Paul Rubens Artist Watercolors, Paul Rubens 4th Gen Artist Watercolour Tubes
Paul Rubens Artist Watercolors, Paul Rubens 4th Gen Artist Watercolour Tubes
In this review we take a look at the 36 set of Paul Rubens 4th Gen Artist Watercolors, these are the 5ml tubes of watercolors and not the pans, which I have reviewed in the past. Watercolor artists all have their own preference when it comes to using pans or tubes of watercolors, I personally find that using tubes provides more flexibility when it comes to mixing, not to mention ease of use and speed.
This won’t be a long written review as I think most of the information you will get from the watercolors is in the artwork and swatch, so I will swiftly move on to the important information. The first thing to note about this particular set is the luxury packaging that the paints arrive in. The outer box is tough and sturdy, made of quality materials, the contrast of the jet black box and gold print is incredibly striking. Each tube of paint is laid upon a foam bed of protection, preventing each tube from moving about in transit.
The very first thing I did was complete a swatch of all 36 Paul Rubens Artist Watercolors, I used the St Cuthbert’s Mill, Saunders Waterford 140lb, 100% Cotton paper. St Cuthbert’s Mill is a fantastic paper company, they manufacture some of the finest watercolor papers I have tried and this particular paper used for the swatch is no exception.
As you can see from the swatch, I have submitted a thick, black marker line through the middle of each color, for clarification, I applied the black line first on all three rows and then applied the paint on top. This particular test goes a long way in showcasing the transparency or opaqueness of each individual paint.
For each color in the swatch, I have included the individual tube number, Color name along with the pigments used within the paint, the lightfast rating and the transparent / opaqueness via the legend provided. Although I have included this information on the swatch, my handwriting is not always the clearest and so I have included the above information below. It’s important to note that the lightfast information is rated from 5 stars being the most lightfast to 1 star being the least lightfast.
Pigment and Lightfast Information.
There is a legend provided to represent the opacity and opaqueness of each paint, I am unable to replicate such symbols in this format so I will simply write it. A Square colored black = Opaque, a Square with a diagonal line and half the square painted black = Semi Opaque. A Square outline with no fill at all = Transparent and A square with just a diagonal line = Semi Transparent.
Number - Color Name - Pigment Info - Lightfast Information
B229 - Naples Yellow - PW6 PY53 PBR24 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Opaque
A215 - Lemon Yellow - PY3 - * * * * ( 4 ) - Semi Transparent
C224 - Cadmium Yellow Light - PY35 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
C225 - Cadmium Yellow Medium - PY35 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
A220 - Indian Yellow - PY83 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Transparent
A655 - Earth Yellow - PY42 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
B209 - Transparent Yellow - PY150 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Transparent
B214 - Chromium Orange Hue - PO62 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
B218- Transparent Orange - PO71 - * * * * ( 4 ) - Transparent
C340 - Cadmium Red Light - PR108 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Opaque
A661 - Burnt Sienna - PR101, PBK9 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
B363 - Pyrrol Ruby Red - PR254 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
B353 - Quinacridone Rose - PV19 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Transparent
C366 - Perylene Maroon - PR179 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
A649 - Venetian Red - PR101 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Opaque
A645 - Indian Red - PR101, PR206 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Opaque
B352 - Quinacridone Maroon - * * * * ( 4 ) - Transparent
B368 - Quinacridone Violet - PV19 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Transparent
D509 - Cobalt Turquoise - PB28 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
A475 - Translucent Turquoise - PB16 - * * * * ( 4 ) - Semi Transparent.
D487 - Cobalt Blue Light - PB28 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
A482 - Azure Hue - PW4, PB15:3 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
A492 - Berlin Blue - PB27 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
B494 - French Blue - PB29 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
A910 - Brilliant Blue Violet - PB29, PV23 - * * * ( 3 ) - Semi Transparent.
B476 - Dioxazine Violet - PV23 - * * * * ( 4 ) - Semi Transparent.
C482 - Indianthrone Blue - PB60 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Opaque
A495 - Indigo - PB15:1, PB66 - * * * ( 3 ) - Opaque
B524 - May Green - PY151, PG7 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
A530 - Sap Green - PY153, PG7 - * * * * ( 4 ) - Transparent.
A519 - Oriental Green - PG7 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
B525 - Olive Green - PO62, PG36 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Transparent.
B534 - Olive Green Dark - PO62, PG7 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
D533 - Cobalt Turquoise Dark - PG26 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Opaque
A663 - Brown Umber - PB15:1, PBR7, PBK9 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
A780 - Ivory Black - PBK9 - * * * * * ( 5 ) - Semi Opaque
For artists who must use only the highest lightfast paints in the set when selling their original work, out of the 36 colors in the set, 28 colors are rated 5 stars, 6 colors are rated 4 stars and 2 colors are rated 3 stars. Obviously if when creating and selling your original artwork, if you are comfortable using five and four star rating lightfastness, then you have 34 colors available to you from this set.
Demonstration
As always, creating a swatch is not enough to help understand how the medium, in this case the Paul Rubens Artist Watercolors, behave and so I have created my own piece of art. For this piece I used a different paper but no less quality, I used the Canson Heritage, 140lb, Cold Pressed, 100% Cotton paper. As with the St Cuthbert’s Mill, the Canson paper is exceptional quality, holding vast amounts of water with very little to no buckling.
The artwork as you can see is a silhouette tropical beach scene, somewhere one day I would love to visit, although highly unlikely. I wanted to paint something that was going to showcase the strong pigments in the Paul Rubens paints, something that was really going to highlight the rich vibrancy of each paint.
In this piece the strong contrast of the dark silhouette against the bright and vibrant lemon yellow and gorgeous orange, captured exactly what I wanted to portray. Overall I was quite happy with the final piece, but regardless of the technical abilities or lack thereof, the piece illustrates beautifully the high quality paints that Paul Rubens offers.
Paul Rubens 36 Set Artist Watercolor
I try very hard to stay away from language like, “This product is affordable”, or “This product is cheap”, because these terms and others like them are all relative to the individual buying the product. What might be affordable to me, may not be to someone else and visa versa. However, the best way I can gauge whether or not a product is priced well is comparatively speaking, comparing like for like with other such products.
In this particular case, for 36 artist quality watercolor tubes, with 28 in the set rating 5 stars and a further 6 rating 4 stars, the Paul Rubens Artist Watercolor set is comparatively well priced. Particularly when we talk about tubes and not pans, as I mentioned earlier, each watercolor artist has their own preference, but I personally feel many watercolour artists I have spoke to prefer tubes due to the control, ease of mixing and ability to create thin to thicker washes.
Here in the UK for the 36 set of Paul Rubens Artist Watercolors you can expect to pay approximately £79. For artists in the US, you can expect to pay approximately $79. Based on the information provided in this review, along with the artwork and visual demonstrations, only you as an individual can say whether or not you feel this price is good or not. I am in no way suggesting £79 or $79 is cheap, that is a lot of money for most of us, it is certainly a lot of money to my wife and I, nevertheless, if you are in the market for artist quality watercolors, the Paul Rubens Watercolors are very competitively priced.
What you have to consider is the following, it is most likely that if you are seeking to purchase artist quality watercolors, such as the Paul Rubens watercolours on review, the chances are you will be creating your own artwork and perhaps even selling your original pieces. If this is not the case, there are many cheaper alternatives, but if it is what you plan on doing with your watercolors, how much of that £79 or $79 will you make back from selling your original art; safe in the knowledge that your work is lightfast. I would suggest you could most probably recoup that amount back when selling your first original piece.
Paul Rubens 4th Gen Artist Watercolors 36 Set Conclusion
I know I am in an incredibly privileged and honoured position given that a lot of art companies reach out to me with a view to reviewing their products and whilst I don’t take payment for my reviews and always offer to pay for the products, most of the time I get them free. I still purchase a lot of products to review from time to time, so I do know what it is like to spend my own money on such products, but I’m not so naive to dismiss the wonderful opportunity I find myself in, hence the reason I try to just mention the price and allow you to decided as an individual if it is good or bad.
I had so much fun using the Paul Rubens Artist Watercolors and because of their strong pigmentation, I often found myself over saturating an area and having to use a bit more water to lift it off. I think the overall palette in the 36 set is well balanced, I love the purples, blues and greens in this set, but in general and beautiful selection of colors.
Often when I look at a set, regardless of the medium, I can tell immediately if one color family has been used excessively, but I don’t think this is the case for the Paul Rubens 36 Set. If you think there is anything I have missed in the review, please don’t hesitate to ask me and if I am unable to come straight back with an answer, I will always admit I don’t know and contact the amazing people I work with at Paul Rubens.
As always, I have a YouTube Video review of this amazing set which you can watch by following the link, if you would like to inspect the still images of the artwork I have included, simply click the link, here you can select whichever image you like, on doing so the image will automatically enlarge allowing you to inspect in your own time and in close Hi-Def image. If you are into speed painting or drawing videos, I have also included a short video of the artwork coming to life which you can watch at The Art Gear Guide YouTube channel by clicking the link. As always, thank you so very much for your continued support, all your wonderful comments and emotional support you provide without even knowing you do. I owe you all so much and will continue to give back as much and as often as I can in the form of free giveaways.
I would also like to include a statement, the only money I make from the reviews I create and upload is from Google Adsense, the more you guys view, like and comment on the videos or written reviews, the more I would earn, there is no cost to you at all. I also add links for the products I talk about, these links are for Amazon UK, US and EU. I would like to assure you all, every single Sunday, I click on hundreds of links in my reviews to ensure they are still directing you to the cheapest product on amazon and that the links are not broken. What this means for you is that should you decide to buy a product from Amazon via my links, you can be rest assured that it is the cheapest on Amazon, I earn a small percentage from your purchase but this is at zero cost to you as the customer of amazon. I have an Amazon store front listing every product I have reviewed which you can visit and again, all prices are the lowest on Amazon. Thank you so much for your continued support.
