St. Petersburg White Nights Watercolors | First Impressions & Demo

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** MUSIC CREDITS **
Hi there!
In today's vid I want to share with you my first impressions of the St. Petersburg's White Nights watercolor paints.
A friend gave me these and recommended I'd give them a try.
** PAINT INFO **
1. Ultramarine
PB29
Series 2
Excellent Lightfastness
Opaque
2. Cadmium Red Light
PR108
Series 2
Excellent Lightfastness
Opaque
3. Yellow Ochre
PY43, PY1
Series 1
Good Lightfastness
semi-transparent
4. Umber
PY43, PBr7, PBk7
semi-transparent
5. Burnt Umber
PBr7
Series 1
Excellent Lightfastness
semi-transparent
6. Neutral Black
PR187, PB15, PBk7
Series 1
Excellent Lightfastness
Got most of the info from Jackson's and St. Petersburg website:
www.jacksonsart.com/brands/wh...
stpetersburgwatercolours.com/c...
** MY THOUGHTS **
I really loved these, especially the red, blue and burnt umber.
The black is great as well, and I'll probably use it for some monochromatic work and exercises. It has a great range of values.
I hope you enjoy this one, and I'll see you again in another video soon!
- Liron
Clear Sky by jimmysquare / jimmysquare
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported- CC BY 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Music provided by Audio Library • Video

[@SwedePotato314]

These were my first professional watercolors and I still go back to them often. They’re like an old reliable friend that I know will do what I need them to do with no fuss. I use the for sketchbook and studies and I think they’re still one of my favorites because of how well I know them and how they will behave. There’s so many high quality brands out there making great paints and it’s a matter of finding what you personally like and need. White Nights are just the best for anyone starting out and can could easily carry you through your entire painting journey.

[@hock145]

I love the Cad red and the Cad yellow and the Ultramarine. Their greens are very potent too. They are good for someone starting out. Good price point.

[@LironYan]

Yes - very cost effective, especially if you build a limited palette (: I heard the Cad Red isn't necessarily the best for that (very opaque), but there are great substitutes of White Nights as well.

[@nelsonong3125]

I like the mixture of ultramarine and cad red. I use it all the time when I'm painting clouds because it is a gray purple which is similar to what I have seen in clouds.

[@LironYan]

Yes, it's a beautiful mix! I use it too and got the idea from Patrick Ley-Greaves here on KZbin.

[@milenabdesign]

hmm, you got a bad selection of the White Nights. The cadmium red is pretty opaque and not a good primary matched with ultramarine. They have many other gorgeous reds! The yellow ochre is one of the weakest of their colours... The black is so strong, it's really difficult to use, and many people don't use black anyway. It's a pity, you get to have a poor first impression. I really love my White Nights and recommend them to anyone, especially beginners because they are so affordable, compared to other artist grade paints, so we can practice with richly pigmented true pigments without feeling bad or afraid of wasting, you know?

[@LironYan]

I liked them more then I showed, I guess (: But I agree, these aren't necessarily the best ones to choose from. It was a gift from a friend though (she just gave me the ones she had), so I can't complain too much (;

[@harmyk1]

I think he has the student version of them, you can tell by the transparent pans. Are yours solid white pans like mine? They are the artist grade ones

[@milenabdesign]

I have both types of pans. I don't think it means student/artist grade. If I'm not mistaken, that only means older/newer versions, but the quality should be the same ;)

[@em_m5989]

Yes, all White Nights are professional grade. Student grade paints from the same manufacturer are Sonnet and Ladoga.

[@em_m5989]

Huh, that is strange. It really does look like a subset of my own White Nights pallette. Yet I've never heard of them being sold under some obscure brand name, quite the opposite. (Maybe I just don't know that much, though).

[@yuame]

So nice to see old St Petersburg pans, they're somewhat clumsy but cute :) I think the paint recipe has changed over time, and their earth colours used to dry rock hard. It's not the case of their colours being weak - just needs time to fully reactivate them. I remember having troubles with their umbers in particular. The yellow ochre comparison you made there makes me wonder if Schmincke yellow ochre is made from real earth pigment or synthetic, as many companies use the synthetic PY42 for their yellow ochres, and it's easier to rewet and usually exhibits stronger tinting strength.

[@LironYan]

Haha yes, they are a bit clumsy but def liked them. Interesting - I did some research and the Yellow Ochre I used is synthetic, but they do have an additional Yellow Raw Ochre that's supposed to be natural.

[@ajoydas-Watch-It]

There is a nice new Elena Bazanova Palette she's a artist out of ST. Petersburg apparently world renowed, I looked her up and her work is breathtaking usually still lives that look like oil paintings sort of. Worth a look up if one is into St. Petersburg and theire paints.

[@selahpaintco]

I've got a number of White Night St. Petersburg watercolor and love all of them but my cobalt blue (maybe i got a bad batch or its an old formula) With the CB exemption, they are nicely pigmented and bright and lovely to paint with, especially the cad yellow and scarlet. A shame that your first impression was not as favorable as mine, but if you can find newer pans and more colors i would recommend giving them another chance!

[@LironYan]

Yes - Cobalts are dangerous that way. I had a similar experience with it with other brands. My impression of those was probably better than I showed. I really liked them! (:

[@egeozer9916]

their cerulean is very weak, too

[@amysamin]

Very helpful...thanks, Liron!

[@LironYan]

+Amy Samin My pleasure, thank you! 😁🙏🏼

[@gabrielanselmi1462]

they are great!!!

[@RATTE1606]

you have picked up very useful colors 😃 ... I´ve some of them. there are much skintones between ultramarin and cad. red light for examble ... you can mix a lot of pretty dark greens with the yellow ochre and ultramarin or neutral black, and so on ... I beleave you will have much fun with all these colors. my favorit is this awesome ultramarin.

[@A-Bear]

I ordered a set earlier this week.. I hope I like them.. Thanks for your video..

[@LironYan]

My pleasure! Let me know how you liked them (:

[@ianjackson5834]

i use white nights as my basic pro set and it's good, the packing looks like the old one as the pan are now white and not transparent, thanks for the video..... P.S. there cad yellow medium is a good solid primary yellow to use

[@LironYan]

It's a good think I posted this vid, I had no idea before that these are the old pans (: I'll check out the cad yellow, I never tried it (nor by other brands as well).

[@ColleenM61]

I heard a lot of people complain about the paints of the old sets. Lot's of good talk about the new ones.

[@2lmdi]

Thanks! The blue and red I would use for tree bark.. well, if there's not much shift.. but nice with green foilage next to it. The umber with red is nice for that too.

[@LironYan]

+Pat Kin Yes - sound like good ideas (:

[@egeozer9916]

you should try the cym primaries of st petersburg, they're really good!

[@LironYan]

+Ege Ozer I totally should (: I much prefer CYM over this, which is funny because I didn’t use to in the past.

[@ineedtruth.2075]

I think why they grayed when you mixed Ultramarine with Cadmium Red Light is because CRL is more on the orange side. Orange + blue is a complement so they turn into gray, if I'm not mistaken. (But if you mix CRL with Bright Blue of White Nights, you get the more gray neutral color.) I got the 24 set White Nights and some of the paints I noticed are complements like their greens + reds = neutral-ish color, which is weird imo on a set, because some of their greens you won't want to use directly from the pan, and also kind of nice because it's like a bit strategic putting complements, lol just a theory since they are my first artist set 😂 enjoyed the vid!

[@LironYan]

That’s actually a great explanation for why it happened (: I noticed it happened several times with similar colors 👌🏼🙏🏼

[@ineedtruth.2075]

Liron Yanconsky yeah, it says those are colors that make each other pop. Orange + blue, yellow + purple, red + green when put beside each other pops, but grays when combined. I guess those are where the 'muddy' colors come from. Prof said put them together for effect but I don't want to think too logically when coloring. 😂🙅

[@tracylynnw]

the "***" stands for the light-fastness (***excellent light-fastness) (*'*very good) ('*' meh, most likely fugitive)

[@LironYan]

Had a feeling (: Thank you for letting me know

[@rashone2879]

I like the White Nights. I get strong color. I think mixing cadmium red with ultramarine never makes a nice purple, no matter what quality paints you use. The yellow ochre is a bit on the pale side, but I never use it for strong color anyway. I have a set with 10 colors and all mix well, but it depends what you put with what.

[@LironYan]

Yes, I agree. I really want to try out more of their paints, and luckily they are very easy to find here locally! Plus I really want to start using full pans, so they are a great option 😁

[@Kamoolti]

They are not that old, it is just packaging for people who feel nostalgic about old version of them (called Leningrad (city) previous name for St. Peter during USSR, I intentionally order these ones because I already have new pans (white ones) but I wanted to have something that reminded me of my childhood. However I think they don’t make these transparent old pans anymore, saw them sold under Leningrad name but new pans. I still see in market both versions of these. Anyways they are same - just different names: White Nights - Saint Petersburg - Leningrad. Student grade is Sonnet, and something in between is Ladoga.

[@LironYan]

Thank you for sharing! 😊🙏🏼 Didn't know that

[@Kamoolti]

@@LironYan not at all 👍👍👍I hope to see more such reviews about white nights, maybe next time will be tubes or more colours in new redesigned pans!

[@TerrieJohnson731]

I love them. They are made with honey for easy rewetting.

[@TerrieJohnson731]

all Cads are opaque as hell.

[@B1N4RYGH0ST]

Hi, Liron. I wanted to ask you a question about White Nights. Are the White Night Whole Pans bigger than Schmincke whole pans? And how would you compare them both?

[@LironYan]

I never got the Schmincke full pans, only the half pans, so I don't really know the answer. Plus, it seems like the pans I got here are the older ones, and so White Nights may have changed theirs as well. I think that the sizes are pretty much standard, and so they should be similar. It's probably very similar to the pans you can purchase separately.

[@MelanCholy2001]

3:14 *:.."I don't want to bash on these ..just yet"* 😂 I love it. I know there are some proponents of these. I might swipe some too (from sister painter maybe) _but lbr wc paper is so expensive._ Such a cool sub! 😂

[@meerasam9958]

the most thing i wish to find for painting is brushes like what you use and the same quality .. btw thanks for your good videos

[@LironYan]

+Meera Sam Thank you 🙏🏼😊 Real easy - these are Silver Black Velvet (sizes 8 and 12). You can find these on Amazon, and if they deliver to Israel, I’m sure they deliver to tons of other places. And they are priced very reasonably.

[@minetteh1001]

Can anyone link me a explenation of the pbr7 stuff please. Thank you for this tutorial.

[@SoulKeever]

I've occasionally had people mention these to me. Their color chart seemed okay, aside from a few suspect colors. A couple of naphthol numbers and nitroso green raised my eyebrows.

[@LironYan]

Interesting, that's beyond my expertise. I plan on maybe getting a magenta red / Burnt Sienna, to create some kind of a Velazquez palette with the Ultramarine and Yellow Ochre.

[@SoulKeever]

Shrug. It's a gift; I play a fool, but it seems like I know about nearly every color there is. Why not? Go full-on Albrecht Durer with it and do some of the earthiest watercolors ever. If you want a real challenge, get out the carbon black instead of ultramarine. That color's such a nightmare to use, I devoted a half-hour video to it!

[@tempest6781]

There is a thing called sonnet which is allegedly similar to the those watercolours and I would like to know if you heard of them and if they are good at all pretty please and thank you!

[@victoriah.6079]

Hey. I was a little late with an answer , haha. I am just studying and using Sonnet watercolor as my main palette. This is a good watercolor for study, cheaper than "White Nights" (about 9 USD for 24 Sonnet colours VS 14 USD for 12 WN colours in Russia) . Many art school teachers advise it especially if you are a beginner. There is also a watercolor Ladoga, it's something between White Nights and Sonnet. I know Sonnet is not available for sale abroad, but if you can get them, you won't be disappointed. You can see the pigment info here : www.nevskayapalitra.ru/upload/iblock/41c/sonet_376.pdf (I'm from Russia, sorry for my bad Eng)

[@Dana-hw8ut]

Thank you so much

[@LironYan]

My pleasure! (:

[@lilac_lottie]

they are not bad for practices painting. their paints seem a little heavy on the brush, almost a little like gouache. With European brands like sennlier and schmincke, the paints are light on the brush and have more dimensions. Also, I kind of dont trust their pigments cuz i am somehow allergic to a few of their colors. Im very very rarely allergic to pigments. I even have 2 full sleeves of colorful tattoos on my arms. When ever I touch these paints or paint with them, my hands get rashes and my neck and face start to itch.. idk what pigments they use because on their website their pigment numbers seem standard.

[@LironYan]

Wow, so strange! I never heard of pigment allergy / watercolor allergy. But I guess that would make sense. Many components go into them. Is this the only brand you experienced this with?

[@juliak412]

I know you mentioned that you got these as a gift and therefore can’t complain much, but I really hope one day you decide to give them another try and pick some other colors that are actually good. The ones you have are what I call "the leftovers" because they are absolutely trash and I haven’t used them once despite having a set with them for 6 years. I never recommend earth colors from WN, especially anything "raw", there’s usually 1% of pigment and 99% of binder in those. I have a special place in my hate list for their yellow ochre. It’s a very important color in landscape painting, and WN version makes my eye twitch every time I attempt to mix with it. However their blues and greens ( and certain reds and "burnt" browns) are *chef’s kiss*. Especially for their price, you can paint and practice to your heart’s content without feeling like you’re wasting valuable resources.

[@LironYan]

Thank you Julia! uu I've been a big fan of White Nights since. I've been using them extensively in the last 2 years or so (: Excellent prices and great quality!

[@terencemolloy1827]

I've had a number of sets of these and the browns all dried hard and were difficult to lift.

[@LironYan]

Their browns seem a little harden when dried. The rest work great for me.

[@soliferi]

ive used them, loved them at first but after i got Schmincke and pro winsor & newton to try i couldnt stand them. im not even sure why lol gritty? Van gogh are really amazing btw oh wait you had the box nvm. im not the biggest fan of daniel smith yet, sennelier are so much nicer. guess i prefer transparency since ill use gouache or oil if i want opaque characteristics. a couple of grittier ones from daniel smith for mixing is nice. schmincke seems like its own special category so i love those seperately : p maybe they seem more like ink? maybe its my imagination.

[@avaDesdemona]

soliferi yes! Finally someone puts schmincke in words :-) i LOVE my schmincke colours, but yes, they're very different from my (also very much loved) windsor newton student colours (i finally found a source for the artist grade paints locally but haven't gotten around to buying any yet). I have schmincke in both qualities (Akademie and Horadam) and can't actually tell the difference... I also have four of the white nights, cerulean blue, ultramarine, violet and schachnarsarskaya red, and the only one i don't like is the cerulean, it's weird and quite opaque for such a light blue... It looks like it has white mixed in? The violet is soooo strong! And the red granulates and is very pretty. The ultramarine is pretty standard though ;-)

[@LironYan]

I can totally relate (; Schmincke is something special. That being said, on Thursday I'll publish a vid of a painting process using my Daniel Smiths. Actually had a lot of fun doing it. There's no doubt they are also top notch.

[@soliferi]

yeah i skipped winsor student because everyone was complaining about how weak the colour is and how hard it was trying to rewet, i had the pro winsor tube paint and pan and the tube stuff would not rewet, maybe if honey was added. the pan winsor red is brighter than most other reds, matches van gogh red. i have a desire for the brightest red possible xD so i have a comparison page for all brands i try. I also agree i can't see much difference between the student and pro schmincke. where do you live because winsor and newton is stupid expensive in Australia even the student set they tried to sell for over 100$ for yrs. i would say if you like winsor and newton go for a van gogh set its better for the same affordable price. has the same clean colour but better.

[@soliferi]

urgh =_= lol okay but have you tried sennelier? but yeah of course they're (ds) great, probably great for dark gritty sci fi stuff :D though sennelier is similar to van gogh but more intense, i have only tried the babby set and would be curius if their earth colours are decent. something about the ds colours disturbs me, the grinding of crystals xD i love crystals so its like murder LOL

[@avaDesdemona]

soliferi the Windsor Newton rewet just fine for me actually. and i like them enough that i bought a second set for my daughter (she is ten) and she has no issues either except grasping the concept of more water to make paint lighter ;-) I'm in Germany, so schmincke is actually the most widely available brand. I have seen the van gogh paints but didn't like the set they came in, the case was twice as big as the W&N and didn't even include a brush or space for one... I recently bought a larger metal box and empty pans so I'll have more room to add tube colour to my pan sets and to carry regular brushes not just the collapsible one from W&N.

[@irina.kipnis]

from what understand, when mixing colors using cadmiums, they tend resulting in muddy colors. cads are opaque and don't really create attractive mixes.

[@LironYan]

I'm sure that's true to some extent, but there are additional things to factor in. I think if you learn how to use them you can alleviate that issue (: (still learning here!)

[@aliencreation8744]

You should try out art spectrum-straya

[@LironYan]

What's that?

[@aliencreation8744]

A Brand of artists watercolour paints. Straya means Australian.

[@LironYan]

Oh, I'll check it out (: Thank you

[@bobcat1097]

Вот фильм о том как изготавливаются краски Невская Палитра kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6Hbmpt6pbOShdE , но он на русском, но всё равно посмотреть интересно

[@LironYan]

Thank you - I'll take a look (:

[@TerrieJohnson731]

BTW Liron, someone sends you free paints and you speak as if it would be beneath you level to even paint with them. I hope I am just struggling today and read more into it than I should have. I love all but about 3 of 36 colors. But then, I am buying Sennelier next, so we have different needs and styles, already.

[@LironYan]

Haha no, I probably love them more than I showed in the vid! I will be using them for sure (:

[@user-ui9js5sb5o]

לא הייתי בטוחה אם אתה מישראל או לא יש לך מבטא ממש טוב

[@LironYan]

+תותי טל thanks 😉

[@Dana-hw8ut]

I would like to say that I don't like this type of videos , I highly prefar drawing and painting process videos So I hope you do more of those please

[@LironYan]

+Dana Dawood Then you’ll love Thursday’s 😉 Thanks for letting me know