Tube Size & Color Count — How Much Do You Need?

The single biggest mistake new oil painters make is buying too many small tubes. You will use 4–5 colors heavily, 5–7 colors regularly, and the rest occasionally. A 24-tube 20ml set gives you breadth to discover your palette; a 10-tube 60ml set lets you actually paint without re-buying. After a year, most artists settle into a working set of 8–12 colors and buy single tubes for the rest.

Quick rules: small canvas hobby work → 20ml tubes are fine. Weekly painter on 16x20 and up → 50–60ml tubes save money. Studio practice on large canvases → the 40ml Artist set if you want premium pigment, otherwise 60ml standard.

Standard vs. Metallic vs. Neon — When to Use Each

Standard oil paints are your foundation. Metallic and Neon are extension sets, never substitutes. Metallic uses real mica pigments and produces a directional shimmer that catches light — useful for icon work, decorative panels, mixed media, and accent highlights. Neon sits in a saturation range standard pigments cannot reach (think street art, modern figurative, signage-influenced work) and is formulated to dry faster so you can layer in 24–48 hours instead of 4–7 days.

Pigment Series & Lightfast Rating (ASTM I–V) Explained

Lightfastness is how well a pigment resists fading under UV. The ASTM lightfastness standard rates oil paints from I (excellent, >100 years) to V (fugitive, fades within months). Most Paul Rubens colors are ASTM I — the same top tier used by Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, and Holbein for their permanent ranges. A small number of bright organic pigments (typically a few violets and pinks) sit at ASTM II, which is still considered "permanent for artists' use." There are no ASTM IV or V pigments in our standard sets.

Brands like W&N split their colors into Series 1–6 by raw-material cost (cadmiums and cobalts in higher series, earths in Series 1). Paul Rubens uses a flatter single-tier pricing model on standard sets, which is why our $0.50/ml floor undercuts Series 3+ pigments from heritage brands.

Drying Time & the "Fat Over Lean" Rule

Oil paints dry by oxidation (not evaporation), which is why they take 3–7 days to be touch-dry and weeks to be fully cured. "Fat over lean" is the single most important rule of oil painting: every layer should contain more oil than the layer below it. Lean (more solvent, less oil) layers dry faster; fat (more oil) layers dry slower. If you reverse this, the upper layer dries first, the lower layer keeps shrinking, and the surface cracks within months.

Practical version: thin your first layer with a touch of turpentine or odorless mineral spirit. Use straight-from-tube paint in the middle. Add a drop of linseed or walnut oil to your final glazes. Done.

Solvents & Mediums — Linseed Oil, Turpentine, Liquin

You do not need a chemistry kit to start oil painting. A safe minimum is: refined linseed oil (slows drying, increases gloss), odorless mineral spirits (thins paint and cleans brushes — safer than turpentine for indoor studios), and optionally Liquin or alkyd medium if you want faster drying and more enamel-like flow. Skip cobalt drier unless you know exactly why you need it.

Ventilation matters more than which solvent you choose. Even “non-toxic” odorless mineral spirits should be used in a room with airflow. Cap your brush-cleaning jar between sessions.

Canvas Preparation — Gesso, Sanding, Toned Grounds

Pre-primed canvas straight from the art store will work. But if you want a smoother painting surface, lay down 1–2 extra thin coats of acrylic gesso, sanding lightly between coats with 220-grit. The result is a satin-smooth ground that holds detail better than the canvas weave underneath.

Toned ground tip: mix a small amount of burnt sienna or raw umber into your final gesso layer to kill the harsh white. Painting on a warm mid-tone makes color decisions easier and speeds up the early stages of a painting.