Testing watercolor "white nights" in cuvettes. Which set of watercolor "White Nights" is better to choose

"White Nights" - popular paints, created taking into account the oldest traditions and current technological solutions. They are made of grated pigments mixed with a binder and gum arabic, they are rich in color, mix well and blur. The stability of shades during drying allows the use watercolor paints in cuvettes for responsible painting works. The series was created specifically for professional artists.

Watercolor paints by the piece: collect your unique palette

The manufacturer produces an extensive range of shades (57 colors). And our online store offers to buy paints "White Nights" desired colors separately and at no extra cost. So you can collect the optimal set of shades for a particular job. In addition, it allows you to replenish the supply of materials in an already existing set. Placing an order for watercolor in cuvettes will take only a couple of minutes. We will quickly process the application, and the courier will bring the selected goods as soon as possible.

Any artist will confirm: to create a real masterpiece, it is extremely important not only to have talent, but also the ability to select the right tools and supplies. In this case, it is necessary to take into account a variety of nuances. good paints- this is already half the success, because the brightness of colors and shades, the accuracy of color reproduction and the play of light and shadow depend on them. If the artist aims for the latter, it is better to choose watercolors, but they are not always of sufficient quality.

Professionals in Russia are often forced to use imported products, however, domestic manufacturers also offer good options- a set of watercolors "White Nights" can become a source of pride.

Who releases?

Watercolor for beginners and experienced artists under this brand refers to the products of the plant artistic paints"Neva palette". This plant, located in St. Petersburg, traces its history back to the distant 1900. However, in its current form (with a focus on artists), the company was founded only in 1934.

Success for the products of this plant came quickly. It turned out that in big country, deprived of access to the world's best examples of art products, no one else produces paints of the same quality. In this regard, "Nevskaya Palitra" has been perceived as a professional watercolor by several generations of people close to art. However, not everything is so clear: some series of this manufacturer are designed for students and young artists.

At the same time, the statement that better domestic paints do not exist still remains true - such materials are highly appreciated by both beginners and professionals.

About the series: features and benefits

Since "Nevskaya Palitra" is still focused not only on professionals, each of its series has its own characteristics. If we talk about watercolors (this manufacturer also produces other paints), then professionals should definitely pay attention to White Nights. The company itself recommends just such a product for creating timeless pieces of art.

The composition of the paints is chosen in such a way as to convey the artist's intention as fully as possible - many prefer such materials for this very reason. The manufacturer uses exclusively finely dispersed pigments, which makes it possible to achieve significant color saturation even when the paint is diluted with a large amount of water. The binder is natural gum arabic, which makes paints more expensive, but better applied.

The recipe for "White Nights" does not imply the presence of any fillers - there is nothing superfluous, only pigments and a binder. The list of the advantages of the composition will not be complete if you do not remember the high light fastness characteristic of most colors. It should be noted that the manufacturer labels all tubes and cuvettes so that the consumer immediately knows how good result will give the use of this particular shade.

Lightfastness is indicated by the number of stars on the tube or cuvette, where three stars are high lightfastness, two are medium, and one is low.

The variety of available shades is quite large - to choose from professional artists 66 colors are offered. At the same time, the plant is equipped with a workshop for the production of its own pigments.

Immediately 46 shades from the entire palette, the manufacturer based on one pigment, and only 20 are produced by mixing two or more dyes.

Range

"White Nights" is divided into several smaller brands, including, for example, "Leningrad" and "St. Petersburg". However, such marking is more about not the paints themselves, but sets made up of 12, 16, 24 or 36 colors. You can also purchase a gift set (up to 48 colors), which additionally includes brushes. A feature of this product is the packaging made of natural wood. Each cuvette in the set is 2.5 ml.

Some boxes are larger than necessary for the corresponding number of shades. This is very practical, since the plant also produces individual cuvettes of not the most popular shades. This configuration allows you to purchase a certain standard set shades, which in the future can be supplemented by the artist at his discretion - without compromising the convenience of transportation.

However, the review of the bonuses provided by the White Nights company does not end there. Often, sets are also equipped with a palette, and reviews indicate that such a solution in practice shows itself even better than many inexpensive palettes purchased separately.

The manufacturer also puts in the packaging a template for painting, divided into sectors, allowing the master to immediately see how this or that shade applied to paper will look like. Experienced artists argue that such painting before starting work with a new, unfamiliar set of paint is mandatory to familiarize yourself with the properties of the composition. Given the specifics of watercolor technique, it is recommended that when painting a template, not only apply strokes, but also blur them from one side.

The more colors in the set, the more logical it would be to sign the name of each shade on the template.

The main part of the White Nights watercolor is produced in cuvettes, but the manufacturer also produces such paints in 10 ml tubes. It is almost impossible to find a set made up of tubes, but you can assemble it yourself.

The plant "Nevskaya palitra" offers lovers watercolor techniques another product that will help a lot in creating truly bright and unique masterpieces. We are talking about the so-called medium, an aqueous solution of gum arabic, designed specifically for diluting watercolors of this series. Since it contains the original binder used in the watercolor itself, with the help of such a medium it is possible to increase the brightness of the shades and the average spread of the watercolor.

Can also speed up drying, which is very important for working in the alla prima technique, when the picture is painted in one session. This substance is also often used to give dried paintings a more noticeable shine.

How to choose?

It may seem that different sets differ from each other only in the number of colors - there is only one series. However, it was not in vain that the manufacturer made several kits of the same number of shades, there is still a difference between them. Many consumers who consciously choose White Nights can consider themselves professionals. Most often, masters clearly understand why this particular series, and not any other - important nuances experienced artists always notice.

If we talk about the number of colors, then the choice is not so obvious. It may seem that it is enough to choose big set from 36 or even 48 colors - and you're done. However, it is better to consider the following: if before experience there was no use of watercolors of this series, it is quite possible that you should not immediately purchase such a large package. The fact is that it will be quite expensive in terms of cost, and many of the shades present in the set simply will not be useful (or they can be prepared manually by mixing the primary colors).

If you are choosing between sets containing a palette and a template, and those sets that do not, then it is better to make a choice in favor of the complete set. Although "additions" to paint sets cause only a sarcastic smirk from most artists, the orientation of the series to professional needs suggests that such a palette is very useful for masters.

Even if you already have your own palette, you should not unequivocally refuse to buy the second one in the set, unless the first, the main one, is a high-quality specimen made of natural wood.

You can make a template yourself, from an ordinary piece of paper or cardboard, but as a bonus, this option is very attractive. It is especially needed in cases where there are a lot of colors in the set (or if the artist additionally acquired shades that were not originally included in the set).

Such a template is also good because it allows you not to confuse shades if there are a lot of them.

As for the brushes included in some kits, it should be noted here that they come across only in gift sets. Many consider such bonuses unnecessary, believing that any artist already has everything they need, and in any case, only something very standard is placed in the set. This is true, but an additional bonus is useful to any master. Do not forget that even outstanding artists they draw not only with some special brushes, but also with quite ordinary ones, just of good quality.

It is not for nothing that the Nevskaya Palitra plant has gained fame as one of the best in the post-Soviet space. Far from the worst brushes are put into their sets here. The argument that a professional already has everything is not entirely appropriate. A real artist, constantly doing what he loves, probably regularly encounters the problem associated with abrasion of the pile of brushes. An additional tool is unlikely to be a disappointment for him.

For a long time I plan to write in detail about the materials that I use for watercolor painting. And here is a good reason, they sent me a box with my favorite materials from the Rosa store for testing. So I can thank them for the fact that I finally started this process)) I decided to make a few reviews with a description different materials, I hope this is useful for beginners who want to get acquainted with watercolor.

So I'll start with detailed description watercolor paints "White nights". I use these most often, we can say that the paints of daily use)) Below is a list of everything that I used in this review with links for convenience:
- watercolors "White nights", 24 colors;
- gluing for watercolor A4, Rosa, paper "Gosznak";
- brushes "Squirrel", Rosa Start, No. 6 and No. 2.


Paints "White Nights", as the manufacturer tells us, are made from finely dispersed (finely grated) pigments and a binder, with the addition of gum arabic. The colors mix well, wash out and spread. When dry, the color fades a little, like all watercolors. But there is no need to complain about fading))

The watercolors in the set come in 2.5 ml cuvettes. If necessary, they are easy to replace or change to a different color. Cuvettes are initially packed in foil and paper wrapper. If I were you, I would not throw this wrapper away, or I would study it well beforehand. Because it contains information such as the level of lightfastness of a particular paint. Denoted by asterisks, from one to three. *** - excellent level of lightfastness, * - not resistant. As you might guess, lightfast paints will allow your work to live long and rich (in literally this word) life. By the way, this is one of the distinguishing characteristics of professional paints, if you suddenly don’t know how school watercolor differs from a good one)) Non-resistant paints will fade in the sun or change color over time. Almost all White Nights paints have ***, but there are ** and even * (this is purple, so I advise you to interfere with purple shades personally).

The pigment is collected quite sparingly from cuvettes, so if you need bright saturated colors right away, I recommend pre-moistening your paints clean water. I use a pulverizer for this purpose or leave a drop on each cell clean water with the help of a brush.

Watercolor is considered a transparent material, but there are paints that are more transparent, and there are coatings. The former are excellent at drawing multilayer glazes, the latter are well suited for drawing muted shadows. For example, most of the paints in the name of which is “Cadmium”, sepia, indigo, etc., belong to the top paints.

In addition to all this, if we talk about watercolor, then it is worth mentioning grainy and spotty paints. Some paints have a pronounced graininess - an uneven distribution of pigment in the fill. Look at your painting, you will immediately notice these colors. In my set, these are “umber”, “mars brown”, etc. This can be used to create natural looking textures. And spotted paints are those that are strongly eaten into the paper and the pigment is visible even after washing off. This feature can be used in the lightening (washing) technique.

As for the other participants in the review - paper and brushes. watercolor paper"Gosznak" is the most accessible and its qualities are quite enough to draw sketches, work in different techniques(as you can see from my photos). And in gluing this paper is also convenient for drawing. The brushes are quite high quality, I would say that they are well suited for basic work. Unfortunately, there is no very thin tip, but the pile is not lost and it is more elastic than my other “proteins”.

That's probably all. I will try to tell you soon about the combination of these colors with the medium "White Nights", otherwise many people asked)) Enjoy drawing everyone!

The other day I bought a long-awaited box of professional watercolor "WHITE NIGHTS" in a set of 24 colors. Why long awaited? Because he couldn't find her at the local Leonardo store. The sellers constantly promised that they would bring this watercolor, but they never did. So now I can finally fully test and evaluate this set in cuvettes.

I must say right away that there is another similar set - St. Petersburg, by the same manufacturer "Nevskaya Palitra", but the choice fell on the watercolor "WHITE NIGHTS" due to the larger size of the box and, therefore, the palette that comes with the kit.

The package contains a fairly durable plastic box that opens on two sides, providing a lot of space for the palette.

Immediately, I note that the surface of the palette is better in properties than the usual separate plastic palette. It is somehow better to mix and dilute colors on it, while the paint does not gather much into drops, as happens on smooth palettes. In general, working on such a palette turned out to be a pleasure!

Also included is a watercolor template. Be sure to do the painting. This will serve as an excellent cheat sheet in the future.

Each cuvette is packed in foil and a wrapper with the name of the color. I did not throw away the wrappers, but put them in a separate box, because. they can come in handy later for painting.

The advantage of a box of 24 colors is that after placing all the cuvettes, there are still 12 free places in which you can place your colors by purchasing additionally in the store. It is very comfortable.

After placing all the cuvettes, I started painting. First, I applied bold bright paint, and then blurred it with a damp brush to get a tonal stretch with a smooth transition. Previously, I signed with a pencil the names of the colors in the order in which I arranged the paints in the box.

And in this way I did the coloring for all the colors in the box.

It was possible to do a few more tests for blurring, blending, etc., but due to lack of time, I decided to immediately try to draw something, as they say, immediately into battle :-). As an example, I used a lesson from a recently purchased book.

Here are some steps that took about 15 minutes at the most. with a simple pencil I sketched the contours of the flower with very thin lines:

Then, with the first layer of ultramarine and a mixture with purple, I painted over the petals of the flower:

Then, in the same way, he covered the leaves and stems with different shades of green and brown. During this time, the flower dried up and I added a yellow-orange flower core, as well as a second brighter layer on the petals:

Well, the last layer with a thin tip of the brush added details:

The conclusion is that painting with this watercolor is a pleasure. The colors are very convenient to mix on the palette that comes with the package, they are very bright and fluid, leaving less streaks. For example, the watercolor brand "Luch" (which I usually used) does not mix in the drawing as well as this watercolor, but flows into each other completely unpredictably (sometimes it does not flow at all :-)).