What's up guys, welcome back!
Today we're going to be looking at how to set up a wet palette.
I started using a wet palette about 4 years ago and it totally revolutionized the way
I paint.
I'm at the point now where I can't imagine being able to paint without one.
To start off you're going to need a shallow container.
I use this one here, which is a Masterton Sta-Wet palette.
But you really don't need to buy one, anything that can hold water will work.
So something like this
or this
or even this!
Actually, no, that one's a bit shit.
You'll also need some paper towels, you can use a sponge if you like, sponges do get quite
dirty after a while so don't forget to wash them or it'll start to affect the way your
paint reacts on the palette
If you're using the paper towels, simply grab some scissors and cut them to size so that
they fit snugly inside your container
Pour some water on the towels, I usually soak them like this, then just pour off the excess
water.
You want them to be wet but you don't want a lot of water pooling on the surface.
Go ahead and flatten out the towels so that there's no ripples.
For our palette paper, you can use either, wet palette parchment paper, or cheap baking
paper.
There's pros and cons to using each, I tend to favour the baking paper because
it's cheap!
Water, inks and glazes stay pooled on the surface.
It keeps the paint wet without thinning them
The only real downside is that the paper will degrade after a while and fibres will start
to mix in with your paint, making them useless.
However this takes about 10 hours to occur so you have quite a lot of painting time before
you need to replace the paper.
If you opt to use parchment paper you'll find that glazes, oils and washes, will just sink
through the surface and disappear.
So if you're like me and you use a lot of thin paints parchment paper is going to be
quite useless.
It's also very expensive.
I would say that the only real benefit to using parchment paper is that the surface
doesn't degrade so you can use it for a much longer period than baking paper.
If you want to use the baking paper just cut it to size so that it fits your palette.
I usually cut a stack of them so that I don't need to mess about every time that I want
to change the sheet.
Put your paper on the palette and use your fingers to smooth out any wrinkles.
Your palette is now ready to use and any paint you put on it is going to stay wet for hours.
Excellent.
If you want to use the parchment paper instead you need to prepare it first.
So stick the kettle on and boil some water.
Put your paper into a shallow container and pour on the water.
Now just let it sit for about 15 minutes.
Once you've done that simple take out the paper, shake the excess water off and then
put the paper on your palette.
A quick caveat here, don't put paint on it straight away, if you do the water on the
surface is going to make the paint explode over the whole surface of the palette.
So, here it is after about five minutes.
If you just let it sit for a few minutes before you use it that's not going to happen.
Alright, so that was a quick introduction to wet palettes, I hope you give it a try
they really make a big difference.
As always don't forget to like and share the video, subscribe if you haven't already and
I'll see you all next time.
Thanks again,
Bye for now.