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So I have read a million places that I should have a wet palette and how much it could help with my painting, but for the life of me I can not find the ones online that people speak high opinions of.

So i have decided to come here and post this and let the kind people of Dakka and fellow painters please link their best suggestion on here because I really need one and would like to know what everyone uses and what works best!

Thanks

Cutthroatcure

Get a big flat box of Ferrero Rocher. Eat them. Put a square piece of foam sponge in the box. Pour water on sponge until saturated. Place parchment paper on top of sponge. Done, you now probably have a belly ache, and do have a wet palette.

I will have to try that, but I am trying to get some ideas to give my lady to buy for me, cause she wants to get me one. I can not argue her trying to feel apart of my hobby.

Get her to buy the chocolates? Honestly, it's the best one I've used. Bought ones tend to be a bit smaller... :-)

get her to make you one.

Tupperware box, a sponge/paper towels soaked through and greaseproof/parchment/baking paper.

Let her customise it and make it a gift. she gets involved, you both save money and you probably get a better sized wet pallet than the ones on the market.

Even the bits of foam that come in old GW mini packs works as the sponge.

So just regular Sponges, and lay some baking paper on it and then my paints will stay wetter longer, or how does it exactly work?

Pretty much. Obviously, you don't want to use funky-shaped sponges with scouring pads attached, but plain old dish sponges work, as do several layers of paper towels, open-cell cushion foam, blister pack foam, etc. - basically anything absorbent, preferably with a degree of loft to it.

It helps if you soak the paper a bit before you start laying paint down, as well. That's partially to ensure that paint will be moisturized wherever you lay it down, but mostly so that any curling the paper is going to do can be corrected before it sends your perfect paint mix running right off the paper.

If your lady is hell bent on buying you something, art/arts and craft stores sell wet palettes, as well as replacement palette paper and sponges. I know Michael's carries ones far larger than I think I'd ever want to use, so it's safe to assume that A.C. Moore and others would carry them, as well.

So do I still mix my paints as usual on the baking paper or do i just let the palette do it?

Have a blister that comes with some foam? Cut the sides and top off the blister, keep the foam moist in there and stick some parchment on top and you have a disposable wet palette that saves the environment. A palette is simply somewhere to put your paint before you use it.. So just use your wet palette like your non-wet palette except for longer...

This kinda sponge is great as it soaks up alot of water due to its density.



Just take your parchment/baking paper and just mix your paints as usual on top. Essentially it acts as a semi porus membrane which as the water evaporates from the paint it is replaced by water beneath it through osmosis. (Im no scientist but im pretty sure thats the general idea). Its so nice to be able to pour out paint, mix it up and then come back to it a day later and it still be useable (improved staying power if you get something with a lid)

Enjoy!

I actually use sponge from a dog bed (flat sponge mattress, about half an inch thick) bought at my local pound shop (dollar store), cut to size.

You will find you might not need to thin the paint quite as much as you would on a dry palette as there is some leeching up of water, but otherwise mixing is pretty much the same.

I have never heard of a 'wet palette'... bonus is that the paints don't dry on it or something?

In short, yes. They do thin over time though, and this causes more settling than occurs on a dry palette.

You can also do tricks for blending like making a colour gradient on the palette; put a blob of colour A down, then near it put a blob of colour B. draw them together and mix 'em up a bit. You get a smooth gradient on the palette (that stays wet!) which you can use for picking colours to layer on. Really does save a hell of a lot of time.

They also help massively in warm / dry conditions.

I may look into it!

Yeah using a wet palette is the best thing that's happened to my painting for a while, it solves a number of problems related to keeping paint consistent and fresh.
Using a regular palette, it always seemed like my paints became thicker as time went on. For one thing, I always felt like I was racing against time for my paints drying out when I was painting, and my paint job could be inconsistent with the paint much too thick in places.

It mixes up better, it stays in one place so you don't waste it all, and it stays fresh for a pretty long time.
The paint kind of beads up like water on a water-resistant surface, so it doesn't easily spread everywhere, and instead stays put.

The only real problem I've had is that the paint tends to separate from the water over some time, I frequently have to stir the paint to keep it well mixed.
I've saw the same thing on a normal palette, but the paint drys up before it can separate like that. It looks like there's water sitting on top of the pigment, so I stir it up again and it's ok.

Cutthroatcure wrote:I will have to try that, but I am trying to get some ideas to give my lady to buy for me, cause she wants to get me one. I can not argue her trying to feel apart of my hobby.

At least for me, it's not so much "getting a wet palette" than it is "finding something in my house that would work"
I'm using a lid from a plastic container, a folded up paper towel, and a sheet of parchment paper.
Honestly, you need:
* Anything that will hold water for an extended duration (towels, sponge)
* Anything that will hold the towel or sponge and not get excess water everywhere
* Parchment paper


Dab some paint on there, thin it down a bit, and pick up a brush

I guy at our local store uses a wet palette. Is models are wonderful. Here is his blog and how he set it all up.

http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/08/going-wet-how-to-build-and-use-wet.html

Soup

Yeah I have seen some pretty cool videos about it on Youtube that I will post on here.

I have decided to get as much recipes and ingfo as I can from this blog posting and turn it into an article for others in the future to read.

So any more ideas you have throw my way!

Soup_Nazi wrote:I guy at our local store uses a wet palette. Is models are wonderful. Here is his blog and how he set it all up.
http://midwestmonsterlab.blogspot.com/2011/08/going-wet-how-to-build-and-use-wet.html

This is an excellent guide - I'm probably going to get rid of my current setup and do something more like this myself.

Gonna put that in the article.