Unboxing St. Petersburg “White Nights” Watercolours

As if to emphasize my art supply addiction I got another special something in the mail today, a 12 pan kit of St. Petersburg “White Nights” Watercolours.

I had never heard of St. Petersburg brand before following some amazing Russian artists on Instagram, but it seems to be a very popular brand over there.  After some hunting I managed to find this small set on a fabulous deal.  It’s always fun getting something made in a different country with foreign writing.  I must mention that I have replaced the original pans that came with the set, so be aware that these are NOT included in the 12 pan set.

The kit fits 12 full pans with two small mixing palettes.  It’s not fancy or the most robust but I love the size.  It is also easy to move the pans around where you want.

The colours are: Lemon, Cadmium yellow medium, Yellow ochre, Burnt sienna, Quinacridone rose, Cadmium red light, Ruby, Cobalt blue, Turquoise blue, Green, Indigo, Voronezhskaya black.

Unwrapping them was not unlike wrapping a bunch of your favourite sweeties.  I had to resist having a lick!

Initially impression is that these colours are really intense on the pans.  I chose my colours carefully and was surprised to find that  most of them are pretty high quality single pigments with great lightfast properties.

And here is my small first swatch test.  This is literally a moist brush simply rolled lightly in the pan applied directly to paper. I was amazed at how quickly these wetted and saturated the brush.  They are advertised as “semi-moist”, and have never seen this property in pans before.  They are not gooey or anything, just wet almost instantly.

Some of the colours are incredibly saturated, particularly my holy trinity of Lemon, Quinacridone Rose, and Turquoise (actually a pthalo blue).  I am equally impressed by Indigo, Ruby, Green, and Cadmium Yellow.  The more earthy colours I don’t use nearly as much.  They are definitely more difficult to wet and pick up and slightly grainy.  The Black was most surprising.  I expected something like intense like the indigo but it was more subtle and earthy.

In short I am super impressed by this set, it was incredible value even when replacing the colours.  For anyone who likes to do urban sketching and wants paints they can pick up and use without too much fuss this would be perfect.  I absolutely can’t wait to give them a proper go.