Realizing the limitations of the Paul Rubens Macaron Oil Pastels set, I purchased the Paul Rubens oil pastels set of 48 (+3) with regular colours. At the time of writing this review, Paul Rubens is selling the combination of the macaron and regular colours in one set of 72, available at Amazon.com (US only) for US$43.99. If you haven’t purchased either set yet and are looking for a soft oil pastel set, I recommend getting the 72 set.
The 48 set also includes 3 extras: one titanium dioxide, one silver and one gold. The brochure inside the box includes shade names, as well as lightfast rating.
I find that the actual colours match the barrel, so there is no real need to do a swatch card. Just like the macaron set of 36, the consistency of Paul Rubens 48 oil pastels is creamy, soft and lay down like butter. It is slightly sticky and a few shades can gum up a little bit (just a smidge), but nothing crazy. They blend and layer well.
Update: I have done a stylized portrait of Wednesday Addams with this set.
Paul Rubens 48 Oil Pastels On Super Textured Paper
I applied two coats of Liquitex clear gesso on Fabriano 1264 cold pressed watercolour paper for the first painting. It’s a cheap paper that I did not like using with watercolour because water dries too quickly on it. I did not sand it down and wanted to see how the pastels apply. The rough texture allowed more layers (three to four). I find that these pastels are less sticky on this level of texture.
This was a very quick, super loose landscape painting, and I rarely do landscapes. Anyway, you can see the brush strokes of the gesso on the paper. It was on purpose since I want to see how the pastels fare on such a rough texture.
Paul Rubens 48 Oil Pastels On Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper
I know I cannot do details with such soft, creamy pastels, so I did what I could with the pastels before I used Derwent Lightfast pencils to add in the details after. I used the rougher side of the Canson Mi-Teintes, but it is still much smoother than the gessoed paper. It did not take in more than a couple of layers, which is expected. Though Canson Mi-Teintes get great reviews, you won’t be able to do too many layers with them.
The pastels were not as opaque as I had hoped, especially on the dark paper. If you layer too much on this paper the pastels will just sheer out.
By the way, I used the silver pastel on the koi, though on the tinted paper it doesn’t show too much.
I finished the koi with Derwent Lightfast pencils. Since these are harder pencils, they scraped away the paint underneath, which worked just as well because the paper is tinted anyway. If you want to be able to use coloured pencils to go over these soft oil pastels you will need a better paper that allows more layers, like Pastelmat.
I also did a waterfall painting with the pastels:
Oil Pastels Not Worth Your Money
On a side note, I have recently bought and tried Faber Castell Creative Studio (which is their student grade line) oil pastels. They are extremely hard and completely unblendable! I do not recommend them, and I am not alone. Check out BlackBean CMS’ review and save yourself some money.
Summary
Just like the macaron set, this Paul Rubens 48 oil pastels set is creamy, blendable and easy to use, albeit a little bit sticky. I do enjoy using them and if you use a nice paper that can take in more layers, these are a real pleasure to paint with. At this price you won’t have to be too precious about them but they still perform very well. Not Sennelier well but well enough.
