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Right. Yet another question from the new guy. What follows is what I am doing to attempt to make a wet palette. Something isn't working right, thus the question in the thread title.

I see that a good way to keep all of your paints from drying out is to use a wet palette. Off to Youtube and the forum search on this site. I see how to make a wet palette. The set-up sounds easy enough: palette paper, water-retaining material, and some way to seal it for later. So I have my water-retaining material (paper towels and old miniature pack sponges) and my palette material (both the fancy palette paper and the cheap parchment). I can get a sealable case later, but right now I'm just trying to see how it works.

The instructions seem simple enough for preparing parchment & palette paper: boil the paper to remove any excess waterproofing material on it, slap it on your water-retainer, get to painting. I cut some of the paper into strips, boiled them, and save them for later. Why did I cut them into strips? My current palette has ten wells in a row. My intention is to fill those wells with wet water-retaining material, then place the strips of dried palette paper atop the now sponge- or paper towel-filled wells. Once the water has seeped through the paper, I can add paint and not worry about it drying out in the middle painting another squad of Marines.

Here's what I've tried:

Parchment paper: Boiled it for 15 minutes. Once it dried, I laid it tightly over the sponges so it would stay in constant contact with the wet sponge. If I did this correctly, I should see water begin to well up on the surface of the parchment, right? All I saw was water beading on the surface of the paper and rolling off.

Sta-Wet Palette Paper: Soaked in hot water for 15 minutes per the instructions. Again, I let it dry. Like the parchment, I set it atop the sponges with complete contact. Again, I'm looking for water seeping through the paper, correct?

So far I have not seen any water seep through either type of paper. Am I supposed to wet the entire sheet of paper and then set it on top of my water-retaining material? There's got to be something I'm missing. I figure I'll probably have a moment once it's explained to me.

I personally wet the entire piece of palette paper and rub it in, before I use a piece of tissue to dab excess water off. Hope it helps.

Well lets see, I have been using a wet pallet for about 2 years now.

My pallet is made of
1. Plastic container from the Chinese restaurant.
2. Cheap as i can find sponges that fit.
3. Parchment paper.

I've never had to boil paper or other such bunk and it works just fine.

Yeah...no paper boiling here either.

Glad Ware plastic container
Cheap azz sponges
Tissue paper
Parchment baking paper

1) fill container with sponges, making a level surface
2) put about 3 layers of tissue paper on top of the sponges
3) fill with water, pouring it over the tissue paper/sponges, get it all nice and wet
4) wet both sides of the parchment baking paper
5) put it down on the tissue paper

Fin.

So the paper has to be laid down already wet regardless of whether it's parchment or palette paper?

The paper must be wet prior to adding paint..or it will fail to keep the paint wet the next day ..(container is needed)

Wetting the paper is a shortcut. Even bone dry, it would eventually become properly damp after a bit of contact with the reservoir material. Plus, laying it down dry tends to cause it to curl violently (differential expansion as moisture is absorbed from one face).

Also, I think you're expecting a bit more water transfer than should actually be occurring. Water beads on the palette surface are usually a result of condensation (most prevalent when the container has been sealed for a while), not osmosis in overdrive. When open and working, the wet palette is meant to try and counter evaporation, as much as it can. Open time is greatly extended, but the ambient air will eventually win out, hence the preference for sealable containers. You still add outside water to thin the paints (although they do tend to become thinner after some time spent sealed, as osmosis can then outpace evaporation).

For reference, I am (and have been, for some time) using a shallow knockoff Tupperware container with a parchment paper top. Reservoir is made from half a dozen or so layers of paper towel (easy to replace when they get gunky - I tend to stop painting for long stretches, letting various slimes and gribblies gain a foothold). When replacing the palette surface, I slightly overfill the reservoir (texture of towel is above water level, but there's almost a layer of standing water) and lay down the paper, holding it in contact for a few seconds. It curls once released, so I flip it over and smooth it down, ensuring good contact as the curl relaxes. Once everything is in place, I'm good to go. Takes all of two minutes to completely strip, clean (quick wipe with a sponge, then rinse), and refit, ready for more painting.

No boiling here either.

I just play a paper towel in a plastic container, wet the towel, place parchment paper on top - and paint away!

I do the hot water thing because I have sta-wet paper. I also have the sta wet palette, because I could never get home brew kits to work as well as I wanted. Granted, the blister size wet palettes were nice when space was small.

With the sta wet, I find I don't need to add any water to thin, it pulls enough up from the paper to thin as needed. GW paints still dry out faster than anything else I have used (newer GW at least last a tad longer than the old)

 oadie wrote:
Wetting the paper is a shortcut. Even bone dry, it would eventually become properly damp after a bit of contact with the reservoir material. Plus, laying it down dry tends to cause it to curl violently (differential expansion as moisture is absorbed from one face).

Also, I think you're expecting a bit more water transfer than should actually be occurring. Water beads on the palette surface are usually a result of condensation (most prevalent when the container has been sealed for a while), not osmosis in overdrive. When open and working, the wet palette is meant to try and counter evaporation, as much as it can. Open time is greatly extended, but the ambient air will eventually win out, hence the preference for sealable containers. You still add outside water to thin the paints (although they do tend to become thinner after some time spent sealed, as osmosis can then outpace evaporation).

For reference, I am (and have been, for some time) using a shallow knockoff Tupperware container with a parchment paper top. Reservoir is made from half a dozen or so layers of paper towel (easy to replace when they get gunky - I tend to stop painting for long stretches, letting various slimes and gribblies gain a foothold). When replacing the palette surface, I slightly overfill the reservoir (texture of towel is above water level, but there's almost a layer of standing water) and lay down the paper, holding it in contact for a few seconds. It curls once released, so I flip it over and smooth it down, ensuring good contact as the curl relaxes. Once everything is in place, I'm good to go. Takes all of two minutes to completely strip, clean (quick wipe with a sponge, then rinse), and refit, ready for more painting.

Thank you for going into greater detail! I was expecting water to start surfacing in beads immediately so I wouldn't have to add water. It works too slowly to see immediate results, then. The problem lies with my impatience, not the process itself.

See? I said I'd have a moment.

Not to worry. "Wet palette = automatic thinning" is a pretty common misconception. Granted, some moisture does occasionally accumulate on the surface (not instant drops, but things get damp). Some people poke their brush in the paint blob then stroke it across the palette a few times to thin by the brushload. They may be getting more water transfer than me, but I think it's more a matter of them not wanting to work with particularly dilute paint (the strokes left are far too crisp for the surface to have been wet enough to really thin the paint). Watching their brush loading and painting (primarily going from videos), they generally appear to be still very much in the "straight from the pot" mindset - the palette has changed, but their techniques and desired paint consistency haven't.

I could be completely off base, here, but that's the impression I get, at least. But yes, the water transfer with a wet palette is generally pretty slow. It's more about maintaining the mixes and dilutions that you make then changing them, by nature of its wetness.

 oadie wrote:
Not to worry. "Wet palette = automatic thinning" is a pretty common misconception. Granted, some moisture does occasionally accumulate on the surface (not instant drops, but things get damp). Some people poke their brush in the paint blob then stroke it across the palette a few times to thin by the brushload. They may be getting more water transfer than me, but I think it's more a matter of them not wanting to work with particularly dilute paint (the strokes left are far too crisp for the surface to have been wet enough to really thin the paint). Watching their brush loading and painting (primarily going from videos), they generally appear to be still very much in the "straight from the pot" mindset - the palette has changed, but their techniques and desired paint consistency haven't.

I could be completely off base, here, but that's the impression I get, at least. But yes, the water transfer with a wet palette is generally pretty slow. It's more about maintaining the mixes and dilutions that you make then changing them, by nature of its wetness.

I do the stroke across the surface. It does thin it slowly, but I find it easier than trying to add water and such, as I always over add water

I purchased the PP wet pallette (silly buying one, I know, but it was there and I decided what the hey).

Occasionally I need to wet the top of the paper to get it to "stick" to the sponge and prevent it from curling up. No biggie.