I was recently asked to review a set of oil paints from a relatively new art company, Paul Rubens Art. I had never heard of them, and I’m assuming you probably hadn’t either, so I was excited to test them out for both of us and see how well they stand up to some of the more familiar brands I have in my paint box.
Upon first opening the set of 18 colors I was pleasantly surprised to see the actual paint swatches on the tubes. That’s usually a sign of real care taken when preparing the paints because the label is not generalizing the color, instead it’s showing a sample of that specific batch, making it all the more accurate when choosing what paint to buy or use.
You can watch the initial unboxing here…
Large bright tubes of fresh oil paint sure are inviting! Now let’s bust them open and see how they fare…
First Impressions..
First impressions are that they are very uniform in consistency and texture. Often oil paints vary in consistency due to the variety of minerals and their chemical makeups represented in different colors. Usually artists simply make up for the inconsistencies by using a medium such as linseed or walnut oil to get the paint to their own preferred thickness as they mix their colors.
I have used quality brands before though that were more consistent in their viscosity that I believe was just accounted and adjusted for during the manufacturing process to be more easily used and mixed by the artist right out of the tube. One of my all time favorite brands literally never needs medium mix in it.
In a nutshell, consistent viscosity could be a positive or a negative, depending on how ‘oiled out’ the pigment is in order to reach the desired flow right from the tube, as well as the preference of each artist. Some artists like more control and others just like to be able to mix effortlessly without needing to work the pigment.
Now getting into them..
The Cadmium Red and Lemon Yellow both had a very smooth flow and were easily spreadable with good opacity on the canvas.
The Permanent Purple was a little dark right off the bat, but adding varying degrees of Titanium White produced nicely sumptuous tones, which is a plus considering how difficult purple can be to make by mixing red and blue (oddly way harder than you’d think, to those who haven’t tried it!).
I would also say that the brightness and the ease with which the various paints mixed was very appealing - they are like painting with something you might find in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory! The red and yellow mixed well into a vivid orange, and I was able to make some nice ombre transitions quite easily with those and from the Cad Red to a Yellow Green.
Now for the real test!
Next I decided to test the Paul Rubens sets against some of the brands I have in my arsenal that are a bit pricier and probably more familiar to you to see how they hold up. Most of them actually did quite well and had no noticeable discrepancies!
The only con I found was that a few of the colors, like the Cadmium Blue and Burnt Umber, were a little less intense pigment wise. They came out of the tube in vivid colors, but did not exhibit quite full capacity when spread over the canvas. As I tried to lay on a substantial layer, the brush would scrape away the paint and reveal the white of the canvas coming through a bit. If you are someone who paints with a really thick application then this would likely not be an issue for you but for someone like me who tends to blend relatively thin layers, I would feel the need for an underpainting.
I would also say that as a person who paints people quite often, I would also like to see at least one more brown in the collection. I most often use ochre yellow, burnt sienna and raw umber. This set has a good Ochre Yellow, but the Burnt Umber fell a little flat for me. I think having both a raw umber and burnt sienna is important because then you have both a warm dark brown as well as a cool dark brown that are both seen often in skin tones. But of course no paint set will have every single color an artist wants, so it doesn’t necessarily make a set undesirable that you may need to add a few colors once you figure out exactly what you need, just like when you become better at anything and learn how the equipment works more precisely and what benefits your personal skills the best.
Otherwise, I think it’s a pretty good spread of colors. Especially if you are interested in painting landscapes or nature scenes of any kind as there are a lot of blue and green hues especially.
So would I recommend this set??
I honestly think as a beginner set it’s quite good, especially for the price. Paul Rubens paints are vivid and there is enough variety that a new oil painter would be able to render many different subjects before needing to make their collection more robust. Some students get all flummoxed up with how much medium to use and since these are quite smooth already a newbie wouldn’t really have to worry about adding any themselves. They do feel better quality than some of the ‘student grade’ oil paints I’ve sadly experienced in my youth, and if a student brought this set into one of my ‘Introduction to Oil Painting’ classes I would be just fine with them using these all semester.
As far as for professionals, I think a few of the pigments would be noticeably different than pricier, more established brands. But honestly, advanced artists don’t really tend to buy sets of paint because they know exactly which colors they need and are usually just replacing single tubes when they go to the art store.
Paul Rubens has so generously shared with you….
Here is the link for Paul Rubens oil paints on Amazon. They are actually having a Black Friday Sale this weekend starting today (Thursday) and going until Monday Nov 28th where this set is a whopping 20% off! Not bad for perhaps an Xmas gift for that young artist you know who is dying to try oils but doesn’t know where to start (goes great with my ‘Complete Guide to Oil Painting’ video series too!)
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I have been compensated for this review but the product link is not an affiliate link. Hope you learned a lot today! Happy holidays!
11.24.2022