Setting up a watercolor travel palette 1: selecting a palette
I started watercolor painting because it is much easier to carry with you during (work or holiday) trips, especially compared to soft pastels. A small palette with a limited amount of colors will give you endless mixing possibilities. Add a pencil, an eraser, a travel brush, a piece of cloth, and a small sketchbook and you’re set to go. I always bring some waterproof fineliners or a fountain pen with waterproof ink as well, because I find it easier to do quick line and wash sketches compared to full watercolor sketches. But how do you decide what watercolor palette to use? There are so many options and it is a very personal choice, but below I will explain my experiences and what I am using now. And do you have trouble with the paint forming beads on your new palette? I will close this blog with a few tips on how to deal with beading and staining.
Watercolor palette options
Chunky metal watercolor tin
Chunky metal watercolor tin with 13 full pans
I started with one of these relatively small but chunky metal watercolor tins that are made for 12 half pans. You can buy these tins in almost any art store or online and they generally are quite cheap. Do pay attention that the lids are white on the inside! Otherwise it is difficult to judge the color and transparency of your mixes.
I prefer the ones with space in the middle that is wide enough to allow for additional pans. As you can see, I personally prefer full pans, even for my travel sets. I love mixing colors and don't like poking my brush around inside a small half pan.
You can add even more pans to these tins if you take the metal rack out and add magnets to the bottom of your pans. In the picture I managed to squeeze 13 full pans into the palette meant for 12 half pans.
I still like these tins, there is quite some mixing space, and you can bring many colors in a limited space. However, they can become quite heavy if (like me) you fill them with as many pans as you can.
Mijello Fusion palette
The second option I tried was the Mijello Fusion 18 well palette. I absolutely love this palette. It has so much mixing space and lovely large, slanted wells to pick up paint from. And it is leak proof, so if you have to pack up quickly to catch a boat because you forgot time while painting (I am definitely speaking from experience here), you do not have to worry about paint leaking into your bag.
The main disadvantage of this palette is directly related to all the advantages, namely: it is BIG! The size is wonderful if you go somewhere specifically with the aim to paint. You can bring a large bag and will probably sit down for a longer painting session or two. However, if you are on a trip and want to bring a palette during a hike, a climbing trip, or city walk to see if you can find some time for painting, I find it way too large. The weight doesn’t bother me that much, but it just takes up too much space in a bag during such trips. Because of that, I find that I start thinking of not bringing it at all. Of course, I then regret not bringing it if I find a nice spot and some time to paint.
I will always prefer to bring this palette to dedicated painting trips, watercolor lessons, or even if I have a bit of space leftover in my hand luggage during holidays, because it is wonderful if you have the time for a more extensive painting session.
Comparing the size of my Mijello Fusion to the Art Toolkit Folio
Comparing the chunky watercolor tin to the Art Toolkit Folio palette
The chunky tin is a little smaller in width and height when closed (7x12x2.5 cm) but much heavier and almost three times thicker than the Folio (13.5x8.5x0.7 cm). It is still a very good option and much cheaper than the folio.
Art Toolkit Folio palette
After my last holiday (and after reading tons of blogs and watching Youtube videos), I decided to buy the Art Toolkit Folio palette and I am so glad I did! I now always have my watercolors and a tiny home made sketchbook with me. If I cycle back from work and I see a nice view, I can take my watercolors out and paint. The only disadvantage of these palettes is that they are not cheap. But it is so much fun to customize this palette to completely fit your needs! The palette is magnetic and the metal pans and wells can fit together in various ways. It is like playing Tetris with your watercolors (I will explain more about this in my next blog post :)
Of course the size of the palette also means that you have less mixing space. That is the reason that I went for the folio model and not one of their even smaller palettes (yes they do have them). I love that you can add additional mixing space, and I am thinking about taking out some colors to add even more.
I really appreciate that the half and full pans have quite a lot of surface area, making it easy to pick up paint. I am not the biggest fan of the mini pans. I will probably keep a few of the mini pans to try out some new colors to see if I will use them, but as soon as I can get some additional half pans I will probably change the set up a bit (when I ordered this palette, the half pans were sold out).
Painting en plein air with the Art Toolkit Folio palette
Here I was painting the opening of the new Groningen ring road. For one day only you could walk (and sketch) on the new road. I used a little clamp to attach my palette to my sketchbook. I always bring a couple of clamps to keep the pages of my sketchbook from moving in the wind.
Problems with beading and staining on your plastic or metal watercolor palettes?
Beading
One big disadvantage of plastic and metal palettes in general, especially when they are new, is that the paint forms droplets or beads on your palettes instead of a nice puddle of paint where you can clearly see the consistency. There are two different solutions that I have tried and that worked fine on both the plastic Mijello palette and the metal ones. I have also read about other solutions but have not yet tried them (toothpaste or glue).
Use some rubbing alcohol (>70%) and give your palette a good rub with it (my preferred option because there is no risk of scratching the surface).
Use a damp magic eraser sponge and rub it over your palette.
Usually I would have only a minimal amount of beading after doing this (probably some spots I did not rub well). These final spots would go away after using the palette a bit. As you can see in the pictures above, there are no signs of beading at all on the metal or Mijello palette. On the Art Toolkit palette I barely noticed any beading from the start and I never used anything to stop beading on this palette.
Staining
Another problem that people have with plastic and metal palettes is that they stain. The intensely staining phthalo and quinacridone colors are usually the main culprits. Personally I am not very bothered by it, because on both the metal palette and the Mijello palette the staining is minimal. I have one cheap amazon plastic palette that stains a lot more than the Mijello one. Here, rubbing alcohol and the magic eraser can also get rid of some of the worst stains if you are bothered by it.
PS: When I paint at home, I usually use porcelain dinner plates (preferably the ones made for fondue or gourmet with multiple dividers) as a palette. No problems with beading or staining at all!
PPS: do I ever clean my palette? Yes, probably when I will next use my Mijello Palette I will clean some areas off. But I definitely do not clean them after each use, and sometimes I will use ‘palette mud’ (the mix of all colors left over on a section of your palette) to paint something. Depending on the warmer or cooler tone of the palette mud, it can be extremely useful for misty mountain scenes or base layers on brown animals. And since it is usually some form of grey, it can be used to dull down other colors, your own neutral tint so to say :)
PPPS: if you are wondering, I am not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned here. I bought these products with my own money and these are my experiences from using them in the field.
