Burnt Sienna studies: White Nights.
I own an old set from Nevskaya Palitra(better known as St. Petersburg) that I suspect to be an older version of ‘White Nights’ sets. It was purchased on eBay around 4 years ago, and the colours were lightly used, with no names or info on them. As I delve into watercolour paints and have been using them as my main medium for a while now, I became curious about these paints. Some of them were easy to tell, but even with lots of comparisons to the colour charts available online(including the one from Nevskaya Palitra), some colours were rather challenging. In particular, Burnt Sienna. It’s because I have three reddish earth colours remaining in this set, and apart from the obvious English Red that is usually rather opaque, the remaining two were difficult to tell which was which.
So I went and bought a few new White Nights pans while I was out recently, and tested the new, clearly labelled Burnt Sienna out along with the two pans that have been bugging me. Well, it confused me even further. When I compared them as they are in pans, I could tell which would be ‘the one’ as its colour appeared very close to the new pan. Then, when I swatched them out, the other one that appeared darker in the pan was more convincing to be burnt sienna.
(from top to bottom: Burnt Sienna(new), red earth tone no 1(old), red earth tone no 2(old).)
All three seemed to create nice range of grey tones including neutrals. But, where’s my answer? I decide to do another test.
This time, I also threw in two red earth colours my friend and I made a while ago. For those two, it was clear that the bottom one was to be burnt sienna, as the other one created a range of greys that are more violet hued. The test was conducted with burnt sienna/red earth colours and a ultramarine blue(self made), then again with the French ultramarine light extra from Old Holland. I was still not satisfied, it was difficult for me to tell which was which. Also, I decided to use a bought ultramarine instead of the self made one, as I found our own to be too granular(it was a test batch, so not at all perfect to serve as a paint yet), and wasn’t mixing well with other colours.
(the tiny colour dots are done digitally, spot coloured from the painted samples. I also marked which samples appear to be the most neutral - it was quite difficult as ultramarine was separating heavily.)
So...the third(and last!) swatch sheet. I excluded self made colours completely, and instead, added Van Gogh’s and Winsor and Newton’s in. The reason was that I suspected one of the old White Nights pans to be a red ochre. And it was pretty clear that I might have been right. The top two are the most similar, although the old burnt sienna from White Nights has a deeper tone, which I adore. The new one, I find a bit too red to my liking - but it is still a very nice colour.
My least favourite in all burnt siennas I’ve owned and used is the one from Winsor and Newton - as you can see in the swatch, it’s very flat, and rather orange-y. Which is nice if you want a light earthy tone, but I find it not very useful. Van Gogh’s, on the other hand, having an additional black pigment PBk11, is much better - it is closer to a burnt sienna, and and makes nice greys(not a surprise as it already has a black pigment!).
I also threw in my other favourite earth colour, Mars Brown from White Nights and mixed it with Cerulean blue(also from White Nights). Mars Brown is made of PBr6 transparent, which is rare to find in other paint makers. It’s nice and very transparent for an earth colour. With cerulean blue, I could create a range of soft green hues.
I have added the new burnt sienna from White Nights in the comparison chart I have created a while ago. You can see the difference between the new and old version(top two are White Nights - new, then old) Personally I like the old one better as its own, but new one makes better mixed greys. The chart above will be finished soon and I will make the second burnt sienna study post when it is done!
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