Lazurite is an intense deep blue color from the precious lapis lazuli stones used in historical painting. It is a semi-transparent, medium grained color with moderate tinting strength.
Color Index: PB29 | Granulation: Strong | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Smalt is an intense deep blue color used by watercolorists in the 18th and 19th centuries and used in painting since at least the 16th century, although it has been found in paintings much earlier than that time.
Color Index: PB32 | Granulation: Very Strong | Staining: Non-staining < 30% | Lightfastness: Not Listed
Prussian Blue is an intense deep blue color used by watercolorists since its inception in the 18th century. Often called the first of the modern pigments, Prussian blue was introduced in the early 1700s.
Color Index: PB27 | Granulation: Strong | Staining: Medium-staining 55 – 75% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Verditer Blue is a historic blue watercolor that is semi-transparent and moderate staining. Verditer blue is artificial basic copper carbonate, which was popular in distemper and water-based paint during the 17th to 19th centuries.
Ultramarine Blue (Green Shade) is made using the greenest shade of ultramarine blue pigment we know. Ultramarine blue is a synthetic inorganic blue pigment consisting of a double silicate of aluminum and sodium with sulfide and occurs in nature as a component of the semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli.
Cobalt Zinc Blue is a semi-transparent pigment with moderate tinting strength. When it dries, it appears lighter and less saturated. Although pigment particles are very fine, they flocculate, giving a grainy appearance in watercolor.
Cobalt Chromite Blue is an intense green-blue that has good opacity, is chemically inert, heat resistant, and stable to ultraviolet light. It is non-bleeding and non-migratory. It has exceptional durability and hiding power.
Cobalt Aluminate Blue watercolor is a medium blue, low-staining color with moderate tinting strength and gentle texture, ideal for skies, cool light, and clean blue mixtures. Its semi-transparent character lets you build luminous layers without overpowering adjacent colors.
Cobalt Turquoise is an intense green-blue that has good opacity, is chemically inert, heat resistant, and stable to ultraviolet light. It is non-bleeding and non-migratory. It has exceptional durability and hiding power.
Rublev Colours Indigo watercolor paint is made with genuine natural indigo derived from Indigofera tinctoria, the legendary plant that gave rise to the deep blue hues of antiquity. Unlike most commercial indigo paints that use synthetic substitutes, this watercolor is crafted using traditional methods to produce a luminous, earthy blue that artists have cherished for millennia.
Chromium Oxide, also known as chromium sesquioxide or chromia, is one of four oxides of chromium. It was commonly called chrome green when used as a pigment; however it was referred to as viridian when it was first discovered.
Malachite is basic copper carbonate mineral, described as bright bluish green or sometimes as pale green. Our malachite is from mines in Nizhniy Tagil, Ural Mountains, Russia in a fine grade of bright green hue.
Nicosia Green Earth is the mineral glauconite, a greenish earth of hydrated iron potassium silicate, known as green earth or terre verte. This glauconite is a cool dark green earth from Nicosia, Cyprus.
Color Index: PG23 | Granulation: None | Staining: Non-staining < 30% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Verona Green Earth is a transparent deep green with blue undertones, medium-grained, and low tinting strength. Our Verona green earth is from basaltic tufa deposits in Brentonico near Santa Cristina (Verona).
Color Index: PG23 | Granulation: None | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Victoria Green watercolor is a pale, cool green hue with low tinting strength and subtle granulation. This semi‑transparent color is non‑staining and easy to lift, making it ideal for glazing, botanical work, and soft landscape passages.
Rublev Colours Viridianpigment is a blue-green hydrated chromium sesquioxide specifically manufactured for use in artists’ materials, personal care, and cosmetics. It is moderately opaque in oils and lightfast is most artists’ mediums.
Rublev Colours Cobalt Green Light is a green cobalt zinc oxide, semi-transparent of limited hiding power discovered by Rinmann in 1780. Due to its permanence, it can be used in all painting techniques.
Rublev Colours Cobalt Green Light is a green cobalt zinc oxide, semi-transparent of limited hiding power discovered by Rinmann in 1780. Due to its permanence, it can be used in all painting techniques.
Ambrogio Yellow Earth is a natural iron oxide hydroxide mineral (goethite) from quarries in northern Italy. It is a deep golden yellow that is semi-transparent, permanent.
Color Index: PY43 | Granulation: Slight | Staining: Medium-staining 55 – 75% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Lemon Ocher is a transparent yellow with good tinting strength, medium grained that makes pale beige half tints. Our yellow earth is quarried in Northern Italy.
Italian Yellow Earth is a semi- transparent deep golden yellow with moderate tinting strength, medium grained that makes pale bright yellow tints. Our yellow earth is quarries in Northern Italy.
Color Index: PY43 | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Italian Dark Ocher is a semi-transparent orange-brown with good tinting strength, medium grained that makes orange tints. Our dark ocher is quarries in Northern Italy.
Color Index: PY43 | Granulation: Slight | Staining: Non-staining < 30% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Cobalt Yellow (commonly called aureolin) is a potassium cobalt nitrite. It is an intense yellow that has high tinting strength and low opacity, popular as a watercolor. In watercolors, cobalt yellow is a transparent, lightly staining, intense yellow.
Color Index: PY40 | Granulation: None | Staining: Non-staining < 30% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Chrome Yellow Primrose — Artist Watercolor. A light greenish‑yellow with a delicate primrose hue. This watercolour is known for its strong hiding power and smooth handling, making it well suited for highlights, mixing vibrant greens, and historical palette work.
Natural Yellow Oxide is an opaque golden yellow to brown with good tinting strength. Our yellow oxide is a single pigment color made of natural iron oxide mineral from the last remaining ocher deposits in southern France.
Color Index: PY43 | Granulation: Moderate | Staining: High-staining > 75% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
French Yellow Ocher Light is from the last remaining European company operating the ocher deposits in the French quarries of Gargas and Rustrel nested in a 12 mile long enclave in the heart of the Luberon Mountains, the ocher country.
A bright primrose yellow with a cool undertone, Cadmium Yellow Light watercolor delivers strong coverage and rich tinting power. This opaque pigment maintains excellent lightfastness and performs reliably in washes and mixtures.
A deep, warm yellow with a subtle orange undertone, Cadmium Yellow Dark watercolor offers powerful coverage and strong tinting strength. This opaque, granulating color is lightfast and ideal for rich mixtures and bold passages.
Rublev Colours Benzimidazolone Yellow is a high-performance green shade yellow benzimidazolone pigment, designed to have improved weatherfastness and higher tint strength than pre-existing Pigment Yellow 151 grades.
Orange Ocher is a semi-opaque ocher with good tinting strength. It is an ochre from the last remaining European company operating the ocher deposits in the French quarries in the heart of the Luberon Mountains, the ocher country.
Color Index: PR102, PY43 | Granulation: None | Staining: Medium-staining 55 – 75% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Bright Cadmium Orange watercolor produces a vivid warm orange hue with an opaque mass tone and very high tinting strength. This strong single‑pigment color is best reserved for highlights, intense oranges and mixing vibrant skin tones, where its permanence and stability are prized.
Indian Red is an opaque, deep red with high tinting strength. It is a single pigment color made with natural iron oxide mineral from hematite deposits in India.
Color Index: PR102 | Granulation: Moderate | Staining: Medium-staining 55 – 75% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
French Red Ocher is a semi-transparent, deep red ochre from the last remaining European company operating the ochre deposits in the French quarries of the Luberon Mountains, the ochre country.
Color Index: PR102 | Granulation: None | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Cinnabar watercolor exhibits a rich scarlet‑red mass tone with a distinct reddish‑orange undertone. Opaque and highly tinting, it lays down a smooth, even field of color and is best used full strength or in strong tints for icon painting, manuscript illumination and other work where a bold historic red is desired.
Potter’s Pink is a lightfast, semitransparent, moderately staining, a dark valued, moderately subdued red pigment. Historically used since the 18th century as a watercolor pigment, under the name “pinkcolor.”
Alizarin Crimson is the synthetic analog of the colorant from the roots of the plant Rubia tinctorum and that in past centuries was used to make madder lakes, the principle coloring substance which is alizarin.
Color Index: PR83 | Granulation: None | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM IV
Crimson Ocher is a semi-transparent deep red with purplish-pink undertones, fine grained. The red ocher comprising Crimson Ocher is a red iron oxide earth from quarries in Lori province of northern Armenia.
Armenian Brown Mummy is a semi-opaque, brownish red, fine-grained with average tinting strength. Armenian Brown Mummy derives its name from the Russian word мумия that denotes the pigment of brownish red color from ground mummies. Armenian Brown Mummy is from red iron oxide earth deposits in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia.
Hematite is a natural red iron oxide from the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The high iron content (over 80%) makes it a strong tinting pigment.
Rublev Colours Cadmium Red Lightpigment is cadmium zinc sulfoselenide (CdS, CdSe) produced by co-precipitating and calcining, at high temperature, a mixture of cadmium sulfide and selenide sulfide in varied ratios forming a partially crystalline structure.
Rublev Colours Cadmium Red Mediumpigment is cadmium zinc sulfoselenide (CdS, CdSe) produced by co-precipitating and calcining, at high temperature, a mixture of cadmium sulfide and selenide sulfide in varied ratios forming a partially crystalline structure.
Rublev Colours Cadmium Red Maroonpigment is cadmium zinc sulfoselenide (CdS, CdSe) produced by co-precipitating and calcining, at high temperature, a mixture of cadmium sulfide and selenide sulfide in varied ratios forming a partially crystalline structure.
French Raw Sienna is from the last remaining European company operating the ochre deposits in the French quarries of Gargas and Rustrel nested in a 12 mile long enclave in the heart of the Luberon Mountains.
Color Index: PY43 | Granulation: Moderate | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
French Burnt Sienna is from the last remaining European company operating the ochre deposits in the French quarries of Gargas and Rustrel nested in a 12 mile long enclave in the heart of the Luberon Mountains, the ochre country.
Color Index: PR102 | Granulation: Moderate | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
French Burnt Umber is from the last remaining European company operating the ochre deposits in the French quarries of Gargas and Rustrel nested in a 12 mile long enclave in the heart of the Luberon Mountains, the ochre country.
Color Index: PBr7 | Granulation: Strong | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
French Raw Umber is from the last remaining European company operating the ochre deposits in the French quarries of Gargas and Rustrel nested in a 12 mile long enclave in the heart of the Luberon Mountains, the ochre country.
Color Index: PBr7 | Granulation: Slight | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Italian Burnt Umber is a semi-opaque brown with good tinting strength, medium grained. Our Italian Burnt Umber is from quarries in the Umbria region of Italy.
Italian Burnt Umber Warm is a semi-opaque brown with good tinting strength, medium grained. Our Italian Burnt Umber is from quarries in the Umbria region of Italy.
Italian Brown Ocher is a semi-transparent brown with average tinting strength, medium grained that makes beige yellow tints. Our natural earth pigment is quarried in Northern Italy.
Violet Hematite is a deep reddish purple hue that tints toward subtle violets when mixed with white. It is useful in flesh tints, shadows and its purple bias makes good grays.
Color Index: PR102 | Granulation: Strong | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Rublev Colours Ultramarine Violetoffers a unique violet shade that is very clean, bright.
Ultramarine Violet is a synthetic inorganic pigment composed of a complex silicate of sodium and aluminum with sulfur, or sodium aluminum sulfosilicate. Ultramarine violet is made using the same process as ultramarine blue but is mixed with ammonium chloride, heated to 200–250° C, and exposed to air for four days until the violet color develops. Other methods are also used to produce ultramarine violet.
The remarkable range of pigments that could be produced with cobalt included cobalt violet, is known since 1859. Salvetat first described the preparation of cobalt violet in Comptes Rendus des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences XLVIII in an article titled, "Matieres minerales colorantes vertes et violettes." The dark variety is anhydrous cobalt phosphate which was made by mixing soluble cobalt salt with disodium phosphate. It was washed and then heated at a high temperature.
Zinc White watercolor presents a crisp, cool white color with a subtle bluish undertone. Semi‑transparent and low‑tinting, it mixes cleanly with other colors to produce delicate tints and soft highlights without overpowering them.
Barite White is an opaque white made using the natural mineral barite (barium sulfate). Used by British watercolorists in the 18th and 19th centuries as a body color, it was often called "Constant White" or "Permanent White." Derived from the natural mineral barite, this color has low tinting strength and no staining, making it useful as a body color or for softening mixtures without overpowering them.
Bone Black is made from charred animal bone and horn but not from ivory. It is a neutral opaque black that has high tinting strength and is highly staining. The term 'ivory black' is currently applied to this same high-grade bone black by other watercolor manufacturers.
Color Index: PBk9 | Granulation: Very Strong | Staining: Low-staining 30 – 55% | Lightfastness: ASTM I
Roman Black is a natural black earth from slate deposits in the vicinity of Rome that is a semi-opaque black, and is absolutely permanent. It is comparatively neutral in undertone, wets easily, and is non-greasy, when compared to carbon blacks.
Rublev Colours Shungite (Black Ocher) is an amorphous variety of graphite of intense black color. Found only in Karelia, Russia, it exhibits excellent hiding power, and in mixtures with other pigments imparts a deep black tone with a cool tint.
Rublev Colours Watercolors—Like the Golden Age of Watercolors
Rublev Colours Potter's Pink Watercolor
Natural Pigments gives today’s artists new choices by making watercolor paint simple again. Rublev Colours Watercolors provides a new selection of colors by restoring natural and historical pigments to the artists’ palette. Rublev Colours Watercolors are made with the same pigments used by watercolor masters of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The colors are genuine single-pigment paints available individually in tubes and cakes.
Natural Pigments makes Rublev Colours Watercolors in small batches using gum arabic and sugar syrup, which were the essential ingredients in watercolors of past centuries. There are no other additives to alter the characteristics of each color. Without modern additives, these paints have a noticeably different consistency and appearance. They are substantially thicker than modern watercolors because we do not use any thickeners, dextrin, or other additives found in contemporary watercolors. You will feel the difference, like the body colors used by early 19th-century British watercolorists—the Golden Age of watercolors.
Rublev Colours Watercolors are made by Natural Pigments. Please read our description of Rublev Colours Watercolors for more information. For information about the permanence and composition of Rublev Colours Watercolors, visit Watercolors Composition and Permanence.
Visit our Watercolor Swatch and Pigment Guide for details on Rublev Colours Watercolors hand-painted color swatches and where to find pigment information.
Painting with Rublev Colours Watercolors
Interview with master watercolorist Michele Bajona on portrait painting in watercolors. Natural Pigments founders Tatiana and George interview Michele regarding his techniques, inspiration, and the materials he uses to create his expressive portraits. J Michele as he reveals his passions and his art.
Join us on the Artist Materials Advisor when we introduce 12 new watercolors that cover a range of hues from blue, green, yellow, and red to purple. Watch demonstrations of each color.
Why Rublev Colours Watercolors?
Rublev Colours Watercolors are a popular choice among modern-day watercolorists due to their advantages over contemporary commercial watercolors. Made using natural ingredients and traditional techniques, these watercolors provide artists with a high-quality alternative that produces rich and luminous colors that are both long-lasting and easy to use.
One of the most significant advantages of Rublev Colours Watercolors is their superior lightfastness. Commercial watercolors use synthetic pigments that may fade over time or when exposed to direct sunlight. However, the natural pigments used in Rublev Colours Watercolors are lightfast. They resist fading and maintain their vibrancy for decades, making them an ideal choice for artists looking to create pieces that will stand the test of time.
Another advantage of Rublev Colours Watercolors is their unique texture and feel. Unlike many commercial watercolors, which can have a synthetic or plastic-like quality, Rublev Colours Watercolors are made using natural ingredients that give them a unique texture and feel, making them a pleasure to work with and enhancing the overall quality of the final artwork.
Rublev Colours Watercolors also offer a broad range of colors that are easy to mix and blend, allowing artists to create a virtually unlimited range of shades and hues. Whether you are a professional artist or a hobbyist, these watercolors are an excellent choice for creating stunning, long-lasting pieces that showcase your creativity and talent. Overall, Rublev Colours Watercolors are an excellent investment for anyone looking to produce high-quality watercolor artwork that will stand the test of time.
Watercolor consists of finely ground pigment suspended in a binder, traditionally made of gum arabic, water, and other additives to preserve and stabilize the paint. Sugar syrup, invert syrup, glucose, and glycerin are often used as humectants to slow drying time caused by the rapid evaporation of water. Commercial watercolor paint may also contain different binders, such as dextrin, starch, and gum tragacanth.
What is watercolor paint used for?
Watercolor paint is often used to paint outdoors, such as plein air, but is suitable for still life, landscape, or portrait paintings. Often painters create small-scale studies of complex paintings that they plan to do on a much larger scale. Watercolor works well with colored pencils, watercolor pencils, graphite, and ink.
Is watercolor paint permanent or long-lasting?
Watercolor paintings can last for centuries if made from pigments with good lightfastness and compatibility with the substrate and watercolor medium. Furthermore, if the artwork is painted on paper that is properly buffered against the formation of acids and is not exposed to ultraviolet light, it will endure.
What are the best surfaces to apply watercolor paint?
Watercolor paint requires an absorbent substrate for long-lasting artwork. Traditionally, paper is the support most often used for watercolor painting. Other supports can be suitable for watercolor painting if coated with an absorbent ground or primer formulated for watercolor paint.
What is the difference between watercolor paint and other paint media?
While watercolor paint does not allow thick applications, you can build up layers of colors while painting to some degree. Watercolor is transparent, and unlike other paint mediums, you can not cover up your mistakes. However, you can lift color from the substrate because the watercolor binder remains water soluble. The amount of color you can remove depends on the pigment's staining power and the substrate's absorbency. If you want to preserve areas of light color, then it is best to plan your painting.
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