Twinkling H2O's - A Short Review

I finally finally received my package of Twinkling H2O's. I had one set from a while ago which I never used, and because I was so fascinated by them, and wanted to find out what all the hype was all about I got another set.

 The concept is interesting. These little pots of sparkly paint, which are full of concentrated color, are great to add to any picture. But do they really twinkle?

My initial thought was no, not really what's all the hype about? But I later realized that in order for them to live up to the name twinkling you can't dilute them too much.

Once the light hits the colors some of them have a really nice sheen to them. Once they start to get a little watered down the sheen, or should I say, the "twinkle" disappears. You can see the sheen in the green (Spanish moss).

But there is something I found even more fascinating, and I saw this totally by accident. I used a black water bowl to rinse my brushes. After finishing with one color I just left the brush in the bowl while I opened another color pot. After using about 5 colors here is what I found in the bottom of the bowl:

The twinks shining in all of their glory

Instead of dissolving in the water like watercolors do, the left overs from the brush just settled themselves at the bottom which made it look like some cosmic colorful explosion.  

This then gave me the idea to use the twinks on a black background.

I found an unfinished black gesso primed page in my art journal, and added the yellow and blue twinks. Low and behold my suspicions were right. Using a loaded brush I painted  the lines and dots. The paint begins to look metallic against the black. But it all depends how much paint is in the brush. This is certainly something I would like to explore further. So stay tuned.