Vangogh Vs White Nights ~ Cheap watercolor set comparison 

Hmm, This is an interesting comparison that shows quality and price is not always what matters in paintings. This White Nights set is mainly made of expensive cadmium pigments (cad red and cad lemon) that are opaque and heavy by nature plus expensive. Cheaper VanGoh pigments would be more transparent, with synthetic Hansa pigments and alazarin crimpson (I guess) having super fine dispersion and all. Would have been interesting to see how same pigments from two companies compair to be fair. I think the only common pigments in two sets would be ultramarine Pb29 and phalo green pg7.

I've used both, and both are good beginners watercolour paints. In fact, I started with that same 15 colour VG palette, it's a great starter set. Almost 3 years later, I'm still using that palette, but I have filled the pans with a mixture of Daniel Smith and Winsor & Newton Paints, as well as keeping a couple of my Van Gogh favorites. Van Gogh are cheaper, but generally have a lower intensity of pigment (I imagine it's mixed with other components). White Nights, or even other paints from Nevskaya, are generally more intense in comparison. They do have some odd sized pans compared to the standard sizes. The opacity of some of the paints can be a good thing, especially if you like paintings with intense colours. However, if you prefer more transparency, then you might have to water down the mix quite a lot. However, after a year or so of Van Gogh, Nevskaya St. Petersburg and Karuteke (another odd pan size supplier), I eventually started opting for more expensive paints: Winsor & Newton, Schmincke and Daniel Smith. The extra money was worth the improvement in paint quality. You probably don't need so many different paints, as I found out from experience that better quality paints can be mixed to produce a vibrant and interesting range of tones without the need to buy so many different colours. If you are not sure, just buy the 3 primaries in a high quality paint and experiment with them, you'll soon discover a whole new world of colours that you can mix to suit your painting. For convenience you might need a few other paints to cover frequently used greens, earths and neutrals, as it will save time mixing and perhaps not always achieving the tone you are looking for. Having said all that, you can still produce lovely paintings with Van Gogh or White Nights paints, especially if you have good quality watercolour paper. In fact, I would say the paper quality is more important to getting a good experience with watercolours than the quality of the paint itself. Tip: to spice up whatever paints you have, I would recommend occasional use of granulation medium (perhaps mixed with water first) to experiment more. Obviously, this might depend on what type of painting style you prefer, but as beginners we often don't know what our style is, so trying different techniques and styles of painting can help us gradually find our own way of painting that gives us enjoyment and fun no matter what the result might turn out to be - eventually, sporadically at first, you'll produce a stunner!

Hi! It's a nice comparison with the two brands. The inconsistency in flow you mention in the video for the White Nights comes from the Cadmium pigments (Yellow, Red) that flow less, because Cadmiums usually don't flow as well as some other pigments. But that can genuinely happen in every brand, because dispersion is influenced by the binder/ox gall and the pigment itself, so there is no consistent dispersion within any brand. That is also what makes comparison difficult at times. Nevertheless it's worthy to see if a set is an upgrade and worth trying. :) Thank you for the video!

Great comparison but the dirty water really bugged me. 😰

Hands down the best and most thorough brand comparison I've seen! Thanks:)

I like them both. I started with van gogh and use them in my portable painter even though I now have over a hundred daniel smith colors. I also have every color of white nights besides a couple metallic. They are really good paints.

Such an in depth comparison! I just ordered the van gogh set but I also really like how the White Nights disperse in water (except for the greens). It was really cool to see your own way of testing the paints and I didn't expect the White Nights to not mix and blend out that well despite performing better in the dispersion test!

Very nice! I only have a van gogh yellow ochre in 10ml tube and mostly white nights. Will try van gogh soon. Thanks for sharing this 👍🏼

I'm a consumer. I still want both.

Nice comparison video. They are both very good paints. And really good value.

Both look good especially on the Canson. Side note. Good music.

Great review! I haven’t seen anyone put watercolour through it’s paces quite like this. I learned so much. I would definitely go for Van Gogh based on the transparency and the test you did that will tell you all you need to know! Thanks… oh and the music was a really nice touch, really went well with the painting.

Очень интересный обзор, всегда было интересно отношение иностранцев к нашей русской палитре белых ночей

Amazing! I have Van Gogh

It would have been fairer to compare Vangogh with Sonnet. Sonnet is the (quite good) student grade line by the producers of White Nights.

In White Nights, 1 red and 2 yellow pigments are cadmiums, which are very dense, very bright, granular and very expensive in other brands. They included cadmium in this set because at the time the composition of the set was approved more than 50 years ago, equally bright, light-resistant but transparent yellow and red did not exist. It is normal for cadmium to behave so opaquely, granulate and not budge. This does not mean that the paint is bad, it means that you do not know how to use this particular set. You need simpler kits with transparent and cheaper pigments.

I love your videos. The reviews are so thorough that the results are hard to dispute and make it easier for a novice like me to understand what the differences are. Thanks for another great video! Also, I have WN and just ordered VG to try. Looking forward to them arriving!

Thank you for this thorough review!

Considering the WN pans are twice as big as the VG, I'd say the price is better on WN. I do agree on the rest tho.

When you said , ‘ holy shit, did you see that. It just exploded’ . That was exactly how I felt when you started with the dispersion test for white nights

i really enjoyed this; thank you very much

I am a beginner and honestly I am struggling with Van Gogh. It is not flowy and gets muddy easyly to a point of no return.. Can't say I am enjoying to work with it.. My first experience with watercolors was 20 years ago with a small Rembrat set which wasn't mine.. So maybe I was scarred for life that my first experience was with the very best and student grade paints can't replicate that😂😂😂 I also have a Daler Rowney aquafine set which I don't know if student grade or not which I like better. Softer and easier to grab for sure... I also have a sonnet set from st. Petersburg which is the student version of White Nights. I didn't have much chance to play with them. Honestly it was so cheap that I only bought them for the metal case that it came in. After trying them, I can say they are very creamy and easy to pick up and very vibrant almost explosive, on the down side can be sticky and opaque from time to time, which is I guess consistant with White Nights series. Of all the three, I find myself reaching out to aquafine more even though t is my smallest palette. Sorry to take so long, I hope this helps someone🌸

I love both of them. Some Shades of WN are better than VG and some VG better than WN. I can’t decide which one I prefer more. My favourite watercolours are Schmincke. They are so vibrant and transparent, and pigmentation is stunning 🤩

Fookin...is that the scientific nomenclature? Enjoyed the comparison. Informative and yet informal. Add the background music was phenomenal, it made for a splendid video! Thank you for sharing this!!! Now I'm going to have to see if I can binge watch any more videos of yours...

One thing to have in mind when comparing watercolours like these is that the two brands use different pigments and that has an effect on how they behave. White Nights use cadmium pigments for 2 or 3 of the colours and they are opaque. That says nothing about the brand in general. Talens Van Gogh do not contain cadmium as they are student grade.

2022, mirando revisiones de acuarelas porque voy a comprar un set, en mi país hay distribuidores de estas 2 marcas, ;pero las Van Gogh están al doble de las White Nights, estoy sorprendida.

Definitely subd this is the 1st video of yours I watched. Awesome comparison and hope there are more of ypur videos like this if not I'd definitely enjoy them if you make them. Have a great day

I like the Van Gogh better. All it’s colors react the same way to water and that makes it easier to control.

I prefer Van Gogh, they are very fragmented and semi-dry unlike WN, in a tube they can last much longer than WN and a lot depends on the technique, after all there are very small differences but I prefer VG, yellow ocher in WN is desperate, secondly VG just needs to literally touch the cube and the brush pulls much more paint than WN and what would be said if someone does not have a painting spirit in their hands will not help even the best paint in the world (if you can say so) Schmincke, give VG in the hands of Djukaric and he will paint a masterpiece, give it to the amateur Schmincke and he will paint NOTHING. At that price, maybe a little more should be taken professional Koh I Noor, perfect colors side by side with Rembrandt for a little more price than VG or WN, watercolor is a "game" of strategy, technique, skills, and pre-created image in the head, small details are gems in watercolor and the most important thing is to learn to control water and to bring chance to your advantage, when this is achieved you become a watercolor master, it sounds easy but it takes many years (only if someone is ultra talented and catches it much earlier), but to put an end to VG, you need to practice and experiment with these colors for at least a year to start painting and your VG colors are very different from VG made in the Netherlands or Germany (Royal Talens sold to Germans, VG and Rembr, the difference is huge compared to those coming from China.

Very nice audio. Thanks!

Okay, Vincent van Gogh paints are student grade, while White Nights are considered artist professional grade. So, what is the difference? One of the differences when it comes to quality paints is having more color pigments than cheaper ones. I don't know about other brands when it comes to performance but if you want your White Nights to act like "Van Goghs" then you should use less paint. This is why it "exploded" in your cases.

I have both. The $$ White Nights wins for me because it's based on full pans, not half-pans like the van gogh. If you double the price of the van gogh and then compare...you see it's more expensive. Apparently that didn't matter to me because again, I now have both...lol. I like the variety of the White Nights better as far as characteristics of pigments have to be taken into account for when you paint where van gogh seems to be more consistent across the board, which is kinda boring...when you're playing around with color, but okay when you're learning to paint something. For whatever reasons, White Nights seemed like cleaner color...not only vibrancy wise, but also...glow-wise. I like the unpredictability of some colors...especially when painting clouds, water, atmosphere...and van gogh for land features. This was a pretty good video, very entertaining.

Super video sir 🔥❤

Hola! Recién empiezo en acuarela … cual me recomendas comprar de las dos? Gracias

While hue comparison can be helpful, it doesn't tell you much about the overall paint behaviour which can vary greatly depending on the pigment used. Plus you compared VG. Burnt Sienna with a WN. Yellow Ochre which are nowhere near to each other in terms of hue. Same goes for White Nights Green vs VG. Sap Green.

Great comparison! 👍 I have and use them both interchangeably. And also Rosa Gallery, they are my favourite so far. But is it completely fair to compare "professional" grade WN with "student" VG? 🤔

Please Review Mijello mission gold and lana aquarelle paper also

After watching your this video. I also prefer WG

I use both brands

What kind of little spry you used on WN?

You wouldn't happen to have a comparison between the Van Gogh and the W&N Cotman, would you? I'm currently looking for a set for urban sketching and found the Cotman Watercolour Set (20x5ml tubes) selling for 25€, while this Van Gogh set (15 colors) is selling for 21€ and the VG Watercolour Set (10 x 10 ml tubes) goes up to 31€. I was inclined to get the W&N Cotman since it has more colors, but I'm seeing so many people hating on Cotman and/or loving Van Gogh that is making me hesitant. Any advice/suggestions?

Lightfastness? Which one is better?

what is your sound track?

Grt vedio sirrrr 😁😁

"Cheap watercolor set comparison" ...and here in Perú this watercolors are expensive :'(

Today I ordered 10 half pan colors of the jaxon watercolor,2 of the VanGogh and 2 of the Winsor and Newton..It was about 15€ I hope they are ok😅

VG is not cheap coming from the Netherlands at all, and the Chinese one is 30% cheaper and much less high quality, I have a set of 18 pans and a Chinese white in a 10ml tube, dark gray 10 ml in a tube and costs 90e

WN have different quality of colors in each box.

both of watercolor is best but it's not available on Flipkart or Amazon

‘You can see every fooking stroke’ 😂 I thing for sure at the start WN is better until that tower of fooking mess in the freestyle blending section.

Vangogh tube or cake?

Don't use colours with honey straight from the pan, they can't flow that way. Pre-mix both colours with water and then compare the pigmentation and flow behaviour. White nights has three cadmium colors in the set, Van Gogh has none. White Nights has mostly single pigment colors, Van Gogh uses cheaper pigments and 6 out of 15 are consist of double pigments, they are more problematic to mix. I like Van Gogh from the tubes, but you have to choose to buy the single pigment colours. White Nights already provides the right colours for a good start in the set.

I like thst there is no talking. I feel like a lot of people are taking too much time talking about nothing and wasting time in total

I can't concentrate because of the dirty water

in due proportions, because withe nigths is a professional line and vangogh is a student

Van Gogh is lightfast across the entire line. White Nights is unfortunately not, in fact many of their paints labelled as lightfast are fugitive including including the new orange, and most of the pastels. They used to be even worse... so maybe one day they will take permanence seriously and fix the issues.

Нада было воду поменять после ванного и делать сравнения а не краску мутить.

Daniel Smith for the win!

You call this cheap????