Basic Painting – Palette or Pot? Part 2
Monday, October 20th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
So we’re back with another round, this time going over dry palettes. These come in all sorts of varieties, but basically you’re looking for a smooth flat surface to mix paint on. I like to use ceramic tiles like you can buy at any home improvement store for about $1. The sealed ceramic surface means you can scrape off dried paint easily, or soak it in hot water and just brush it off.
Lots of bonuses to using a dry palette. You can mix different paints to get just the color you want with ease, which is the main reason to use these. You also keep the bulk of your paint from drying out since you only have it open just long enough to get a little on the palette.
On the downside you do have some extra cleanup here. If you don’t get to it quickly you’ll have a dried up mess. You also have to keep an eye on the paint as you use it and either add a little medium / water to keep it from drying while you paint, or just work really quickly.
There is another common type of dry palette that uses color wells instead of a flat surface. This has the added benefit of making the mixing easier because the paint doesn’t get spread around in the process. The well also slows the paint’s tendency to dry out since it’s kept concentrated with less surface area. Of course, cleaning out a color well is a good bit more labor some then a flat palette.
For a lot of people, myself included, the up sides of mixing your colors for better shading effects makes it all worth it to go ahead and use these options over the painting right from the pot.
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