquid watercolours preformed on the paper. beautiful flow of the pigments. makes me think they maybe used oxgal in the formula.

Hi! Love the video and the art is amazing. I think the link you put for the paint brushes is the wrong one? It’s been taking me to a affiliate portal not a product? Thought I’d let you know! Also I’ve been really curious about these paints and this video is really informative! It’s become even more tempting to get a small set now 😂💜

I’ve had my eye on those brushes for a while. All reviews describe them as “soft” but I like my brushes to have a bit of bounce or snap back. Does anyone know if that applies to these?

I´m looking for a water based ink/watercolor that let me paint even textures easy, with strong pigmentation and a good layering capability, i´m doubting between these pr the Ecoline, but i´ve heard that Ecoline can be hard to layer, i´ll be deciding one of these probabily.

Can they reactivate once dried?