For many professional artists, watercolor today is not a serious artistic medium, but for some it is their whole life. Although the recipe for water-based paints was not invented yesterday, it was not given its due for too long: there was no established technique that would reveal the best features of this amazing variety of paints.
Today it is used, if not by all professionals, then at least by many amateurs of a decent level. In some cases, talent may remain undiscovered if someone knowledgeable does not suggest a good type of watercolor to such a person.
Many people believe that Leningrad watercolor paints are something that everyone who wants to succeed in watercolor painting should try at least once in their life.
About the manufacturer
Any accomplished artist of the post-Soviet space, even if he has never been interested in watercolors, should be familiar with this name, but for a person just discovering the magical world of watercolor drawing, a short excursion into history should be made.
The paint and varnish plant on the site where the Nevskaya Palitra artistic paints plant is now located was founded more than a hundred years ago, even before the revolution. However, only in 1934 did he have serious prospects, when by order of the then Soviet government it was decided to turn the enterprise into one of the largest in the country. This is not to say that it was the only one of its kind, however It was Leningrad paints that Soviet watercolorists loved more than all others.
There were practically no imports from abroad in those days, and other factories in the Soviet Union could not offer products of equal quality.
Nowadays, watercolor lovers have a huge selection of relevant products from all the leading brands in the world, but the majority still claims that Nevskaya Palitra watercolors remain at the level of the world's best examples. The company positions itself as a manufacturer whose specialty is professional artistic watercolors, and indicates that the brand is known far beyond Russia. Series like “Sonnet”, “Ladoga” or “White Nights” (the latter also includes the “Leningrad” sets) are rightly considered the best of their kind.
Range
Speaking about the Leningrad assortment, you shouldn’t expect much variety - after all, we’re not talking about a brand or even a series, but just about one of the sets from the White Nights series. Traditionally, such a set is produced in two versions - 16 and 24 colors, although the plant’s rules are to produce separate ditches with paints of one or another shade, which allows you to both replace the used colors and add new ones to the standard set, expanding your own palette.
The type of packaging may vary slightly. In Soviet times, artists valued not only the watercolors of this brand, but also the form in which it was produced: a plastic box, which at the same time represented a palette. Nowadays, most of the Leningrad sets are still produced in plastic packaging, but there are also varieties in a metal or cardboard box, which in one direction or another affects the cost of the set.
Advantages and disadvantages
Many reviews indicate that previously the branded products of this brand were still of higher quality, but still everyone involved notes that even today this set can safely be called one of the best. He is valued for the following positive qualities.
- High quality pigments. The plant that produces Leningrad has its own workshop that produces pigments, thanks to which the company has a huge number of shades produced in-house. Most of them are single-pigment, which guarantees no dirt. It is quite obvious that such paints mix well with each other. As a rule, dyes are made from natural raw materials, so the paints are lightfast, only some shades fade, which the manufacturer carefully warns about on the label of each individual cuvette.
Careful grinding of pigments helps to obtain the most intense brightness, which cannot be overcome even by adding a large amount of water.
- Gum arabic. For watercolors, the binder used is of great importance, and gum arabic is considered the best vegetable glue. It provides the required paint viscosity without interfering with the good distribution of pigments over the surface of the paper. High transparency, which allows you to create real masterpieces using the glazing technique, is also achieved thanks to the addition of gum arabic.
Sometimes you can come across criticism that some shades offered by the manufacturer fade quite quickly, but St. Petersburg residents at least write about this on the ditches, while with competitors the consumer can only guess what his work will look like years later. The high cost is also periodically criticized, which now fluctuates around a thousand rubles per set, however, this is a normal price for such quality.
Watch the following video for 10 mistakes when using watercolors.
I think everyone knows very well that watercolors are water-based paints that contain a lot of binding materials, making them bright, clean, transparent, plastic and long-lasting.
At first glance, the choice seems large, especially considering the number of colors - your head is spinning! But in reality, everything is not so difficult. Watercolor comes in the following forms: solid (in tiles), semi-solid or paste (in tubes and ditches), liquid (in bubbles and jars from 29 to 35 ml) and pearlescent. Well, let's look at each of them.
Solid watercolor in tiles
Absolutely any solid watercolor is an economical option and great for beginners. Agree, there is no point in throwing money away on expensive paints, which we will talk about below, if the student is taking up a brush for the first time. These paints are of pretty good quality, as the days of dry paints are long gone.
Where is it used? In addition to children and schoolchildren, it can be used by professionals in painting, creating posters and drawing work, unless of course it is of the highest grade.
Semi-solid watercolor in cuvettes
Semi-solid watercolor paints in pans produce vibrant color tones and adhere well to paper. The affordable price, compactness and long shelf life make this type of watercolor paint an indispensable tool for every writer. They mix well and give calm color tones.
They can be produced (depending on the manufacturer) in a cardboard or plastic box. Activists who mix paints directly in baths will most likely understand all the advantages of a plastic box. After all, a cardboard box gets dirty pretty quickly.
This watercolor is convenient for small-scale works and for saving time on mixing.
Paste watercolor in tubes
Well, this is usually a classic painting. If you are working on large format works, then using soft paste watercolor paint in tubes will help you with intensive use. This option is certainly not for budget-conscious people, but the paints do not get dirty with each other.
Judging by the experience of some artists, such paint is applied unevenly to the brush, and the strokes are intermittent. Also, when applying it to the canvas, clumps of paint may form. Therefore, this watercolor is not entirely suitable for the “raw painting” technique.
Any set must contain all the basic colors. It is usually diluted with water in the palette tray, with a tiny drop of semi-liquid paint. It can “live” for decades. And if you're lucky, you'll find them in the store individually.
In general, if you clearly understand what you need them for, then you can take them as a second set. It will be especially useful if you can manipulate the mixing of paints without any problems.
I would also advise you to take a folding plastic palette separately, into which it will be convenient to squeeze out paints.
By the way, when they dry, they can be used as if they were dry. Used cuvettes can be filled in the same way.
Liquid and pearlescent watercolors
As for liquid watercolors, we can say that they can be difficult to find on sale. They are very easy to work with; you can write with them either directly from the container or by diluting them with water. Pros: gorgeous bright color, saturation, many different shades and beautiful combinations. There is a dropper in the small vials on the stopper. It is convenient for accurately maintaining the required proportions.
Where is it used? When working with an airbrush, liquid watercolor is our everything. The same goes for traditional watercolor paintings. Pros use distilled water.
As for pearlescent watercolors, their colored pigments adhere perfectly to the surfaces of wood, fabric, plaster, paper and cardboard.
About the manufacturers
For beginners (as well as experienced) artists, I recommend taking paints from the manufacturers “Sonnet” and “Nevskaya Palitra”. This is the most optimal, especially since the price and quality are correlated. The same can be said about Leningrad.
By the way, the colors of the Sonnet company are much brighter. Very good “White Nights” paints: they are usually used in art schools.
Domestic tests show that White Nights watercolor paints successfully compete and even surpass other manufacturers (Gamma, Luch, Aquacolor and Winsor And Newton).
“Nevskaya Palitra” is just trying, and very quickly, to break into the foreign market.
One thing can be said about the foreign “Winsor And Newton”: very expensive! However, our manufacturers can only envy such convenience. It is unlikely that anything similar will be produced in our country - a well-thought-out comfortable workplace, spacious boxes - transformers, places for a flask of water, a folding brush, a sponge, a set of several ditches with paints and much more. All that remains is to dream and hope.
Conclusion
So we, perhaps, have become a little familiar with what types of watercolor paints there are. It’s up to you to decide what to choose and who to give your preference to. Experiment and try, the main thing is to pay attention to the lightfastness and transparency of paints when choosing them, since absolutely any paint tends to fade, but with varying degrees of intensity.
As a result, I would like to say that a box of watercolor paints can contain 6,10,12,16,24,36, or even 48 colors. Is it a lot or a little? Here we can answer this: for a professional this can be a lot, since he almost always uses only basic colors. But for convenience, even picky pros can use ready-made tones. A beginner who has not yet learned how to mix colors correctly will also benefit from additional colors, because he will not be able to do otherwise.
In any case, this is individual, but remember that each paint has its own qualities of light fastness and, which is very important for watercolors - hiding power!
ABOUT PAINTS
(a little specifics. Brands)
(pictures in the text are clickable)
Due to my territorial location, I had the opportunity to communicate mainly with watercolors produced by the Leningrad Artistic Paints Plant (now ZHK Nevskaya Palitra»
).
It was there that the legendary Leningrad set was produced, the quality of the paints was not inferior to the best foreign analogues. Particular delight was caused by its 24-color version in a plastic palette box.
My preserved “combat” boxes don’t look so presentable now :)
Alas, the new plastic boxes of Nevskaya Palitra are very inferior in functionality to these old ones.
Perhaps contemplation"Leningrad" in childhood and was, for me, the beginning of my journey into watercolor. The plant also produced a high-quality Neva set (in tubes) at that time. Later there were “Black River”, “White Nights”.
One of the latest sets of this plant - “Summer Garden”, is distinguished by the presence of new flowers, unusual, to put it mildly, in my opinion.
Recently, for a combination of reasons, I have not used paints from this company.
Watercolor paints "Studio" (Gamma, Moscow), at one time, attracted me with the presence of ceruleum and viridon paints, as well as retail sale of tubes. Unfortunately (about the tubes), the quality is not always satisfactory or inconsistent, even for the colors tested. Golden ocher, which I actively used, when diluted with water, suddenly began to “bubble”, mix worse in already tested combinations and produce “dirt” on the sheets, especially large-textured ones.
Once upon a time, in search of new color solutions, I turned to paints from such a famous manufacturer as. The activity is very expensive. The need for it disappeared after the expansion of the range of domestic watercolor paints.
A big “holiday” was the emergence of a new St. Petersburg manufacturer “Aquacolor”, which succeeded in creating high-quality colors of “elegant” tones.
24 color sets "Aquacolor" are available in various designs. The photo shows boxes with fragments of watercolors by Vasily Sadovnikov, Yuri Shevchik* and Konstantin Kuzema
But the new product “Sonet” (LLC “Sonet”, St. Petersburg)** turned out to be very unsatisfactory in quality. Well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth :)
"Sonnet" in 10 ml tubes.
Box from the sponsorship lot for the St. Petersburg Watercolor Society.
I first learned about the existence of “Grandfather’s” watercolors in a Kizhi plein air from a Moscow artist, and after a while I accidentally became the owner of these paints.
"Grandfather's" paints, gifted to the author by a site user
Forty flowers, divided into two boxes according to warmth and coldness.The balanced variety of colors makes you want not to use mixtures and use only pure paints.The watercolor qualities of all the colors seemed wonderful to me in the samples.
However, it was precisely this unusual balance of shades, as well as the presence of “white watercolor” and the increased “dullness” of the surfaces of the paints in the ditches that alerted me.
After a series of comparative experiments with covering strokes, it turned out that white*** was used when forming the color range of these paints (as in gouache). Thus, “Grandfather’s” paints are a kind of “hybrid” between watercolor and gouache, but with pronounced watercolor capabilities.
Not much is known about the manufacturer of these paints, and there is no data on their light fastness.
We don’t consider “school” paints by default, although they can do good, as I wrote about in the previous part.
Do not try to use paints from one company, this will narrow your options.
While preparing this article, in my workshop I came across this exotic product from an unknown manufacturer:
Coarse watercolors in tubes of approximately 50 ml. The inscription on the box: “Part of the funds received from the sale of watercolors will go to the restoration of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery.”
And the words “Honey watercolor” reminded me of my childhood. To check if this was true, we licked the colors of “Leningrad” with our tongue. They were really sweet...
Addition.
End of 2011. First batch of liquid watercolors from a domestic manufacturer:
"Petersburg Modern". Liquid watercolor from Aqua-color (St. Petersburg)
Watercolor White Nights, Leningrad, Sonnet, St. Petersburg, Ladoga
Nevskaya palette- St. Petersburg plant of artistic paints, founded in 1934. For more than 80 years, this brand has been the most famous brand of artistic products in Russia. Outside our country paints ZHK Nevskaya Palitra are also widely known and many artists around the world love and paint colors of the Nevsky palette.
In this short article we will talk about watercolors Nevsky Palitra and what benefits have made it the favorite paint of artists around the world!
Watercolor White Nights- paints contain finely ground pigment, to which natural gum arabic is added - the best vegetable glue for paints. Paints are available in sets 48 , 36 , 24 And 12 colors, and also individually. Total palette colors watercolor paints White Nights has 56 colors, of which 40 consist of only one pigment and do not contain any extraneous additives.
Watercolor Leningrad - another well-known brand of watercolors from Nevskaya Palitra, also made from the finest ground pigment and gum arabic. This is a great student option that will instill a love for watercolors and help you feel how pleasant it is to work with high-quality paints. Every job done watercolors Leningrad. Sets of watercolors Leningrad contains 24
Watercolor St. Petersburg - professional watercolor paints. The works done by them practically do not lose their original appearance over the years and look as if they were painted yesterday.
Watercolor Sonnet- paints are on sale in sets 16 And 24 colors and by the piece. Each shade is contained in a 2.5 mg cuvette. Watercolor paints Sonnet mix well and spread over the paper surface.
Watercolor Ladoga- a great option for beginning artists. If you are looking for a high-quality and affordable option, then watercolor paints Ladoga ideal for beginners.
Advantages watercolor paints Nevskaya Palitra:
High light fastness
Ink spread on paper
Excellent color transparency
Brightness and color of colors
Nevsky Palette watercolors are chosen for themselves and restoration artists. Experts use Nevsky Palette paints to restore picturesque objects in the Hermitage, Tretyakov Gallery, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Russian Museum and other important cultural heritage sites of the Russian Federation.
They are a legend.
The best watercolors that exist! It’s not enough to say that I adore the watercolors produced by ZK (St. Petersburg). I’m just ready to sing odes of praise to them endlessly. I myself own 2 sets of watercolors “Leningrad” and 1 set “White Nights”. I also have a studio watercolor from “Gamma” (Moscow), but... I’ll tell you about it later, because I haven’t seen any colors weaker than it yet. And now we will talk about my favorite St. Petersburg watercolor.
My set of “White Nights” paints consists of 12 colors - there are 24 colors and 36 colors. If necessary, I can purchase additional colors. Individual cuvettes are not so critical. This set of 12 colors cost me 798 rubles. However, the prices for it depend on where you live and whether paints produced by Nevskaya Palitra are generally available in your city.
This is what they look like when closed. The lid closes tightly, there is no play. It is easy to open with your fingertips.
And in open form:
Each box of paints should contain such a piece of paper with the inscription “Checked by Quality Control Department”. The production date is also stamped on this piece of paper. Unfortunately, I lost the cardboard packaging for the paints. The names of the pigments that are supplied in this set were written there. In other matters, I dare to note that almost all sets produced by the Nevskaya Palitra plant are similar to each other. No matter which one you take - “Ladoga”, “White Nights”, “Leningrad” - the pigments will be the same everywhere.
As you can see, I use this set - there is a small dried puddle left in the lemon one. At the moment I have work in progress, but I won’t show it as an example. Half of the work is not shown in public.
I took an almost macro photo on purpose. I didn’t really use dark tones - and so on throughout my life in the dark, how long can it be?
About the purpose of the paints: these are professional watercolors. It is intended for painting and design work, as well as for art schools. Although, for painting you need 24 colors - there are more mixing options, more halftones. But even from 12 colors you can mix something. Moreover, here the color depends on the water and how much paint gets on the brush. A softer color requires more water and less pigment, while a brighter color requires less water and more pigment.
The cuvettes are also easy to remove from the box:
As you can see, there is a plastic retainer underneath them; the cuvettes are not located individually in the box.
I took red because... love this color. By the way, bright red does not have very good lightfastness - it is marked with two stars. I hope there is no need to explain that there is light fastness. On the cardboard packaging of paints everything is written about this.
Also on each ditch there is the “ZK” logo and the inscription “St. Petersburg”. This is a kind of guarantee of high quality.
In general, I am ready to endlessly praise St. Petersburg paints, but then my review will be too long. The only disadvantage of paints is their price, and the fact that they are produced in small quantities. And accordingly, they can be difficult to get.
