White Nights are actually artists grade. Sonnet is student grade. There is a "Saint-Petersburg" paints - that's the one Alice has shown and "White Nights" paints. They're from the same factory, the only difference is packages and maybe some pans that comes in set. I strongly advice against buying them in Amazon - the price is ridiculous. On eBay 36 set costs around $48.
My mom said they were classified as student but I'm not 100% sure. They are definitely well above student in terms of quality and equal to any professional paint I've ever used, even if they are classed as student!
what alice have/had is the yarka one and from what i've read it's the student quality or the knock off version of the real white nights which is nevskaya - the the artist quality watercolor!
The White Nights/Yarka/St Petersburg are all the same paints, and are artists quality. ( different branding names over time, the most recent and streamline is white night) Their student quality paints are the Sonnet.
I just watched all of your watercolor 101 videos and I am so thankful for them!!! I've been wanting to try watercolor so so much lately and these are all the informations I needed in order to know what to get and how to start, thank you soooooo much!!! Have a very lovely day :) !!
count how many times she says paint......... 1 2 3......................................................... 45 46 47......................................... 78 79.................. i give up lol. love u
I never knew about zecchi until I saw your video and wanted to try them out. I bought their 48 color palette and it is phenomenal! Thanks for sharing information about them :)
I first saw this video in 2015 and still come back to it time and time again, because I just love the enthusiasm and passion Alice has in this video. It is probably my favorite watercolor related video on all of RU-vid!
I have tons of paints, lots of different brands. I personally think most of the artists quality paints are equally as good as each other. I think I'd give the nod to W & N. I got rid of my White Nights as I wasn't convinced about their lightfast qualities. Having said that they are loaded with pigment and a great option for beginners but not nearly as good as Daler artists paints. Good review though, lots of good points.
I just bought the winsor & newton travel kit and I'm so excited to use it 😍 This watercolors thing just came to my head and I'm welling to learn how to watercolour 😌 You're video helped so thank u so much 💘💘
Thanks for the video HulloAlice - I agree on the Schmincke, probably the worlds best watercolor paints, unless you buy boutique paints. I buy mine from a great little local art store here in Saint Paul called Wet Paint, but have also found them on eBay and the major online art supply sellers. Thanks again.
Owings Art - Yess! My mum is actually in England right now and she's picked me up some new pan refills that I needed through the SAA which gives great deals! I believe they only ended up costing about $4 or $5 per pan!
I'm asking for the Saint Petersburg paints for my birthday! I've been using the daler rowney student quality tubes for starting out for the past 5-6 months. My birthday is in November and I am very excited to get some new paints!
I started with the vangogh and used them for 2 years at least ! i loved them quite a lot but i wanted more colors so i invested into individuals colors of the winsor&newton artist's watercolor (they changed the name to a very posh version called "profesionnal watercolor"). I like the W&N a lot, i mostly use them because they are very pigmented but i also noticed that they are a bit too creamy for me, it's easy to get too much paint. I also use a cupple colors from sennelier artist's quality and i also tried the Lukas brand for a cupple colors. I have my favorite in each brands. I have enough colors now but i'm still hopin to test out the schmicke one day. I don't know about the brand you mum's use, is this available in France ? what's the name ? i heard may mary but i'm not sure. I want to get a new set one day but i got extra colors recently and now that i have around 10 new 1/2 pans i need to use them up a bit and sell some originals in order for me to buy a new set of schminke and i would also love to get my hands on a pad of arches paper (but this is so expensive) and also artist's quarlity acrylics (but that's also super expensive) Art supplies are killing my bank account LOL XD
+Sakuems - Van Gogh is really nice for the price for sure! I've heard the Winsor & Newton professional is fantastic though I've not tried it myself. I totally understand what you mean by creamy! I hate that! It ruins the pretty translucency of watercolor I find and can make it muddy. I find that my Zecchi paints tend to do that, it comes along with the honey and super pigmented quality. I suppose it's a worthwhile tradeoff! The brand my mum uses is called "Maimeri," though I recently believe she has switched to Daniel Smith. I think from watching your videos that you might really like the Maimeri - I tested both the Maimeri and the Schminke and the Maimeri was more vibrant in terms of color. I chose the Schminke for myself because I like to build up color really slowly with lots of neutrals, but you have such lovely bright pieces that Maimeri might work well for you! Art supplies kill my bank account to... I went to the art store the other day for a sketchbook... I came out with an entirely new set of watercolor paints. *dies*
You inspired me to look around for a local watercolor made with honey here is the U.S. And I found MGraham that's made in a neighboring state. I can get a 15ml tube for $8-10 xD I'm also going to get some St. Petersburg paints too soon. Been looking at it and it seems to have exactly what I'm looking for in a good intermediate set. Thanks for sharing your know-how regarding Watercolors here with us and happy painting!
I would really like to see the Maimeriblu watercolors, and see them in action. I like bold and bright colors. I've heard that Old Holland are very intense too. Do you have any experience with them? Linda
TheArtimatum - I'm so glad it helped you! I was worried it would be too long, but I really wanted to go into the details without it being overwhelming!
HulloAlice I started getting into watercolours only recently.... I used to find them very messy and uncontrolable.... but that was because I didn't know how to use them of course... but now that I'm older I really got into them so I watched a lot of videos talking about watercolours... but I almost lost hope in finding the perfect supplies and shopping for them is quite overwhelming... I wasn't just trying to be nice in my last comment... I actually meant it! Thank you! One more thing... the length of the video doesn't really matter as long as your audience are engaged with the content and are enjoying it ;) keep the good work up!
I come originally from Russia and I remember White Nights being called Leningrad. It was fairly decent back then, but cobalt blue along with some other pigments were too grainy, so I switched to Van Gogh paints. I love them, but now I feel that emerald green is a bit chalky for me (as I love mixing blacks from it), but how surprised I was when I saw the newer White Nights paints with great cobalt blue and a really dark emerald green. But for a long time I have been using my assembled set of paint from different manufacturers, whichever pigments I like the best. By the way, the transparent versions of some pigments by Schmincke are just awesome, especially transparent sienna is indispensable.
HELP NEEDED PLEASE!!! Just wondering since this video was posted in 2014 whether you still recommend the mentioned brands or are there better options that have become available. Anyone's suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you Alice for this fantastically informative and educational content! I'm just getting into watercolour and am enjoying watching your videos. Keep up the great work!
I'm into my third year of watercolor & I find this is so informative & wonderful. You answer so many of my questions. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you speak. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge-it is so welcome.
I'm now realizing that my grandma was right. ..she recently told me when I went to St. peterburgs that if your looking for good paints,go for these st Petersburg Ones! but since I just started watercoloring, and those paints were like 25 dollars for 12 pans (expensive in the city) I opted for normal kids cheap watercolors!they were made with honey, and I actually like how they worked...and now I realize how lucky I am to buy 24 pan set of watercolors made with honey for about 5-10 dollars! :3 This introductory course helped alot!Thanks!
I like cotmans but they don't layer very well (could be the paper I'm using but they start to lift after about two layers in my experience). I was looking to upgrade and had my eye on the St Petersburg paints which market themselves as artist quality but you were calling student quality. Would you consider them an upgrade to cotmans/ better for that sort of application? I don't have much money to invest in new supplies but if I'm spending £50 I want to make sure I'm getting a step up.
thank you so much! This was very informative. Have you used or know anything about Blick artists watercolors? Also, I was in France and bought a set of pure pigment that is intended to be added to a medium for painting...do you have any experience making your own or know a good source for this?
Hi I'm only a begginer and I am thinking about buying new student quality paints and I was considering W&N Cotman watercolors. Do you prefer Cotman colors or should I go with artist grade ones like Sennelier which is in the same price span?
Random Metalhead That's because it's eastern/asian paints. It doesn't act like western watercolors. You can even say it's a different category of water activated paints (I guess it's called Gansai).
Thanks for this video. I am trying to decide on the brand for my first artist grade WC set. I can get Schminke or Maimeri locally and after this video I decide to get Maimeri first. I will also buy individual tubes from both brands but it really helped me understand the difference between them.
Real empathy and enthusiasm.. Alice knows where her audience is coming from.. and that's a rare quality. The idea is to get people drawing and painting... Not to dance around on the head of pin and point score.. sadly some comments do just that. Great teachers pass on their zeal and excite their students to take action. Alice, you do exactly that.
I'm about to buy some better paints (what I have now is pretty much chalk and dye, it's terrible) and I must've watched this video at least ten times. right now I'm deciding between cotman and Van Gogh
hi do you know anything about Lukas watercolor paints? i can't seem to find a panset of Winsor and Newton paints, but i found Lukas. do you know if they are good quality?
Hey Alice, I live in Germany and I'm in between Schmincke and Winsor Newton artist quality whole pan sets! right now on the 12-pan sets, there is a huge price difference (schmincke is 59 euros and W&N is 154 euros online). I have read many many reviews and they all conclude that W&N is the best, so I dont know what to do! Maybe buy the W&N set and get some extra Schmincke pans in the middle row that's empty? Or otherwise? :')
Don't listen to the comments on how you do this, your doing just fine. Your interesting and entertaining, never will you please everyone. Just do it in a way that that suites yourself. Go girl.
White Nights or Saint Petersburg are positioned as an artist quality paints. Do you position it to student quality by your own opinion with comparing to other brands?
Hi, I loved yur video, thanks for the information. Just in case you're interested in knowing, the Saint Petersburg watercolors are very inexpensive here in Europe! I find them at 1.25 euros per full pan instead of about 3-4 euros for a Winsor & Newton half-pan, so yeah, I'm in love with them :) Just wanted to let you know because some of your suscribers might live in Europe and could be interested in this bit of information.
My mom is an artist and I never seen her use water colors she normally paints on a canvas, so when I wanted to use water colors I had/have a lot of trouble with it.
Вы проходили курсы "говори пять слов в секунду"?) Было бы интересно послушать, но не могу воспринимать английский язык когда дикция быстрее, чем я могу осознать смысл...
TYVM for all of this wonderful information. I am a Stamper/Card Maker and I just bought my 1st watercolor set Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 and I really like it ;). Trying to learn all I can. Do you have a opinion about those watercolor paints? And I just came across the White Nights Russian Watercolor paints and I am going to buy a set of those as well. Your video was awesome!
Lil StampBug I have not tried them but if you like them and they're working for you then that's so great! I think paint is very personal! For example, my mum LOVES super super pigmented paint, but I personally prefer paint that isn't QUITE so pigmented as I can create more natural tones with it, so I actually get along a lot better with cheaper paint than she does! I hope you like the White Nights paints! They're very pigmented and should be good for card making I would think!
Hi Alice! I'm thoroughly enjoying your videos. You've shared lots of good info that took me months to sort through. Thank you :) You mentioned honey based watercolor paints. Have you tried M.Graham watercolors? I love them! I tried them after using cheap student paints that dried and cracked on me. They are loaded with pigment! I'm curious if you've tried them and if so, i'd love to see a video where you compare them to other quality paints you recommend. Keep up the nice informative videos. Thank you :)
Thanks for this! I've been water colouring only for a little bit and I love it but and I want to do more with it I just didn't know about good paints or what brand I should get. And I never new about the filler but now that I do know about it I'll check the watercolour paints I've been using to see if there is any filler in them I got them for cheap so most likely.
Are Schminke watercolors still your very favorite? Have you tried Holbein, Old Holland or Senniler watercolors? I have only tried Daniel Smith and M. Graham. I didn't care for M. Graham because the pigment color is so very saturated and intense and if you use too much it is really bad. You can't use too much paint with Daniel Smith.
Can you make a detailed video about Zecchi watercolors? I cant find a decent review about it anywhere... I want to buy the Schmincke set but my aunt is going to italy and I'm wondering if I should ask for a zecchi palette (she's going to the actual store!) Do you think Schmincke is better?
Did you have any experience with Sennelier watercolors? They're honey-based watercolors too. I've been scratching my head lately about whether should I choose student quality with more color selections or artist quality with basic range of colors. Can you give me some advice?
Quyen-kun - Absolutely artist quality, 100%! it's paint - with a few basic colors you can make almost any other color out there! The quality will make the biggest difference.
I am interested in learning to paint and have no idea whether I will like watercolor, acrylic or oil paints best but the one I want to try first is watercolor and I found this video very informative, helpful and just plain enjoyable to watch. Thank you so much for sharing. I just subscribed. I look forward to learning from your videos.
I would recommend just trying as much as you can! I haven't been painting for long, and I haven't tried oils yet, but the more that you try and practice, the better you will get at it and enjoy them!
This video was very informative, would you recommend say a set of cotman/van gough 12 tube paints for a beginner or a set of 24 pan paints from white nights? Thanks
+Phanic! at the Disco I also found that White Night is ARTIST GRADE, not student grade, I was so surprised because they are extremely affordable, I would love to try them sometimes in the future ^^
I'm fun of rube paint, cuz u can squeeze paint everywhere let it dry and paint. U can squeeze that thing in your ears! U can make custom palette and don't worry about pans size!
This is something I've been trying to work on in my newer videos, I've always had such a problem with it! Thanks so much for the feedback and I'm so glad I could help you!!
You speak so quickly omg xD I was wondering about Winsor and Newton, Is it artist quality or student quality? I'm only 11, I have tube and pan paint, both are only pound land items. I have just ordered some Winsor and Newton 45 half pan palette, Is this a good decision or is it bad for a child like me? I wouldn't say I am ''beginner'' because I have been doing painting, drawing and watercolours since I was 5. The only thing I am confused about is that you've said that W and N is ''decent'' but I have seen so many artists use the 45 half pan palette and say it's very good, their paintings are amazing? Do you have to be one with the watercolours to make them work? Sorry for asking all of these questions xDD I love your videos xx
Yess I keep seeing professional ppl using W&N and also recommending it and she says they're decent, now I'm not sure what to buy cz I was abt to buy a W&N palette
What about water color gouache set? Have you ever use it before or any preference? I thinking about buying one of those because they have advantage of acrylic paint.
I soooooo hope you will cover brushes that are not from animals. Maybe you can point me to certain lines or materials to look for. Me and the animals thank you.
kitbot bot - I am absolutely going to discuss both natural and artificial hair brushes! I know it's a sensitive subject, so I'm going to try to cover all my bases and provide options for whatever you are most comfortable with! I actually prefer artificial fiber brushes simply because of the feel of them when painting myself, so I will be talking about it for sure :)
