CORRECTION: At 11:50, I incorrectly say that it is Mission Gold's Dioxazine Violet, but it is actually their Bright Clear Violet. Thanks to Kimberly Crick for catching that!
I am so glad you included the Koi Watercolor set and the Van Gough set. I am just starting out with watercolors and these are my main palettes so far. (Well actually I have the Van Gough metallic set).
Fascinating test results; it's reassuring that most of the paints have held up really well. I find if they're going to fade, it often happens pretty quickly. You should see the Dylusions ink spays I'm testing. Bubblegum pink had practically disappeared within two weeks! 😂
Thank you so much for the hard work on swatching and testing all these. I really appreciate seeing your results, it helps me verify some timings I see in a more sunny area. I have a question though - at 11:50 regarding the Mission Gold test, you say this is dioxazine purple (pv23), but is it actually the "bright clear violet" color? Checking because usually only really poor quality versions of PV23 with fillers fade. M.Gold's Bright Clear Violet is a mixture of PV3:1-Methyl Violet PR122-Quinacridone Magenta PB29-Ultramarine.... The PV3 being quite fugitive and often used as a filler in designers or student brands for added vibrancy. I appreciate you checking and we all value you taking the time to do these, especially in this super busy time of year. Happy holidays :)
Ah, you're welcome and thank you for checking over the results, because you are absolutely correct. I went and re-checked my swatch sheet and tube of paint and it is the Bright Clear Violet, NOT the Dioxazine Purple. Oh, how I wish we could edit in some things AFTER the video releases. I'll pin a comment to clear that up. Thank you! Happy Holidays!
@@MirandaWatsonArt Thank you so much for checking. You and me both... I have a couple minor slip ups that I keep debating just using the UA-cam editor to actually CUT the 2 seconds out of the video afterwards, even if it creates a weird blip... because of how unkind the comment section can be when us content creators make any mistakes whatsoever. I reallllyyy wish UA-cam made it easier for us to just replace audio on uploaded videos even. Maybe one day :)
Really appreciate all these light fastness tests you are doing. I wonder if the speckling is due to the heat, how the watercolor reacts to the heat? Or maybe the dampness of the windows reactivating it or even ants eating the paper? Could be any or multiple things.
Oh, you've brought up some ideas we didn't think about. I do get flies here pretty often, and sometimes they get between the glass and my sheets. Could be!
I’m very invested in this series now. It’s just so interesting to see which colors hold up, but it also scary because of how expensive many of the paints are! Right now I only own the Senneliers, but I’ll check back with these videos if I ever buy another watercolor set. Seems like most of this batch did well!
I'm really glad I took the time all those months ago to do this experiment. It's really fun to see the results! Sennelier is a great brand; you made a good choice. I can't wait to see all these again in six months!
Quite interesting, especially for pretty excellent, kuretake and Van Gogh sets.We are away for a few days in the north of England were Derwent art materials are made. Keswick is a beautiful town with amazing surroundings of lake and mountains. Have a fantastic week, Miranda.
Oh, I'm so glad you were able to get away for a few days. Will you be visiting the Derwent factory? I'm going to look up Keswick now... Oh, wow. The pictures do make it look stunning. Aren't the lightfast tests for those three brands interesting? I can't wait to see how they do in another six months. Have a great week, Valerie!
That was fascinating to watch. Oh and hi Miranda. The art hoarder in me was drooling over all the paints. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I couldn't find a reason for the spotting on Google. Good luck with your search.
Hi, Diane! I hope you are doing well this holiday season. I also did a super-quick search and found nothing helpful. I do love all the paint, and a good part of it came from art subscription boxes and my own love of paints, lol. I'm sending a package your way - keep on the lookout for it! Still live in the same place? Email me if not.
So interesting, i thought there would be more fading with the reds mainly. At the end I think you said you would see us again in six months, at the end of January, but I think you meant June
Yes, I thought they're would be more fading, too, so this is getting interesting. I have a different brand or two to show you at the end of January, then we'll check back in on these eleven in June.
I love your reviews! I’m waiting for my first palettes to get here. When I am able to use these up, I’m going to use the metal palettes to build my ultimate set. I have a 48 half pan of metallic from artsy and art whale 48 half pan. Ty for being so thorough! I’m making notes so, I will have these later! Tyty ty
Thanks, Teresa; this is really nice to hear. I love that my effort helps you out - and it helps me out as well! I also make notes on them and what to possibly use in a future lightfast-only palette.
Ah, so I guess I have watched this before, but I didn't have Qor at the time and it went by so fast - nothing to criticize! No wonder I didn't remember. I like how you used the tin to make a palette. I poured mine in a Mjello 33 well palette, I love the giant wells for my big brushes.
Ah, okay! Giant wells are so nice, aren't they? I do love my QoR palette, though. The full pans are quite nice. I noticed that my QoR paints are due to come out of the window and be reviewed again soon. I think some have faded in the gradients. We'll see soon, I guess.
Merry Winter solstice! Thank you for your results! Very helpful! I've my results for the Superior 42 Fan Set, the Sennelier I have and Rosa Gallery and I can tell you: for the Superior ones: flesh tone, yellows and oranges are crap ;) Only a red faded! A violet also changed and fade and 3 greens faded as well. BUT, most of reds (3), grey purple, lavender, 4 greens and all blues and earth colours are lightfast! 22 of the 42 watercolurs are lightfast! Hahahha! Sennelier did pretty good, as always :) And in Rosa Gallery only faded madder rose because of the PV 254 fugitive pigment. But the rest is just perfect! Have a nice holidays!
Merry Winter solstice to you as well! I dug out my Superior palette from the giveaway bin and was going to try them out. Fifty percent is actually better than I thought for their lightfastness. Thanks for letting me know! I still need to look into the Rosa Gallery ones; haven't done that yet.
Just guessing: maybe these dots are caused by the fact that one day the window glass "sweated". And in places where the card touched the glass the top coat of paint dissolved in the moisture.
Silly that I never thought of that. That's a distinct possibility as my windows aren't that great... Also, I'm going to ask Kimberly Crick and see if she's ever run across this before...
@@MirandaWatsonArt Yes I have, over the past couple years I've started taping my lightfast test strips onto a big piece of cardboard. Then I put a spacer between the panel and the window (I tape a domino game tile to the edges of the cardboard, creating over half an inch of air space). That way when I tape my testing board to the window, if the window ever gets condensation it doesn't directly touch the colors. Part of the issue I think I'm seeing here is that Pretty Excellent in particular have a greater amount of sticky binder causing the saturated darker areas of color to be sitting further up on the paper surface. I'm not seeing a lot of spotting in lighter washes or when the paint was likely mixed well with water to break down binder, allowing the colors to be soaked into the paper. So if there's a thick layer of paint on top it's probably a lot more sensitive to window moisture. I don't have to deal with this issue so much down here in sunny Florida, but when I used to live in Michigan I had the same thing happen in winter when it was much warmer inside the house.
Ah, okay, thank you so much for chiming in! I'll try and re-do all my swatch sheets in the window after Christmas and get some space between them and the glass. Hopefully that helps! It also makes sense about the binder being mixed in really well, and yes, almost all of the dots are in the darkest sections of paint, and only on what I consider the "cheaper" brands of watercolors. Thanks, Kimberly; I appreciate it!
Did you use the same paper for all the swatches and if so what was it? If you did maybe take some of those "spotting" colors and test them on a different paper?
Hi, Rayne. I did use all the same paper for these swatches. It is the Bee 100% cotton, 140-lb. paper. I was curious if it would happen on different paper. So far, the consensus with everyone is that is condensation from touching the window. Kimberly Crick gave me an idea for placing them in the window but without touching it that I'll be trying shortly.
@@MirandaWatsonArt Ahh, I see. I just didn't see it coming from the paints and thought it had to be something else causing it. They are probably spot on with the condensation though.
Nice to see so many tests at once! Mei Liang Pretty Excellent looks very good for an inexpensive set of paints. This reminded me to check a couple of tests I have in the window - my Mijello Dioxazine Violet is sitting rock steady at 6 months. I’ve read that pigment can be very batch dependent. I’ve also heard several professional artists say that WN Opera Rose holds up better than any other brand. I think they use less brighteners, so when those fade, you’ve still got a lot of the PR122 pigment left. I wonder about that spotting. I thought maybe some bad sizing on the paper,, but if that was the case it would cross over the colors. The spotting looks like it is confined to individual colors, which indicates it is some sort of chemical reaction. What kind of water do you use?
I couldn't believe when I went to take these out of the window that there were 11 brands put in all at once, lol! I thought it might end up being a very long video. That's very interesting about your Dioxazine Violet, and you must be right about the batches being slightly different since mine is definitely faded. I'm still awed by that W&N Opera Rose! I was wondering if the spotting might be a problem with the paper, too, but I'm not really sure. I definitely need to look into it more and ask around. To answer about what water I use, it's my tap water, which is sulfur-heavy.
Is it possible that a tiny bit of window cleaner debris could be on your window? Does the paint actually touch the glass? It looks like slight humidity or dust could cause that on the painted surface. I have never seen that affect before in my life from just light exposure itself.
Yes, that's entirely possible and seems to be the general consensus so far. Well, condensation is the general consensus. The window cleaner is a good thought, though, and very likely. I'll be moving the swatches away from the glass in the next few weeks.
It always looks different on camera than in-person. What I say on the video is definitely what I see in-person, but the colors do look quote a bit different when I watch it back through the camera. One of the fallacies of video, I'm afraid.
I know, I keep seeing previews for them, but then YT won't let me see them. It says "Comment no longer available," and it didn't even show up in my "Held For Review" area. I was about to email you to let you know. How frustrating!
It seems to me that the problem with the spotting is condensation on the window (misting the paper and making the paint bead together), and not a lightfast problem.
Yes, you and a few others have brought this up, and it's so possible in my house considering my windows are of a very low quality. I've noticed beading in my bedroom, but never here in the art room, but I also don't stare at my windows 24 hours a day, lol! I do hope that's what it is and not the paint itself.
CORRECTION: At 11:50, I incorrectly say that it is Mission Gold's Dioxazine Violet, but it is actually their Bright Clear Violet. Thanks to Kimberly Crick for catching that!
I am so glad you included the Koi Watercolor set and the Van Gough set. I am just starting out with watercolors and these are my main palettes so far. (Well actually I have the Van Gough metallic set).
Oh good! They are fun sets to start with for sure - especially the VanGogh.
The opening shot of all those palettes makes the art hoarder in me get starry-eyed lol. Thanks for such a thorough test!
Oh yes, I LOVE opening my palette drawer. That's happiness right there, lol!
Fascinating test results; it's reassuring that most of the paints have held up really well. I find if they're going to fade, it often happens pretty quickly. You should see the Dylusions ink spays I'm testing. Bubblegum pink had practically disappeared within two weeks! 😂
In two weeks? Oh my goodness! I should get out all my Marabu Graphix inks and test them. Now I'm really curious!
Thank you so much for the hard work on swatching and testing all these. I really appreciate seeing your results, it helps me verify some timings I see in a more sunny area. I have a question though - at 11:50 regarding the Mission Gold test, you say this is dioxazine purple (pv23), but is it actually the "bright clear violet" color? Checking because usually only really poor quality versions of PV23 with fillers fade. M.Gold's Bright Clear Violet is a mixture of PV3:1-Methyl Violet PR122-Quinacridone Magenta PB29-Ultramarine.... The PV3 being quite fugitive and often used as a filler in designers or student brands for added vibrancy. I appreciate you checking and we all value you taking the time to do these, especially in this super busy time of year. Happy holidays :)
Ah, you're welcome and thank you for checking over the results, because you are absolutely correct. I went and re-checked my swatch sheet and tube of paint and it is the Bright Clear Violet, NOT the Dioxazine Purple. Oh, how I wish we could edit in some things AFTER the video releases. I'll pin a comment to clear that up. Thank you! Happy Holidays!
@@MirandaWatsonArt Thank you so much for checking. You and me both... I have a couple minor slip ups that I keep debating just using the UA-cam editor to actually CUT the 2 seconds out of the video afterwards, even if it creates a weird blip... because of how unkind the comment section can be when us content creators make any mistakes whatsoever. I reallllyyy wish UA-cam made it easier for us to just replace audio on uploaded videos even. Maybe one day :)
Really appreciate all these light fastness tests you are doing. I wonder if the speckling is due to the heat, how the watercolor reacts to the heat? Or maybe the dampness of the windows reactivating it or even ants eating the paper? Could be any or multiple things.
Oh, you've brought up some ideas we didn't think about. I do get flies here pretty often, and sometimes they get between the glass and my sheets. Could be!
I’m very invested in this series now. It’s just so interesting to see which colors hold up, but it also scary because of how expensive many of the paints are! Right now I only own the Senneliers, but I’ll check back with these videos if I ever buy another watercolor set. Seems like most of this batch did well!
I'm really glad I took the time all those months ago to do this experiment. It's really fun to see the results! Sennelier is a great brand; you made a good choice. I can't wait to see all these again in six months!
Thank you for doing this. I wish you a very merry Christmas. Hope to see a lot more next year.
Of course, Xargot; thanks for stopping by and watching. Merry Christmas!
This is great! Thank you so much. I am looking forward the next 6 months :-)
Me, too! I always love pulling them out of the window and comparing them to the drawer swatches. It's intriguing. Thank you. :-)
Quite interesting, especially for pretty excellent, kuretake and Van Gogh sets.We are away for a few days in the north of England were Derwent art materials are made. Keswick is a beautiful town with amazing surroundings of lake and mountains. Have a fantastic week, Miranda.
Oh, I'm so glad you were able to get away for a few days. Will you be visiting the Derwent factory? I'm going to look up Keswick now... Oh, wow. The pictures do make it look stunning. Aren't the lightfast tests for those three brands interesting? I can't wait to see how they do in another six months. Have a great week, Valerie!
That was fascinating to watch. Oh and hi Miranda. The art hoarder in me was drooling over all the paints. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I couldn't find a reason for the spotting on Google. Good luck with your search.
Hi, Diane! I hope you are doing well this holiday season. I also did a super-quick search and found nothing helpful. I do love all the paint, and a good part of it came from art subscription boxes and my own love of paints, lol. I'm sending a package your way - keep on the lookout for it! Still live in the same place? Email me if not.
This was great to see, I'm so impressed how many did great.
Thanks, Naomi. I'm in pressed with a few of those brands as well. Can't wait to see the next update!
Yay QOR! Ty for this.
Right? Gotta love QoR. :-)
So interesting, i thought there would be more fading with the reds mainly. At the end I think you said you would see us again in six months, at the end of January, but I think you meant June
Yes, I thought they're would be more fading, too, so this is getting interesting. I have a different brand or two to show you at the end of January, then we'll check back in on these eleven in June.
@@MirandaWatsonArt oh a different brand, ok my mistake
Fantastic rundown. Thanks for putting in the time and effort on these tests. It's much appreciated!
Thanks, Irene. It's my pleasure to do them because it appeases my ever-curious nature. :-)
I love your reviews! I’m waiting for my first palettes to get here. When I am able to use these up, I’m going to use the metal palettes to build my ultimate set. I have a 48 half pan of metallic from artsy and art whale 48 half pan. Ty for being so thorough! I’m making notes so, I will have these later! Tyty ty
Thanks, Teresa; this is really nice to hear. I love that my effort helps you out - and it helps me out as well! I also make notes on them and what to possibly use in a future lightfast-only palette.
Thank you 💕 very helpful 🥰
So glad!
Great job, Professor Watson.
Lol, thanks, George. :-D
I’m impressed with Pretty Excellent.
I’m shocked at the WnN Opera Rose too.
Yes, they have done remarkably well. It'll be fun to see how they keep doing...
Ah, so I guess I have watched this before, but I didn't have Qor at the time and it went by so fast - nothing to criticize! No wonder I didn't remember. I like how you used the tin to make a palette. I poured mine in a Mjello 33 well palette, I love the giant wells for my big brushes.
Ah, okay! Giant wells are so nice, aren't they? I do love my QoR palette, though. The full pans are quite nice. I noticed that my QoR paints are due to come out of the window and be reviewed again soon. I think some have faded in the gradients. We'll see soon, I guess.
@@MirandaWatsonArt I'll be clicking on that one as soon as I see it!!!
Such a great video. Thank you for sharing! 💙
Thanks, Nadeane!
Merry Winter solstice! Thank you for your results! Very helpful! I've my results for the Superior 42 Fan Set, the Sennelier I have and Rosa Gallery and I can tell you: for the Superior ones: flesh tone, yellows and oranges are crap ;) Only a red faded! A violet also changed and fade and 3 greens faded as well. BUT, most of reds (3), grey purple, lavender, 4 greens and all blues and earth colours are lightfast! 22 of the 42 watercolurs are lightfast! Hahahha! Sennelier did pretty good, as always :) And in Rosa Gallery only faded madder rose because of the PV 254 fugitive pigment. But the rest is just perfect! Have a nice holidays!
Merry Winter solstice to you as well! I dug out my Superior palette from the giveaway bin and was going to try them out. Fifty percent is actually better than I thought for their lightfastness. Thanks for letting me know! I still need to look into the Rosa Gallery ones; haven't done that yet.
thank you very much!
You're welcome!
I'm still sqeezing some reeves tubes that I've had for over 10 years, someday I'll invest in more paint, I like those Q colors and the van goughs.😀
Paint last a really long time, doesn't it? My Himi Miya experiment is a good example of that. Definitely try something other than Reeves next time!
Just guessing: maybe these dots are caused by the fact that one day the window glass "sweated". And in places where the card touched the glass the top coat of paint dissolved in the moisture.
That's my best guess too. It "smells" like a trapped moisture issue to me too; I don't think it's a result of light.
Silly that I never thought of that. That's a distinct possibility as my windows aren't that great... Also, I'm going to ask Kimberly Crick and see if she's ever run across this before...
@@MirandaWatsonArt Yes I have, over the past couple years I've started taping my lightfast test strips onto a big piece of cardboard. Then I put a spacer between the panel and the window (I tape a domino game tile to the edges of the cardboard, creating over half an inch of air space). That way when I tape my testing board to the window, if the window ever gets condensation it doesn't directly touch the colors.
Part of the issue I think I'm seeing here is that Pretty Excellent in particular have a greater amount of sticky binder causing the saturated darker areas of color to be sitting further up on the paper surface. I'm not seeing a lot of spotting in lighter washes or when the paint was likely mixed well with water to break down binder, allowing the colors to be soaked into the paper. So if there's a thick layer of paint on top it's probably a lot more sensitive to window moisture. I don't have to deal with this issue so much down here in sunny Florida, but when I used to live in Michigan I had the same thing happen in winter when it was much warmer inside the house.
Ah, okay, thank you so much for chiming in! I'll try and re-do all my swatch sheets in the window after Christmas and get some space between them and the glass. Hopefully that helps! It also makes sense about the binder being mixed in really well, and yes, almost all of the dots are in the darkest sections of paint, and only on what I consider the "cheaper" brands of watercolors. Thanks, Kimberly; I appreciate it!
Did you use the same paper for all the swatches and if so what was it? If you did maybe take some of those "spotting" colors and test them on a different paper?
Hi, Rayne. I did use all the same paper for these swatches. It is the Bee 100% cotton, 140-lb. paper. I was curious if it would happen on different paper. So far, the consensus with everyone is that is condensation from touching the window. Kimberly Crick gave me an idea for placing them in the window but without touching it that I'll be trying shortly.
@@MirandaWatsonArt Ahh, I see. I just didn't see it coming from the paints and thought it had to be something else causing it. They are probably spot on with the condensation though.
Nice to see so many tests at once! Mei Liang Pretty Excellent looks very good for an inexpensive set of paints. This reminded me to check a couple of tests I have in the window - my Mijello Dioxazine Violet is sitting rock steady at 6 months. I’ve read that pigment can be very batch dependent. I’ve also heard several professional artists say that WN Opera Rose holds up better than any other brand. I think they use less brighteners, so when those fade, you’ve still got a lot of the PR122 pigment left. I wonder about that spotting. I thought maybe some bad sizing on the paper,, but if that was the case it would cross over the colors. The spotting looks like it is confined to individual colors, which indicates it is some sort of chemical reaction. What kind of water do you use?
I couldn't believe when I went to take these out of the window that there were 11 brands put in all at once, lol! I thought it might end up being a very long video. That's very interesting about your Dioxazine Violet, and you must be right about the batches being slightly different since mine is definitely faded. I'm still awed by that W&N Opera Rose! I was wondering if the spotting might be a problem with the paper, too, but I'm not really sure. I definitely need to look into it more and ask around. To answer about what water I use, it's my tap water, which is sulfur-heavy.
Is it possible that a tiny bit of window cleaner debris could be on your window? Does the paint actually touch the glass? It looks like slight humidity or dust could cause that on the painted surface. I have never seen that affect before in my life from just light exposure itself.
Yes, that's entirely possible and seems to be the general consensus so far. Well, condensation is the general consensus. The window cleaner is a good thought, though, and very likely. I'll be moving the swatches away from the glass in the next few weeks.
i think those spots are stains made by the oil from your hand or oil bleeding from the marker? i don't know 🤷♀
Possibly
mission gold indigo has PB27 prussian blue in it, so that'd be why it faded.
Got it.
Van Gogh supposed to be lightfast for a 100 years under museum circumstances. 😎
That's awesome about their lightfastness considering they are student-grade paints. I love it!
You may need glasses for not noticing all the fading and color shifting
It always looks different on camera than in-person. What I say on the video is definitely what I see in-person, but the colors do look quote a bit different when I watch it back through the camera. One of the fallacies of video, I'm afraid.
I've made 2 comments & they've both disappeared.
I know, I keep seeing previews for them, but then YT won't let me see them. It says "Comment no longer available," and it didn't even show up in my "Held For Review" area. I was about to email you to let you know. How frustrating!
@@MirandaWatsonArt Just said glad to see my Van Gogh is holding up. Checking Google total wash for the white spots. Maybe we should ask Kim Crick.😁
Yeah, she thinks it's the window condensation.
@@MirandaWatsonArt Good to know.
It seems to me that the problem with the spotting is condensation on the window (misting the paper and making the paint bead together), and not a lightfast problem.
Yes, you and a few others have brought this up, and it's so possible in my house considering my windows are of a very low quality. I've noticed beading in my bedroom, but never here in the art room, but I also don't stare at my windows 24 hours a day, lol! I do hope that's what it is and not the paint itself.