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hey bro,
maybe this will help a little, please don't think i'm being funny, i'm just giving you an analogy that may help you better understand.

If you have a glass of kool-aid and poured half of it out and then topped it up with just water, will the kool-aid taste the same or not as sweet??, obviously it won't taste as sweet because its watered down. the reason for this is basic chemistry, because you have "diluted" the koo-laid, you have broken down the chemical makeup that make the drink as sweet as it was from the beginning.. therefore there are fewer particles that make this drink as sweet as it was before you added water. it don't matter how much you drink the diluted kool-aid, its not going to taste any sweeter just because your drinking more. this chemistry is similar to the tattoo ink, once you add water to it, you have broken down the number of particles (pigment) that make this ink a "true black". in order to get the ink blacker you need to add more particles (pigment) that are responsible for making this ink black,
therefore by adding more particles it is now a "less diluted amount", in essence you have added more. "sugar (pigment)" .to the.kool-aid (ink)..... so it is now...... "sweeter (blacker)".... hope you understand that analogy.
this is why companies like silverback and intenze make a 4+ stage washes, you cant use the light shade over and over and expect to get black. you need to either seperate the water from the pigment or add more pigment to the water to get the shade darker.

I hope that helps you better understand what going on, take care bro.

stephen stacey.

lol i understand what you are saying but a watercolour paint you can eventually layer up to get almost 100% again? and thats not a soild medium like gouache?

i know the pigment has been thinned out but it still makes me ponder . something so simple frustrates me .

i have tried silverback and i just cant get into it :P

thank you for helping lol

Personally, I dont always use multiple cups for my graywash...as taught to me by my mentor. But most of the time I do set up 4 caps(black,1/2 black n distilled water,3/4 water and top it off with ink). If i ever need it to be lighter or darker I dip or touch with the tip of the needle either the water or black. dip for a more concentrated result, and touch the water/ink for a suttle result...I also have a pre-mixed light graywash that I have been able to use alone and was able to create different gradations by moving faster and whip shading.
Superman answered your question already and I 2nd that. This is just my grayscale set-up. The quick answer to your question is because you would have to add more ink to your needle to get it back to 100%. And why wouldnt you use a pre-mixed grayscale if you can even dilute that as well?????? You are ALREADY using a grayscale by cutting it down to 30% !?!