Paul Rubens Artist Watercolor Tubes 36-Color Set (4th Gen) Review

Introduction

Paul Rubens has quietly built a reputation for high-quality, richly pigmented watercolors, and the 4th-generation Artist Watercolor Tubes 36-Color Set continues that trend. These are 5ml tubes aimed at artists who want stronger pigment than typical student-grade paints, at a price that stays competitive against other artist-grade sets. After swatching all 36 colors and painting with them, the set makes a genuinely good impression.

Packaging and Presentation

The set arrives in excellent packaging: a sturdy black cardboard box with bold gold detailing that feels genuinely premium before you even open it. Good packaging is not a benchmark for paint quality, but it usually signals a brand that cares about the details, and that holds true here. Inside, a piece of foam protects the tubes, and a pamphlet covers the contents, though most of it is printed in Chinese with only occasional English.

Each 5ml tube carries the same black and gold branding, with the color name and number on top and, on the reverse, the pigment information, the transparency rating, and a lightfast rating shown on a star system from one to five stars.

The Colors and Pigment Strength

The palette is bright and versatile. Highlights include Naples Yellow (deliberately opaque), a gorgeous transparent Indian Yellow, Quinacridone Rose, Cobalt Turquoise, Cobalt Blue Light, and the less commonly seen Berlin Blue, an older name for Prussian Blue. Greens are well covered with May Green, Sap Green, Oriental Green, and a lovely Olive Green, plus muted gray-greens like Cobalt Turquoise Dark that suit botanical work. The set finishes with browns and Ivory Black; there is no white, which is standard for watercolor sets since most artists rely on the paper or a touch of gouache instead.

Swatched on Saunders Waterford 140lb (300gsm) cotton paper with black test lines, the colors show convincing strength and variety of transparency. Opaque paints like Naples Yellow clearly cover the line, while transparent ones like Indian Yellow leave it fully visible. A handy legend explains the transparency symbols: a plain square for transparent, a lined square for semi-transparent, a half-filled square for semi-opaque, and a filled square for opaque.

Lightfast Ratings

Out of 36 colors, 28 are rated five stars, the highest lightfast rating, six are rated four stars, and only two fall to three stars. For artists producing original artwork that must resist fading, 28 of the 36 colors are safe to use. If you accept four-star pigments too, that leaves 34 usable colors, with just two to avoid. That is a well-balanced lightfast spread for a set at this level.

How the Paints Behave on Paper

In real-time testing on cotton paper, the pigment strength is remarkable. If you are used to digging deep into student-grade pans to extract color, be careful: with these tubes, a light touch yields far more pigment than you may expect. Colors flow well, lift and move easily, and a small amount of paint goes a long way.

Painted on cold-pressed Canson Heritage cotton paper, a sunset silhouette scene showed off how strong the saturation is straight from the tube. The only mixing challenge came down to technique, not the paints themselves.

Buying Advice

This set suits artists stepping up from student-grade watercolors who want richer pigment, plus experienced painters who want an affordable artist-grade palette with a wide color spread. Check the pigment and transparency details per tube before committing if you have specific palette requirements.

Compared with other artist watercolor brands offering similar lightfast ratings, the pricing here is competitive, making it an easy recommendation as a first serious tube set or a solid expansion palette.

Conclusion

The Paul Rubens Artist Watercolor Tubes 36-Color Set combines strong, vivid pigments, a sensible lightfast profile, and presentation quality that rivals far more expensive brands. For anyone upgrading from student paints, it is a confident, low-risk choice.