Question 1

There are two photos for this item, both very different. Is there a way of knowing which one I'd get if I ordered? One photo shows one mixing tray.

Accepted Answer

What you would receive when you order this from Blick is pictured as the palette with two rows of pans and a sort of "gutter" between the two rows. There are two fold-out sections to the palette, one of which also serves as the lid. This is the most recent incarnation of these palettes, although some photos on Amazon are still showing the older version.

Question 2

Are these the same as White Nights?

Accepted Answer

They are not the same. The original paints "White Nights" are produced by Nevskaya Palitra manufacture in St.Petersburg, Russia for about 100 years. Their paints are the highest quality watercolors available on the market. Other Nevskaya Palitra paints (different quantity of pans and different containers) are also known by names "Saint Petersburg" and "Leiningrad" but again, produced by Nevskaya Palitra, not Yarka.

Question 3

What are the colors included in this set?

Accepted Answer

Blue Lake, Bright Blue, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cobalt Blue, English Red, Glauconite, Golden Ochre, Green Russian, Green Original, Hansa Yellow, Neutral Tint Black, Orange Lake, Raw Sienna, Rose, Scarlet, Shakhnazarskaya Red, Ultramarine, Violet, Voronezhskaya Black, Yellow Green and Yellow Ochre

Question 4

Why doesn't the set include a white?  I'm just starting watercolors.  Isn't white needed?

Accepted Answer

There are two B R O A D categories of watercolor painters, and of course some painters cross the line from time to time. 1) Those who believe that any overly opaque work (white being the biggest villain) violates the purist rules. White is paper--the end! This attitude can lead to some excellent skills in the craft, and so even if you are not interested in being a purist, you might choose to work that way until your skills get to a high level, or not. 2) Those who have no problem working opaquely into the product, to include white. This can move all the way to mixed media, wherein watercolor is just part of the mix.  Thus the use of the word BROAD in categorizing this. 
Now, all of the above seems to fly in the face of art, which ought to have no big rules attached, simply because it isn't science, but art. On the other hand, being able to handle the medium is a science, at least on some levels, and that is why many watercolor instructors might choose to insist upon purism. Mitigating all of this is the idea of mixing paints with white to create some pastel shades of transparency. So, like I way, nothing is in stone.
On a personal level, if I bought a quality set of watercolor paints and didn't get any neutrals at all (white, black, grey, browns), I'd consider that the perfect set.

Yarka St. Petersburg Watercolor Set set of 24

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