White Nights Watercolor Review & Tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Linda here the frugal crafter
today I have a review of the white night
st. Petersburg watercolors and they've
been around for a few years I previously
had the Yaka watercolors and I believe
they are the same paint they're from the
same company I think they may use
different names to kind of push them out
to different markets but here's a swatch
of the colors that I got and this was a
24 set and it came from pro art supplies
on Etsy and I'll put a link in the video
description awful nice fella that runs
that shop he also sent me the sonnet
paints to review which are from the same
company but they're the student range I
just want to show you the comparison
this is the sonnet line and if you look
you'll notice they all have a very
similar texture the colors are super
vivid and beautiful the ones I put
circles around or ones that did not have
a good light pressed ratings just from
my own my own information you can't find
pigment information on both of these
online but I haven't gotten a chance to
write the pigment information down here
but I did find them to be very very good
as far as a student grade paint these
are the tube yards that I've had forever
um I heard those were also student grade
but I found them to be lovely as well I
have half sitting in a window upstairs
haha also we're trying to see if they
fade so far so good
um and the thing that I noticed about
the white nights are off the bat is that
you do see textures different textures
in the colors so I leaned that to think
that they're using better quality
pigments actual pigments rather than
synthetic dyes and that's why you do get
that the difference between the
different colors and I just kept the
wrappers cuz I had the pigment
information and I was too lazy to write
it over so that was just easier for me
so when you get the set and they do a
difference that's if you just want the
some people don't like plastic pallets
they also provide them cheaper in a box
that where it's just a cardboard box
with all the pans in it you can also buy
the pans individually for three dollars
and fifty cents United States money and
it comes with a little swatch so you can
fill out but I didn't want to keep my my
paints in that that order so I actually
kept one row clear so that I just put
brushes in
and then I kind of arranged it in like
rainbow order and that's how I just
watch that out just for my you can do it
however you want but that's how I chose
to do it and I did play with them a
little bit I have this tutorial up on my
channel if you're curious just a quick
little landscape with about 20 minutes
and then I was playing a little bit just
kind of splashing paint around very
beautiful colors nice flow and I thought
we would do a little a little demo
together today just so that we could
kind of see how they behave you can see
kind of first hand how they behave so
what I did I'm gonna wet this little
mason jar here I got a little high
already on some paint on my brush
Marilee I'm just going to wet this
little mason jar and I mixed the phthalo
blue and the emerald green which is
actually a phthalo green together and
that's going to give me a really pretty
turquoise color I've already done that
so I have it quite watery and you can
see it's it is a beautiful transparent
color I have heard these colors can be a
little more opaque than others but
honestly because they're so vivid and
how much water you add to them to get
them you know to the tone that you want
I don't really find them opaque when
used like that so I'm just getting this
basic wash down somebody can ask me if I
would paint this mason jar it's actually
the birch I keep my brushes in on my
table my mimic brushes and I'm using
right now somebody had asked me the
other day if I would paint this so I
thought well look back I'll do it right
now I'm not going to get my paper too
terribly wet so I can just go ahead and
just hold it I'm just pulling some water
out to some of that color will wick out
and I'll get a little bit of a shadow
and this is just extremely quick demo
I'm using some CAD yellow light the set
does have some genuine cadmium Zin it
whereas the the sonnets don't the
sonnets are $20 students at it's a great
value but but definitely it is student
quality these are the professional
quality but I use a little orange here
and you can see how the colors do flow
well I think that I got a little green
in my yellow there I'm a blot that
because I feel like I got a little muddy
let me rinse my brush wait pause it
while I change my water actually okay
I'm actually going to grab this cat I
saw a deeper yellow that's going to make
a nice warmer color and I switched your
brush it's a little less thirsty I grab
a little bit of that orange um I like
the palette some people don't
my party will complain about this
palette they say it stains but a lot of
people say that about every plastic
palette I don't have a problem with
plastic pallets so I just want to just
want to put that out there I know some
people do zoom in a little bit more as
we're working here um I'm not that picky
I guess when it comes to my palette I'm
gonna use a smaller round and I'm gonna
grab some these beautiful violets I got
this kind of violet pink and I'm just
going to tap this into this little
clover shape over here really nice
bright crisp colors I'm going to grab a
little bit of the violet it's so intense
that it almost looks black when you tap
it in
mix some and take some of this emerald
green and a little bit of that
warm yellow that we just used to make a
nice natural nice natural green there
now pull some of these colors right into
the jar even while it's still wet
that'll give me a nice um soft natural
look in there didn't maybe I'll do a
little bit of um like a light pink petal
here I'm going to wet these a little bit
I mean I think they're I think they're
great they're a lot cheaper than other
paints from that same in that same whole
pan size I like a Windsor Newton full
pan is going to be over ten bucks
generally and if you you know and
they're a little harder to find like in
a pan or whole pan so to be able to get
it get a whole pan of artists quality
paint for 350 that's a pretty good
pretty good deal I think their pans are
a little bit oddly shaped they're not
exactly like the like the full pans from
Windsor Newton or every brain seems to
have their own specifications I'm not
exactly sure why I notice sometimes when
I try to put a full pan in a different
palette it doesn't want to go same thing
with half pans not sure why that they're
not standard but but they're pretty darn
close they might be just a hair to
smaller using my credit card scraper
just to put some veins in there but I
mean I used very little paint and it had
plenty of pigment in it a little bit of
that purple you can see how how bold and
bright it is these are from Russia that
could be why they're so affordable I do
notice sometimes like from some
countries that you can get really good
quality supplies for not a lot of money
Korea happens to be one of those
countries it seems like we get we get
way more value from prod
from there what I've noticed lately
anyways I could change him sure see if I
use this colorful strength not even full
strength but just what I had on my
pallet with a little water in it it's
still super vibrant so you will want to
kind of be aware of that they may feel a
little almost neon next to brands that
you used to they're definitely not an
earthy palette and go down sciFinder
these paints is I do find their earth
tones to be a little weak
let's try mixing a purple I'm going to
take some ultramarine and take some of
that red that we just used let's see
what we get for a purple that way I like
this purple better and it's going to be
a little bit more light fast - it's just
a little bit more natural of a color
just throwing some of that in there just
so you can see you know it is a softer
more natural color um I don't think you
need all 24 colors it is a nice
assortment but you could definitely get
the pant individually and make the
palette that you really want you can
also see what is a mix and what is a
natural pigment color if you go to the
website that way you can be sure that
you're buying what you want and you're
not buying stuff that you could just mix
from your palette now this color here
this Russian green is really interesting
it's a beautiful earthy green it looks
like hookers green it is a single
pigment the light fastness rating on
their on their website was or on the
packaging rather was pretty good let me
just see here um I can hardly read those
I think they go on the scale of one to
three and this is a two so it's okay but
not as lightfast as probably a green
that you might mix with like a cadmium
yellow and like a phthalo blue so you
know use that you don't consider that
when you are I think like a little fern
here when you are thinking about getting
these so that you get stuff that you're
really
going to use it's going to last if you
are doing like a card or an art journal
page I don't think you need to worry as
much about the the light fastness but I
want you to be aware and one reference I
use often if I am curious about a
pigment is a site called hand print
there's a lot of really good information
there about different pigments he the
person who writes that I don't know who
writes it but definitely is kind of how
can I put this a hard but when it comes
to when it comes to judging some of
these paints so there's no sugar coating
in in any of those reviews so you know
if you're curious about a particular
pigment you can you can check the
pigment ratings there it's a really good
resource for those of you looking for
that sort of information if you need to
check out a specific pigment I'll put
some little round petals there for the
clover I think I'm going to do a little
bit of a little bit of spattering I'll
give you that with wildflower pictures
because it is like such a such a loose a
loose thing I'm going to pause this
while I dry this then we'll come back
and do any finishing details alright put
some more details on my little vase here
I do find these blend pretty well so I
can you know put down the color and then
go in with a damp brush and spread the
color out a little bit I find a mix well
um I put a little bit of the detail on
the words on the jar my jar is actually
clear but I do love the look of those
canning jars that kind of have the blue
the ball jar blue I love that just try
to skip if you're trying to do the
letters you don't want to look like you
just want to kind of catch little bits
here and there so it you can kind of
make out what it says but it's not your
brain will fill in the rest basically
this is a loose lose picture
sometimes I like to put a little yellow
in there too just to kind of make it
glow a little bit show the sunlight do
that the shadow too I love the
reflections that glass make and go and
make some gray put some darker shadows
after that dries on the flowers I'm just
going to look and see what I have on my
palette I've got some of this pink I'm
gonna go in and add a little bit of
shadow in here it's also going to catch
my credit card scraper areas and give me
a little bit darker veins so I like that
a little detail for this little sweet
pea make a little more a little more
orange take some of that orange a little
bit of the red that I've been using to
it I've used in other sections rather
and I can go in and add some of that in
here on this little poppy if you get it
too dark
a real quick fix is to just dip in your
brush oops
bead got the dreaded bead of water there
just go in with a damp brush and soften
the edges and then for a gray let's see
what have I used I think I will take um
let's see mu take a little bit green add
it to that purple that I mix that's
going to give me a nice dark color you
see that it's kind of like a green black
I think that will work really well I'm
going to put it down here where it's a
little bit wet still on my shadow on the
ground can you see that on the tabletop
or whatever that is let that that fuzz
out a little bit
a little bit of shadow here and there I
think it's sparkly enough I don't think
I'm going to go in and use a white gel
pen but if you wanted to can go in and
add highlights with a a white gel pen if
you feel like you needed it but I think
I'm gonna call that done basically just
a really quick demo of using these york
of watercolors I'll do it real quick
flip through on my swatch book so you
can kind of see a comparison to some
other things I'm going to zoom out here
OOP they're real well there's a sonnets
again with the yarra side by side
they're not a bad buy at all beautiful
colors um let's see this is the gansai
tambi so there's your car there's gansai
tambi these are much more transparent
and bright um this is Lucas which is
also quite a steel actually the Lucas
colors are quite a steel they're a
little more opaque you can see with the
white strips they're they're a little
more opaque see that is dr. pH Martin
very similar to the doctor page Martin
there's Cellini a these are very similar
to like a couple glazes of a Cellini a
they are brighter colors Cellini a is
much much more muted palette
there's Minka very very comfortable to
Shamika although they do these the
Shamika is definitely a more granulation
kind of like a Daniel Smith that's
something I haven't reviewed those are
some like a watercolor sheets I haven't
reviewed yet um I don't like aqua fine
so I'm not gonna show you this that's a
grand buck or Academy these are more
intense and Grumbach Academy but
Grumbach Academy or student grade so
it's not really that fair to compare
those and that is the van Gogh
watercolors very similar but the white
nights are a little bit more vivid and
those are those cassabi watercolors the
very similar in brightness for some
colors but they were much more opaque
and yet really watch the pigments on
those and let mr. CL compared with
cotton oh there's my my beloved
a mess actually the colors are quite
similar to em grams um so that's kinda
that's kind of interesting them grams
are my favorites so that's why I find it
interesting white knights are nice too
and those are the cotman the the newer
style cotton not the ones that have the
genuine cadmium Zand Cobalts they don't
make those anymore apparently but these
are a touch brighter than the cotton so
I hope you found that useful
um those are the turn the Holbein and
the Turner's there these are brighter
than the Turner's um very similar to the
whole bottle line but there you have it
I hope you found this useful on this
mission gold well just a real quick look
at mission gold um very similar I think
that the White Nights actually might be
brighter the mission gold and I do find
a little bit more texture in them in the
White Nights actually which I was
surprised didn't think I was gonna find
that so there you have it um that's the
24 set I'll link in the video
description I got mine from pro art
supplies and they sent me them to review
they also carry the student grade
sonnets which are 20 bucks
I think this set of 24 in a in a just a
wooden box another wooden box I'm sorry
a paper box is $38 and then you can get
different amounts and different types of
palettes depending on what you like with
your like wood or plastic or what have
you or if you just want to buy that a
few colors individually to try out I
hope you found this tutorial and review
useful please give me a thumbs up and if
you have any questions leave them in the
comments below and I would love to help
you out thank you so much for watching
until next time happy crafting