Today I’m talking about using the Paul Rubens colors I’ve been testing just recently. I’ve linked below to the video which looks at them in detail, with complete swatching of all the colors. We’re just posting a second video today demonstrating very simple flower painting and color mixing using these Paul Rubens paints on my big palette, also linked at the bottom of this page.

I’m always keen to show you different ways of doing things – I don’t believe there is one way to do anything, we are all different, and different things suit different people. For those of you who want to learn to loosen up in their painting style, using tube paint freely and on a larger palette is the first step.

If you have some neglected tubes, why not leave your half-pan set in the drawer for a while and squeeze out some of that lovely pigment from your tubes on to a large, white tray?

So what’s in the box?

This set contains thirty-six, 5ml tubes of intense watercolor paint. The paint is the fourth generation of Paul Rubens watercolor, and as such they make proud claims regarding its transparency, the number of single-pigment colors, the lightfastness and the reliability.

The colors in the set are bright and paint well. There are NINE yellows, if you count the two which veer towards orange, TEN if you count May Green which is a green/yellow. I think that is more than enough, especially since the earth colors are slightly underrepresented in my opinion, consisting of Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber only. Perhaps one or two of the premixed greens could have been sacrificed to leave space for the Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna we expect in a basic set of artist’s colors.

There is also no white in the set, but that’s easily remedied by purchasing an inexpensive white elsewhere.

That said, pretty much any color you might want can be mixed from this selection. There is Quinacridone Rose and Quinacridone Violet, both made from PV19, and these when used well diluted give nice floral pinks. You can make good browns based on Burnt Sienna mixed with the good range of blues, and there are plenty of yellows to paint any floral with.

Here’s a quick tulip sketch to show the depth of color of these paints.

Where to buy them

The 36 tube set is available from Amazon for around $80 and the 24 tube set is about $40. I can also recommend the Paul Rubens watercolor book, which contains a block of paper with a nice soft but textured surface ideal for watercolor painting.