Vermillion was built solo by Thomas van den Berg, a developer from the Netherlands, who spent years refining it with feedback from both traditional oil painters and digital artists. It is consistently described as the most realistic oil painting simulation available in VR, and holds an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam with 96% of 623 reviews positive — one of the highest ratings in the VR art category. Meta describes it as "the highest rated art studio on Quest."

The core simulation is the reason for the acclaim. Oil paint in Vermillion behaves the way oil paint behaves: colours mix wet-on-wet on the palette and on the canvas, brushes load with paint and deposit it based on pressure and angle, paint can be thinned with linseed oil for glazes or built up with impasto strokes. An oil painter on Steam described it as having "saved me thousands of dollars" and called it "the Next Best Thing to oil painting." A non-painter can follow the included one-hour YouTube tutorial (a robin painting, suggested by the developer) and produce something they'd be proud to show.