Post 451: Artist's Palette - the Right Place for Paint

Artist's Palette - the Right Place for Paint

By Donna Liguria

Where and on what do you mix your paint? The painter's palette of choice will depend on the medium that you use, be it oil, acrylic, or watercolor...and potentially how quickly you paint and where you are painting. Consider also how you want the palette to function. Do you want the palette to only hold the paint or do you want to have room to mix your colors too? And surely you would want the ease of clean up when you're finished painting. Let's take a look at what you can place your paint on.

The Palette for the Medium - Your Choice

The palette, the plate, the surface that you squeeze out the paint for the artwork you are going to use and to mix the paint.

There are questions to ask when selecting the palette to the medium. 

• What type of medium you use?
• How do you paint? Quickly, slowly?
• Do you paint standing up, sitting down, or plein air?
• Do you like to hold your paint palette or have it sitting on a table nearby?
• How do you mix your paints to get your desired color?
• Do you use a palette knife to mix your colors?
• Do you paint on large canvas, medium, or small? Or murals!

Watercolor Paint - the beauty of watercolors is that even when the paint dries, the paints can be reactivated with more water. Non-porous palette surfaces are best that allow the paint to stay moist. Slanted wells or mixing trays work beautifully as well.

• Styrofoam Plate Palette
• Plastic Wells Palette
• Porcelain/Ceramic Palette
• Plastic Wells, Bowls Palette
• Airtight Travel Palettes, especially for Gouache Paint
• Cleanup palette with water and mild soap

Photo by Lindsy Brown on Unsplash

Gouache Paint - will be similar to the watercolor palette except that gouache paint will need to be treated more like the acrylic paint with an airtight sealable container to prevent the paint from drying out when storing.

Inks - inks come in watercolor, acrylic, oil-based, alcohol, drawing, and calligraphy, printmaking inks. Your choice will be in dye-based or pigment-based inks. The tools of ink painting include brushes, dip pen, pepettes, brayers, blades, blocks, and gel plates. Ink painting surfaces will include paper, canvas, and panels. Inks generally dry fairly quickly so storing and using may vary different from other paint types.

Acrylic Paint - because acrylic paints dry so quickly, a palette that is a sealable container is best to keep paint usable for a longer period of time/between paint sessions.

• Sta-Wet Palette 
• Glass Palette
• Plastic Palette
• Disposable Paper Palette
• Cleanup with paper towel if surface is still wet, as we are not to have acrylic paint go down the sink. Dried acrylic paint will peel off a plastic palette (to a degree), easier than on a glass palette. Glass can be scrapped for cleanup.

Photo by Andres Perez on Unsplash

Oil Paint - when your medium is oil paints, you'll still need to protect your palette when it is not in use, even though the paint does not typically dry. Oil does come in water-based mixtures. 

• Glass Palette
• Airtight Palette Container
• Wood - Hand-Held Wood Artist Palette
• Plastic Palette
• Disposable Paper Palette 
• Cleanup oil paint with a palette knife, a cloth, and then with linseed oil or a solvent.

Photo by Tatiana Zhukova on Unsplash

The beginner artist may want to begin with simple, less expensive and disposable palettes so that their focus might stay on the paint skill development. 

Do you paint in multiple mediums? Looks like you will be working with several different palettes to prevent cross contamination. This will also be important for your brushes and other art equipment too. Have separate tools for each medium.

Remember, the cheapest artist tool is not necessarily cheapest in the long run. When replacement frequency and maintenance of the tool clash with the start up budget, costs go up. So shop around, ask artist friends, go to the art store - as always - do the research first.

Plastic and Plexiglass Palettes

Lightweight synthetic, affordable options of plastic palettes are nice to use for watercolor and acrylic artists because the paint does not soak into the surface. 

Styrofoam plates, extremely well cleaned food containers can fall into the plastic palette category as the least expensive palettes, yet the ease of cleanup is a consideration. If you were teaching a class, your students could use plates for quick cleanup, as water availability for cleanup might be restrictive.

Photo by pure julia on Unsplash

Less expensive: Plastic wells, sealable/tightfitting plastic containers, "paper" and Styrofoam plates, clipped on waxed paper on a clipboard.

Pros:  A good portable option, inexpensive and lightweight. Plexiglass is more durable than actual glass.

Cons: May stain over time as well as warp, if it is cheap plastic, and it could crack eventually. One of the locking mechanisms broke on my last plastic palettes. Bummer.

Disposable Wax-Coated Paper Palettes

Wax-coated paper pads offer a quick palette option for plein air artists and in studio artists alike. Simply use the paper and throw it away when done. 

Less expensive: A roll of parchment paper or waxed paper will work fine, just address the "curliness" with tape or something heavy.

Pros:  What is there to cleanup? Toss it! Great for travel and it is lightweight and very convenient for portability.

Cons: Susceptible to a breeze/windy days, wasteful, mixing surface can shift. You may see your palette used as nesting materials at some point.

Glass, Ceramic, and Porcelain Palettes

The glass palette is a great choice for oil or acrylic paint because of its reusable, non-porous surface and ease of clean up. The smooth surface makes the mixing of paint with palette knives or brush effortless. Consider tempered glass and periodically use a razor for deep cleaning. 

Check your local hardware store or a framing store, for appropriate glass sheets that will probably be more cost effective than your local art store priced palettes.

Less expensive: Consider older glass or ceramic dishes, a dinner plate, or bowls. Check out your local thrift stores or yard sales for a smooth, flat, non-raised design to suit your purposes.

Pros:  Non-absorbent, reusable, easy to clean, ideal for mixing colors for its smooth surface.

Cons: Fragile surface, may need to use a background gray or neutral color to accurately mix colors. Of have a gray-scale nearby.

The ceramic and porcelain palettes are non-porous containers that are smooth and will retain moisture for the watercolor paint.

Pros:  Non-porous, very easy cleanup, very nice for mixing paint. A heavier palette that may hold up better under breezy conditions.

Cons: Fragile container that can break or crack, and can be more expensive.

Stay-Wet Palette Systems

The absolute best palette for acrylics, these palettes (often) use a damp sponge and a paper film *waxy) to keep the paint from drying out, as well as a tightly fitted lid to cover the paints while not in use, sometimes for a week or more.

There are some palettes that have multiple wells and mixing areas and locking lids but no sponges. These palettes will need to be sprayed with water to help prolong the acrylic paint's life. Understand your needs before purchasing multi-layer, multi-well, complex systems. The KISS (Keep It Simple Silly) palette may work just fine for most people.

Pros:  Extends the acrylic paint's life by keeping it moist. When the paint dries and is thick enough, the paint can be peeled off.

Cons: The paint, the paper, and the sponge can get moldy if not cared for properly, and the lock-down mechanisms may break over time.

This is the current one I'm using

Masterson Sta-Wet Handy Palette Bundled Set I got on Amazon. He's only 8.5x7 but he does the job and holds the paint for a LONG time. 

I've also seen on Instagram, various artists create their own stay-wet palettes. Here's a great one from Vivien Hollingsworth / studio.hollingsworth with very tight sealing flat plastic storage containers and condiment containers that she DIY'd. She still adds a wet tissue paper under the condiment containers, but its a terrific idea.

Metal/Airtight Palettes

Metal palettes come in well trays and boxes, are durable and are very good with watercolors and for travel.

Wooden Palettes

Now that's a classic palette for oil painters. Traditionally the wood is made from mahogany, walnut or maple and have that recognizable thumb hole to support the weight.

Photo by Jennie Razumnaya on Unsplash

It may also be convenient to look for a container or Sta-Wet palette that is sealable and large/deep enough to place your entire wooden palette inside of for extended periods of time or traveling.

Pros: A durable, usually lightweight, traditional feel when painting. Scrape the paints with a palette knife for mixing and cleanup, good surface to blending with a brush.

Cons: Need to oil the surface to prevent absorption of the paint. Not ideal for water-based paints. There are prescribed step by step instructions for the maintenance of your wooden palette including removal of excess paint, wipe down the surface, solvent wiping on the surface, final wipe down, and conditioning.

Art to Go - Traveling Palettes

The traveling artist and the plein air artist will need a palette that will go in luggage, a backpack, or even a purse that is not only lightweight, but is durable, compact, won't leak, and has a cover.

There are small and there are tiny traveling palettes for your medium of choice. The smaller the pack, the more limiting on the paint colors, mixing area, and size of the painting of course.

Pochade boxes - a portable painting box for artists on the go. Perfect for plein air painters painting outdoors, the pochade box combines storage for their art materials, a surface for mixing paint, and storing the wet painting. They are suitable for various painting mediums - oil, watercolor, and pastel.

Photo by Jonathan Trans on Unsplash

Your choice in selection depend upon where you paint, how you transport your supplies, the weight, the weather conditions, the ease of use / setup / cleanup, and price.

See The Essential Tools for a Plein Air Setup

What palette do you use and why do you like it?

Art Palette Tips

• I saw an artist that used the disposable paper palettes where she mixed the colors for the artwork she had created. She let the paper dry out when the artwork was finished, then cut a square out of the paper and attached it to her Certificate of Authenticity. 
• Another artist taped it to the back of the artwork.
• Another artist created bookmarks or other ideas that matched the artwork.
• Use masking tape on the edges of your glass palette to help protect you/the edges.
• Have a microwave that doesn't work any longer? Use the tray (glass plate) and the rolly thing under as your palette.
• Many of the palette options are interchangeable to a degree depending on how you paint. 
• Organizing your paint colors in a logical order will help the artist in mixing cleaner and more intentional colors. 
• When laying out the colors, depending on the subject to be painted, leave room for mixing. 
• Put the blues and violets together, the greens together, the oranges, reds and browns to a side, and the yellows together. 
• Put white and black to an alternate area. 
• Or organize the colors from light to dark and always layout the same way so that color decisions become second nature. Many artists follow the color wheel sequence for blending.
• Right-handed? The typical layout of color is clockwise.
• Left-handed? The typical layout of color is counterclockwise.
• Try a limited palette of only a few colors and/or a separation of warm and cool tones.
• OIL: When done painting and there is leftover color, you can scrape the paint off the palette and put it in a sealable container and place it in the fridge or freezer for later use. Cool storage reduces drying times.
• The distribution of the paint on a hand-held palette may effect the balance and weight while and how long you hold it.
• Depending on how large you paint will speak to the size requirements of your palette. 
• If you use Palette knives, some palette shapes and sizes work better with some surfaces better than others as well as room to mix, so select the right palette for your needs.
• If your palette is heavily stained, consider using it for dedicated colors.
• Visit an actual paint store to play with the various options before spending money on the wrong artist resource tool, or talk to your local artist community or group and ask questions. Artists with real-world experience with their products of choice may offer invaluable help in your decision making.
• CLEANING: a clean palette means color purity, accurate color value mixing, tools protection and longevity, and workflow efficiency. Cleaning the surface is easier while paint is still wet.
• Plastic - clean immediately and be gentle.
• Glass - scrape with palette knife
• Dried acrylic palette - soaking, then scraping but avoid scratching the surface

Photo by Vladimir Ivanenko on Unsplash

What palette do you use and why do you like it? Drop a comment below.

@2026 Donna Liguria. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited without permission

Like my content? Follow my Blog!_________________________

Author: Donna Liguria  is the Blogmaster for Donna's Cave Paintings and the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, VA. Donna specializes in acrylic paintings of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art.

 *I LOVE reading your comments on my posts! Just remember that the blog comments are monitored so they may not appear right away.