After picking up a cheap bottle of Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus liquid watercolour from my local art shop a few months ago, I spent a while looking for a place to use it. I found my excuse in a painting of a friend’s dog – a beautiful black and orange pup who’s portrait was crying out a strong base colour.
I’m not normally a watercolourist, but the colour of this paint is just ridiculous (I thought the Brilliant Cad Red I bought was a neon orange when I first saw it) and I’m such a sucker for vibrant colours it was inevitable that I bought more.
Set two of Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus Fine Art Watercolour contains:
- Hansa Deep Yellow
- Yellow Ochre
- Permanent Red
- Cobalt Blue
- Indian Red
- Viridian Green
- Burnt Sienna
- Alizarin Crimson
- Sepia
- Payne’s Gray
- Sap Green
- Burnt Umber
Add to that the bottle I already had, and the result is a very generous
spread of colour. I’ll probably add a colour here and there as I go on
(I’m already eyeing up a more brilliant yellow and a second blue) but
I’ve got plenty to be getting on with.
The paint is amazing; I think I’m in love.
Being pre-mixed, it skips the frustrating “not quite enough pigment, not quite enough water” balancing act I struggle with when I use pan paints, and it blends beautifully – perhaps because the increased liquid content stops it drying too quickly and forming hard edges.
When it is dry, it layers nicely and the previous washes seem to resist being picked up by subsequent layers. We’re going to make some beautiful paintings together, I can tell already.