"Wet Palettes, What They Are and How to Make One " Topic

"Here is an oldie but a goodie from the old LRDG website that we thought you guys might enjoy. I have found this tutorial invaluable when creating a wet palette, which is necessary when I am blending endless shades of white on my Finns. – Old Man Morin

Hey guys and gals, Tobu here.

Today I'm going to go through the positives and negatives of using a Wet Palette and show you how I make mine. First off, we all know how frustrating painting models can be. We've all got horror stories of how we ruined hours of work by using the wrong colour, forgetting an important step or not waiting until a coat was completely dry. For me, my main problem was I was rushing which meant these type of problems occurred more often than they should. Whenever I'd put a colour on my palette, or especially, whenever I mixed a colour up out of a couple of paints, I felt like I was racing against the clock to try and get my work done before the damn paint dried up. This led to sloppy painting on my behalf and I wanted to fix it. I heard on the internet tubes that there was a thing called a Wet Palette, that could solve all my woes – so I went about making one for myself. First, an explanation of what a Wet Palette is: basically, a source of moisture is placed below a permeable surface which is drawn up into the paint on top of it to keep it in a workable state. Below is a (very) rough diagram of how it works…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Yep, been using that technique for ages and it works like a charm. Obviously you have to protect it from direct sunlight and change the towel & baking paper every now and then.

Thanks for the post. I have wanted to try this out.

Never had this problem.

I use oils.

I have been using a Wet Pallet for about a year now and really like it, especially for blending colors. I used a sponge instead of the paper towels when I made mine but otherwise it is the same. If you do use a sponge try to get one in a light color, white if you can. The color of the sponge will show through the baking paper which can make small amounts of paint look the wrong shade. Also get a container that the sponge fits snug but not tight into, or cut the sponge to fit the container.

A votre service mon ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I need to read about this technique more thoroughly and give it a shot. Part of me wants to dismiss it, but it just might help me get more painting done than I am now.

I just bought mine at the art store

Sounds like a great idea. I am always mixing paints and it would be cool to save a shade over time for consistency in painting larger units/forces!

I gave this a try yesterday. Paint did not dry out. The paint did start to thin out and while that can be good, this was too runny. I follow the instructions, but maybe I need to squeeze the paper towels to get even more water out.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Matthew

Thanks for the info, I will give it a try sometime.