Day 19 of 31 Days of Art: Paints and Palettes


Tonight, after the kids are in bed, before I take the dog out for the last time, I will watch TV and paint at the same time.  Preferably HGTV.  Best of all worlds.  This means cleaning off the kitchen counter to use as a painting area.  Good goal!  

I will break open the Golden Open Acrylic starter set I found when cleaning out my studio.  I'm excited to try them out and will write a review later in this series.  Open acrylics are touted to be THE solution for those who love the characteristics of oil paint but want to live a life without solvents and chemicals.  Regular acrylics dry fast, and this can work FOR you, but it works against you if you like to paint in a more blended way.



My palette - This is my favorite.  It's  tinfoil over hardboard panel.  When the paint dries I can just take the tin foil off the hardboard underneath and toss it.  This is a good solution when you're not going to be putting gobs of paint out.   If you're going to be putting gobs of paint out....
an Air Tight Palette is a great solution.  You spritz your paints with water before sealing them up for painting another time.  This works like a big Tupperware container.  I've had mine long time.   It came with some fancy stay-wet palettes that were supposed to keep acrylic paint viable longer.   I didn't like those!

Cut a piece of foam-core so it fits snugly inside of the container bottom and top with a piece of glass the same size as the foam core.  Tape around the edges with packing tape so that the glass and foam core are one unit.  IN this way, after the paint has dried, a straight razor blade easily scrapes the paint off the glass.



1 comment:

JDConwell said...

Love the tips! And maybe someday I'll try Golden's for doll faces...I'd love to have it blend better.

I found that a deviled egg tupperware works great for paints, but is best for qouache watercolors, since it's okay (even preferable) for them to dry out and then be rewetted.

Enjoy the HGTV!


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden