Basic Painting – Palette or Pot? Part 1
Monday, October 13th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
One of the first things a new painter is faced with is the choice to use the paint straight from the paint pot, or to use a painting palette. For a great many years I actually went straight from the pot.
Painting from the pot has a few nice things going for it. It’s easier for one, as you just open the pot up and go at it. You don’t need to worry about your paint drying out enough to change consistency in a single session either (though I do recommend adding a drop or two of water or medium now and then). You don’t wind up leaving a dried flap of paint on a palette if you don’t use it up in one go, either.
But there are some down sides, too. Screw-cap pots will get paint gumming up their threading eventually, no matter how careful you are. That will make the lid stick like the dickens and can also leave enough of a gap to let the paint inside dry out. Flip-top lids fix that, but you still get some issues with a little ring of paint scraping off when you close the lid and it dries out leaving you dried paint donuts next time you open the pot. It also makes it rather a bother to attempt to mix any colors and I found myself just using whatever shades were available for purchase rather then mixing my own.
You can get some very nice table-top quality models this way, though, so it’s a good quick painting option and a good choice for beginers. Of the various paint producers I’ve used this technique with I’ve found that Citadel paints seem to work very well with it. Flip-top lids keep the paints good for ages, it’s easy to add a little agitator if you need, and a snap to just add a couple drops of distilled water now and again to keep them from drying out real bad.
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