 Rublev Colours Artists' Oils let you experience what the old masters well understood—the unique characteristics of pigments. The pigments used by old masters in their paintings were ground from natural minerals and earths, fermented in dyer vats and concocted in alchemist laboratories. Rublev Colours Artists' Oils give you the same pigments used by the old masters prepared with linseed oil as ready-made paints.
Most oil colors today are made to feel the same under the brush. Their consistency is short and buttery, irrespective of the color. Whereas a short and buttery consistency is good, there are many times when you want paint that has a different feel. Sometimes you need paint that flows. Other times you want a long and perhaps even ropey paint. Or one that flows when brushed then thickens upon standing, which is called thixotropic paint. That is why so many painters today resort to using mediums with their tube oil colors—to alter the consistency of their paint.
The Rublev Colours Difference
Why are Rublev Colours different from other commercial oil colors? One reason is that we use natural pigments or historical reproductions of pigments used by the old masters. Another reason is that we make Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils as they did before modern tube colors—without additives. Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils are formulated to maintain the unique characteristics of each pigment in oil. The character found in each tube of our oil colors is unique due to the pigment inside, giving the artist nearly limitless choices of texture, opacity, consistency, tone and hue. With Rublev Colours you experience the transparency of yellow ochre, the pale coolness of green earths, and the crystalline glitter of deep blue azurite.
 See the entire range of Rublev Colours Artists' Oils
| Rublev Colours Artists' Oil Palettes |
| These palettes are a great way to introduce you to Rublev Colours Artists' Oils. Try full-size tubes of Rublev Colours Artists' Oils at up to 40% off and free shipping within the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. |
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Color Particle by Particle
The particles of natural pigments are at least six times the diameter of synthetic pigments in modern artists’ colors. However, when we remember how largely crystalline or semi-crystalline pigments, such as azurite, malachite, lazurite, and so on, were used in old masters’ paintings, it is easy to understand how these beautiful surfaces with broken lights were obtained. An examination, for instance, of the surface of azurite blue under the microscope at once reveals the beautiful mass of blue and blue-green crystals, reflecting light in all directions, and thus of course enhancing the decorative effect.
Pure Oil Color, No Additives
Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils do not contain additives, such as fillers, driers and stabilizers—simply pigment and oil. We use refined linseed oil in our paint sometimes with a small amount of heat-bodied linseed oil. Stabilizers, such as stearates and waxes, are not added that diminish the individual effects of pigments in oil. Therefore, you will find different consistencies from color to color due to the individual pigment characteristics, and an occasional bit of free oil. Some colors brush out long, others short and buttery and still others are thixotropic.
Some separation of pigment and oil may occur with Rublev Colours and is a natural process when no stabilizers are added to oil paint to prevent this from occurring.
Overall, Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils have longer brushing consistency than most tube colors available today, making them ideal for both bristle and soft-hair brushes in fine rendering, old master-like effects, on both fine-weave canvas and smooth panels.
Single Pigment Colors
When you see a color name on our label, you get just that—one pure pigment. You will not find “hues” among Rublev Colours. No “Vermilion Hue,” simply pure red mercuric sulfide. When you buy a tube of Rublev “Green Earth” from Natural Pigments you are not getting a mixture of green chromium oxide, an unidentified earth color and barium sulfate, you get the real thing—green earth. When you buy “Rublev Vermilion,” we don’t give you cadmium red. And our Naples yellow is not an indeterminate mixture of pigments, but pure lead antimonate. You won’t even find the word “genuine” used to describe Rublev Colours, because all of our pigments are simply that—genuine.
All our earth colors have outstanding lightfastness and most of the others are permanent when used full strength. Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils offer an extraordinary range of tinting strength and an immense diversity between opacity and transparency.
Individually Made, Meticulously Crafted Oil Colors
We make Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils in small batches, typically only five gallons at a time, meticulously crafting each color. Using natural mineral pigments means that we must take extra steps to prepare these colors into a useable paint, typically not required for modern synthetic pigments. All this requires more time and labor to make a finished product that is different from other oil colors—a difference you can clearly see and palpably feel.
| Rublev Oil Colours |
| New colors we've recently introduced from the Old Masters' palette. |
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How We Make Rublev Colours Artists’ Oils
From our extensive experience making pigments, we select those that not only make good colors in oil, but provide a diverse range of texture, body and opacity. Some pigments are purified further, such as indigo, using old masters’ recipes to increase lightfastness. We then prepare each pigment by baking them in low-temperature ovens for several days to remove all traces of moisture.
Next, we mix the pigment with oil, usually linseed, in mixers or, in the case of some mineral pigments, in edge runners resembling old-fashioned stone mills to obtain a denser, homogenous mixture. The paste, called a premix, is allowed to “sweat” overnight or longer before grinding.
The paste is ground on three-roll mills made of stone rolls or chilled cast steel. The steel rolls are water cooled to prevent the premix from over-heating. We grind each color at least 3 or 4 times—each time reducing the gap between the rolls to apply greater pressure on the paste. We grind our paints more times than other manufacturers, because we do not use additives, such as stearates or waxes that, while making paint easier to grind, alter the body and consistency of the paint. Often colors are ground 6 to 8 times before we consider them ready.
Finally, we check each batch for tinting strength, consistency and density before being filled in tubes or cans. A Note About Color Swatches
 Colors swatches are shown in mass tone, straight from the tube, on the left, and mixed with an equal amount of titanium white on the right. All pictures of color swatches in this web site are only approximations of the actual color of the oil paint. We taken every care to match the color in these pictures on calibrated color monitors to the actual color. However, because of the wide variance in color monitors the results you get may vary.
Satisfaction Always Guaranteed
Natural Pigments guarantees your satisfaction with every purchase, so if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase you may return the unopened tube for a refund.
Read more about our Returns Policy
Color Descriptions
To help you select colors from our store we have organized our oil colors according their basic color and by the origin of the pigment used to make the color.
Each color in our store is listed by the name of the pigment, in the case of mineral variations, of its most common color name, and if there exists a synthetic substitute, the common name of the artificial pigment. Common names in other languages and alternative and obsolete color names are also provided because many inquiries begin with obscure and little-used color names.
The general arrangement of the information for each color in the store is as follows: name of the color, binder, Colour Index name, chemical name, chemical formula, ASTM lightfastness rating, if available, opacity, tinting strength, drying rate and toxicity alerts.
Lightfastness
Information on each pigment includes an ASTM lightfastness category in oil, acrylic and watercolor media where test data is available:
| ASTM |
Ligthfastness |
| I |
Excellent lightfastness |
| II |
Very good lightfastness |
| III |
Sufficiently lightfast |
Pigments falling in the lightfastness III category are considered sufficiently lightfast only if they are used full strength (not tinted with white) and are provided with extra protection from ultraviolet light.
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