Paul Rubens vs Superior Metallic Watercolours Review: The UK Artist's Complete Watercolour Paint Guide
Jun 18, 2026
Two watercolour paint sets, two very different purposes — and together they cover every watercolour painting need a UK artist could have. The Paul Rubens Professional Artist Watercolour Paint Set — 5ml Tube, 48 Colors is a comprehensive professional-grade tube set for serious painters who need a full, vibrant palette. The Superior Metallic Watercolour Paints — 8 Shimmery Gold Colors is a specialty set of shimmering metallic paints that add a dimension of luminosity and magic that standard watercolours simply cannot achieve. Used together, they give UK watercolour artists the complete toolkit for both traditional and contemporary painting.
Paul Rubens 48-Colour Tube Set: The Professional Foundation
Paul Rubens is a Chinese art materials brand that has earned genuine respect in the international watercolour community for producing professional-quality paints at accessible prices. The 48-colour tube set is their flagship offering — a comprehensive palette in 5ml tubes that covers the full colour spectrum with multiple shades in each colour family.
Why 48 Colours in Tubes?
Tubes offer significantly more paint volume than half pans, making them ideal for artists who work at larger scales, use generous washes, or paint frequently. The 48-colour range covers every colour a watercolour painter needs — from the most delicate tints to the most saturated hues — without the gaps that smaller sets inevitably leave. The Paul Rubens set includes colours specifically selected for their lightfastness and mixing properties, ensuring that the palette works harmoniously as a system rather than as a collection of individual colours.
Pigment Quality
Paul Rubens uses high-quality pigments that produce vibrant, transparent washes with excellent lightfastness. The paints rewet easily from dried state, making them suitable for use in both tube and pan format — squeeze into a palette, allow to dry, and use as you would half pans.
Superior Metallic Watercolours: The Magical Complement
Metallic watercolours are a category apart from standard watercolours. The Superior Metallic Watercolour Paints in 8 Shimmery Gold Colors contain fine metallic particles that create a shimmering, luminous effect on the page — an effect that catches the light and changes as the viewing angle shifts. This quality is impossible to achieve with standard watercolour pigments.
Eight Gold Shades: More Variety Than You'd Expect
Eight shades of gold might sound limited, but the range covers warm golds, cool golds, rose golds, bronze tones, and antique gold effects — a surprisingly comprehensive palette for metallic work. These shades are used as accents and highlights rather than as primary colours, so eight shades provides more than enough variety for most applications.
How to Use Metallic Watercolours
- Highlights and accents — add metallic shimmer to the lightest areas of a painting for a luminous effect
- Botanical illustration — gold accents on flowers and leaves create a beautiful, decorative quality
- Calligraphy and lettering — metallic watercolour produces beautiful, shimmering lettering
- Night scenes — gold and bronze metallics are perfect for moonlight, candlelight, and artificial light effects
- Decorative borders — metallic borders on cards and artwork add a premium, finished quality
The Complete Watercolour Studio
Together, the Paul Rubens 48-colour set and the Superior Metallic 8-colour set give UK watercolour artists a complete studio palette — 56 colours covering the full spectrum from the most delicate transparent washes to the most dramatic metallic effects. This combination is particularly powerful for artists who work in contemporary, mixed-media, or decorative styles where metallic accents are a key part of the aesthetic.
Browse our full watercolour range at TTPEN UK.
Paint with depth. Paint with shimmer. Shop the Paul Rubens 48-Colour Set and the Superior Metallic Watercolours today.
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