White Nights Watercolours

I've written about this range before. It is known by a number of different names - White Nights is more common in Europe, St Petersburg in the US, but they are made by Nevskaya Palitra in Russia.

The full range was shown in this post here.

They have now added a number of new colours and changed the names of a couple. They have also added tubes to their range for all 66 colours apart from the silver and gold.

I was given the new colours that have recently been added while at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in July and have finally had a chance to paint out the rest of the swatches. Thank you to Tatiana.

The tube colours paint out very nicely fresh from the tubes and allow more options in setting up custom palettes - whether half pans or into the wells of other palettes. They also make it easier to paint larger washes of course. I normally work from dried paint in a palette but will use tube colours in my studio for larger works.

These are a very affordable range to use to get started in watercolour as they use real pigments rather than hues for most colours. Just be wary of a few fugitive pigments or only use in a sketchbook where they are protected from light.

White Nights Watercolours - Zinc White, Lemon, Cadmium Lemon, Hansa Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Medium.

Indian yellow and Indian Gold are new - the Indian Gold is an excellent quinacridone gold hue. It would be a good option as a warm yellow in a small palette.

White Nights Watercolours - Indian Yellow (new), Indian Gold (new), Golden, Golden Deep, Cadmium Orange.

I love the PO36 Titan Red colour.

White Nights Watercolours - Orange Lake, Titan's Red, Cadmium Red Light, Vermilion (Hue), Scarlet.

The new Quinacridone Red is a lovely primary red option.

White Nights Watercolours - Ruby, Madder Lake Red Light, Claret, Carmine, Quinacridone Red (new).

As is Quinacridone Violet Rose - also new.

White Nights Watercolours - Quinacridone Violet Rose (new), Quinacridone Rose, Rose, Quinacridone Lilac, Violet-Rose.

Blue Lake is a beautiful blue but I am very wary of PB1.

White Nights Watercolours - Quinacridone Violet (new), Ultramarine Violet (new), Violet, Blue Lake, Indanthrone Blue.

White Nights Watercolours - Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Azure, Blue, Bright Blue (Brilliant).

I'd prefer a stronger version of Cerulean blue - this is rather weak - but it is still a great pigment to use for sketching skies as it is not a staining pigment so clouds can be lifted out with ease.

White Nights Watercolours - Ceruleum Blue, Indigo, Prussian Blue, Azure Blue, Turquoise Blue.

White Nights Watercolours - Emerald Green, Light Green,  Green Original, Yellowing Green, Sap Green (old version).

White Nights Watercolours - Sap Green (new version), Green Earth, Olive Green, Chromium Oxide, Green (Russian).

White Nights Watercolours - Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow, Raw Sienna, Red Ochre, Shakhnazarskaya Red.

White Nights Watercolours - Burnt Sienna, English Red, Venetian Red (not shown), Burnt Umber, Mars Brown.

White Nights Watercolours - Umber, Sepia, Voronezhskaya Black, Payne's Grey, Neutral Black.

White Nights Watercolours - Antique Gold (not shown), Silver Deep (not shown).

Here is the 12-colour Plein Air palette I suggested back in 2015. This is intended as a starter watercolour set for plein air and/or sketchbook work. There are some colours that are not lightfast.

And here is is open. Full pans are great for brush access!



With the new colours that have beed added to the range it is possible to create a set that is more lightfast. I'd now switch the orange-yellow Golden to the new quinacridone gold hue Indian Gold. I'd switch Carmine to the new Quinacridone Red and I'd switch Green to the new Sap Green. I'd also switch the Cerulean to the new Cobalt Azure Blue launched in 2019 - see below.

Update August 2019

At the Amsterdam Urban Sketching Symposium, Tatiana gave me some more new colours, launched in Spring 2019. I've created a new blog post with the full range that can be found here. I scanned the swatches for that blog but will also update the colours here.

It's great to see a PY151 mid or primary yellow. The Naples Yellows are quite accurate but the Orange is a true bright mid orange. The Geranium Red is very aptly named - it is a bright warm red geranium colour with a slightly pink undertone.

White Nights Watercolours - Aureolin, Naples Yellow Light, Naples Orange, Orange, Geranium Red.

 It's also good to see a PB36 Cobalt Azure Blue.

White Nights Watercolours - Venice Purple, Cobalt Azure Blue, Cobalt Turquoise, May Green.

 Here are the 7 metallics.

White Nights Watercolours - Silver Light, Inca Gold, Bronze, Aztec Gold.

White Nights Watercolours - Antique Gold, Silver Deep, Copper.

Happy painting :-)