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How often do you all change your wet palette ?
My wet palette is a Tupperware, some kitchen towel at the bottom with baking paper over it. Works fine but it smell funny after a week. Does anyone else have this issue?

Same as a kitchen sponge really, if you let it sit its going to mold.

If I'm not saving colors i wring it out and dry it. 2-3 days tops.

I throw out my sponge and paper once in a while, and put the plastic box in the dishwasher. Can go months in winter. Less so in summer.

Try using distilled water in the bottom rather than tap water.
adding paints will introduce contaminants that can grow into something and start to smell, but starting out with none would be a good way to avoid it as long as possible. ~ The same is true if thinning paints in the bottles, dont use tap water if you dont plan to use it real soon.

I got some sponges which seem to have anti-bacterial stuff in it - same sponge for 6 months, fully sealed container, tap water. No smell, no visible mould.

I have washed the sponge out a few times, obviously, and the whole housing, but there have been huge stretches of time between water changes.

Iv had the smell issue before.

Now i just clean and dry it out if im not using it.

OR if il just lazy leave the top off and let it evaporate it self

It's what happens with stagnant water - same reason aquariums have a filter and such. You could try using some water treatments like folks have for plants and small fish bowls, or just tip the thing out.
If it's funky, chances are that's stinky bacteria and you don't want it on your brush and into your paint pots.

Sometimes the smell is just the paint...

But yeah, leaving damp stuff in a plastic container can definitely start to smell a little mouldy after a while, particularly if the container isn't quite airtight.

These days, I get so little time to paint that it's usually dried out between uses, but back when I was painting more regularly, I used to just swap out the paper towel every couple of days.

When using my Masterson Wet Palette, I do like the instructions recommend - I mix a very tiny amount of pure ammonia into the water I am going to use to saturate the sponge.

This does not wholly prevent the smell or moldiness, but it definitely greatly delays it.

Additionally, the trace ammonia does not negatively affect the paints at all.

Didn't expect to see so many methods to maintain a wet palette. Awesome. I think the anti bacterial sponge would be easiest for me to apply.

o dude thats gross i change it after im done using it.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:
o dude thats gross i change it after im done using it.

That's fine if it works for you... but part of the bonus of using a wet pallete is not having to replace your 'in progress' painted between every painting session. Particularly handy if you're mixing colours.

Besides, if you change the water you don't get the sweet hallucinogenic effects when you lick your brush

Hallucinogenic effects? Did you mistaken paint pots with just.........pots? wakakakakak

Specifically, it is Mildew.

Which, as has been pointed out, is a mold.

Many acrylic paints have organics as pigments.

If the pigment organics have not been properly prepared (sterilized), then they can become active media for the growth of molds and bacteria (so your paint can also ferment, creating a sort of "paint beer").

You would notice if it began to ferment, as it would begin to smell either like beer or vinegar.

But it's mostly mold.

We had a BAD problem with this at Genesis Gaming Products with our "Dunn' paint (light beige).

It would grow fuzzy mold on the top of the paint it would get so bad.

Microwaving them seems to help kill the mold-making elements.

MB