This is such a wonderful and clever idea. I really hope it becomes common in cities everywhere. They said an artist in Seattle is using it. I’m going to try and find this paint and use it on a concrete walkway in my back yard. What appeals to me is the random and temporary nature of the mural. We might go three weeks in the summer without rain. Then a nice shower one afternoon. Just enough time to briefly enjoy the bright colors before getting tired of it.
Would Hobby Lobby have this paint? The article doesn’t identify a specific name (other than a scientific name), just a common brand - Pantone. It would need to be an exterior paint to hold up over exposure to the hot sun. I searched Amazon. No luck.
The article misspelled the product name. Its Pantone hydrochromic paint
Google is not showing a retail source. They need to get this on the retail market. ASAP I think it will be hugely popular in backyards. Patios, walkways, you could even paint stepping stones.
Here’s a place in the UK.
It’s not colored paint. You have to paint the image then paint this stuff over it. It dries white then turns transparent when wet.
:o oh, I see the difference. Rain Works creates a contrast between wet concrete and dry. paintings are in the natural grey of concrete or brown stone. It probably works best for large lettering or simple shapes.
the other product gives you the bright colors. Great for murals.
I think it would be awesome if muncipalities would use the brightly colored paint (in a suitably durable format) to highlight road areas prone to flooding.
That way, there wouldn’t be a lot of always present, easily ignored signage that wouldn’t be pertinent probably 2/3 of the time, but when it was raining, the road (or whatever) would show stripes or something pointing out that the area ahead is prone to flooding.
Are there photographs of any real examples of the colored streets? All the ones in the OP look to be 'shopped, with the same pedestrians and strollers in exactly the same positions in the “dry”/“wet” comparisons. Or am I missing something?
Thinking through the chemical difficulties here, along with the issues of durability and slickness - I think I am calling BS on the bright-colored stuff as some kind of prank journalism.
What I thought of from the subject, and what appears to be real, is the water-repellent stuff. I can see that being a viable product, and useful as well as amusing/artistic. But this disney-color stuff? Let’s see some proof beyond obviously shopped photos…
So what does it do to pavement friction? Does this present a slip/fall hazard? I’ve put my foot on wet thermoplastic at stoplights on my motorcycle and nearly ended up on my ass.
Okay, let’s try again. No one has quite answered my impertinent questions, and I think quite a few folks here are being cooled by whooshing breezes.
I am quite familiar with Pantone, and their sort of strange spinoff Behance. That these are real companies doesn’t give any particular credence to the product or project claim, especially as Pantone doesn’t generally *make *paints, inks etc. and a search of the helpful website link shows no hits for “hydrochromic.”
1) Red flag #1: Post a link to any real “sidewalk mural” using this technique. All of the photos in the original article are clearly Photoshop work, perhaps good-faith attempts to show what this technique might look like, but still faked. (The transparent/water-shedding stuff is obviously quite real, but it’s not the same thing as this claim of colored murals.)
2) Red flag #2: I can’t find any link to “Pantone Hydrochromic Paint” that does not circle back to this article. The small bottle of goop linked above is for craft/paper use, which is considerably different from sidewalk, street or outdoor use. Nor is that product identified as being a Pantone one.
Anyone who’s terribly excited about this new breakthrough care to come up with a single substantiation of the article’s claims?
I really hope it becomes common in cities everywhere. They said an artist in Seattle is using it. I’m going to try and find this paint and use it on a concrete walkway in my back yard. What appeals to me is the random and temporary nature of the mural. We might go three weeks in the summer without rain. Then a nice shower one afternoon. Just enough time to briefly enjoy the bright colors before getting tired of it.
