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Published: 2006-07-01 02:42:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 73896; Favourites: 1186; Downloads: 903
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No-Sign-of-Sanity’sPalette Tutorial Extravaganza!!!
For all 3 of you who may actually give a shit, this is how I set up my palette to paint in acrylics. By following these steps you can get your acrylics to last on your palette for weeks instead of minutes. What sort of magic is this? Witchcraft you say? Nah it’s just one of the few useful things I actually picked up in art school so I’d thought I’d save you all some big tuition cash, and just post it here.
Step #1. Stop! Palette Time! Get yourself a nice 11”x15” ceramic palette like this one. These things are made of metal and have a super durable ceramic shell. I’ve beaten the hell out of this thing and it’s still no worse for wear. Do you REALLY need one of these to proceed with this tutorial? Hell no. Just get yourself some type of flat container with a decent lip of about a one inch deep. Tupperware, cookie sheets, hell even a lasagna dish will work just as well.
Step #2. Build the foundation. Fill the base of your palette with paper towels. I use about 6 or so overlapping paper towels and that works well for me. Try to keep the surface fairly flat so if you’re building too much thickness in the center of your palette from the towels overlapping, fold a few more paper towels in half and put them on the ends to even it out.
Step #3. Drown it! Fill the palette with water until the towels are soaking wet. Hold the towels in place and drain the palette of any excess water. We want the towels to hold as much water as they possibly can but we’re not making a bowl of soup here. If your palette is too wet, it’ll backfire on you later and your paints will end up getting all soupy from absorbing too much water. Keep reading, it will all make sense it a minute…
Step #4. All air bubbles must die!!! Place your hands in the center of the palette, and working outwards, smooth out the paper towels and try to force any air bubbles that may be in there out to the sides of the palette. It may take a few passes, but you want to end up with a nice flat base of wet paper towels.
Step #5. My pad or yours? Get yourself a nice pad a tracing paper that’s close in size to the palette you’ve selected. Unless you work purely digitally (in which case you probably ain't reading this tutorial), you should have some tracing paper in your art arsenal at all times. It has a plethora (yes jefe, I said “plethora”) of uses. For my palette-making purposes I use Clearprint Vellum. It’s not cheap, but it’s thick and durable so it’s well worth the extra dough.
Step #.6 Tracing paper is not just for tracing. Take a sheet of tracing paper and lay it down over your bed of wet paper towels. . This tracing paper is going to be the actual usable surface our palette. You’ll notice that the paper starts to wrinkle as it soaks up some of the water from the towels. This is normal. Just like in step #4, use your hands to smooth out the tracing paper and rid your self of any air bubbles.
Step #7. Isn’t she lovely? This is our completed and ready to use acrylic-friendly palette. The bed of wet towels underneath the surface will actually re-hydrate the paint as it loses its moisture from being out in the air. Ain’t science cool? Every few days or so you may have to add some more water to the towels underneath to keep them wet and keep the palette going. Just pull up a corner of the tracing paper and pour in the water as needed.
Step #8. Now go paint bitches!!! Since I’m such a detail driven psycho, I find that it helps to do all of my color mixing on the palette before I ever start painting. So here’s an example of the simple grayscale palette I set up to make the Two-Face painting in my gallery. I started with a middle gray tone and I mixed up towards white, and down towards black.
When you’re not using your paints I’d suggest covering the palette with plastic wrap and throwing it the refrigerator. Just because your paints won’t dry out for months doesn’t mean that having a bunch of wet paper towels hanging out in your room forever won’t still grow mold.
I hope that helped!
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Comments: 331
donnaquinn [2009-07-01 06:19:12 +0000 UTC]
Thank you very much for posting this- it should be a great help. By the way, your work is simply amazing!
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Memis-Nyu In reply to ??? [2009-05-02 02:48:27 +0000 UTC]
oh this is awesome! i've just started using acrylics for my art class, and i must agree. IT'S A PAIN IN THE BUTT WHEN PAINT DRIES!!!
our teacher has us use a paper palette and then makes us spray the paint with a small bottle that uses very fine mist, it makes the paint last a little longer, sut sometimes you get so absorbed into your work... it's natural to forget
I think I'll be trying out your new method from now on! it looks iffy sweet! thanks for sharing the tip!
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zarhx [2009-04-29 00:40:45 +0000 UTC]
Very nice. I'd heard that using a damp paper towel keeps acrylics happy in their palette, but I had the problem of soupy paint. The tracing paper over top seems like it will really help. Thanks (:
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tiffdere [2009-04-16 18:53:14 +0000 UTC]
There is nothing I hate more then when i mix a big batch of great colors, and then they dry out. This is such a great help, im going out and buying a new palette asap!
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zarhx In reply to tiffdere [2009-04-29 00:41:31 +0000 UTC]
Haha, I agree.. especially when working on a multiple day (or week x.x) project that requires the same palette of colors day after day!
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fmplando In reply to ??? [2009-04-13 06:25:45 +0000 UTC]
Can I use wax papers instead of tracing papers? They're similar, aren't they? Or is wax paper too waterproof? What alternatives can I use?
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to fmplando [2009-04-14 08:33:48 +0000 UTC]
Wax paper probably won't work because it's designed to stop moisture from seeping thru it. Silicone baking sheets will work, as will any thick type of vellum. Tracing paper is generally just the least expensive route to make this set-up work.
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vinegar [2009-03-10 10:27:52 +0000 UTC]
this is a very useful tutorial, I must say one of the few that really helped me - so obvious when you know it, yet I wouldn't ever think of it myself.
And when I think how many times I was irritated by my palette drying too fast
Thank you so much for sharing!
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BlackDelphin [2009-03-07 09:38:01 +0000 UTC]
ooh very useful!!
i looove spending time with details so it will REALLY be useful
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G-Spot1 [2009-03-04 15:55:54 +0000 UTC]
Just wanted to thank you again for this and the Ol' Scratch tutorial -- really helped me out with this assignment ( I had the painting tutorial open on my computer and followed your instructions step by step ).
If you're curious this is how it turned out :
[link]
The school is keeping it for open house! Again, thanks!
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G-Spot1 [2009-02-24 02:13:50 +0000 UTC]
Just used your wet palette technique after reading your Ol' Scratch tutorial and I just want to say:
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for this and for all the tips in your tutorial -- sooo much more useful than what my teacher has been showing ( or NOT showing us ) in class! Fingers crossed that, in the home stretch, I don't f*@k up my painting of X-man Chamber.
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to G-Spot1 [2009-02-24 06:33:54 +0000 UTC]
Nice! I'm really glad to hear that it's working for you!
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iSkit [2009-02-18 16:48:34 +0000 UTC]
This is such a big help!
Recently, we started using acrylics in my 2D Design class and I felt bad because of all the wasted paint.
Yay for a solution. : 3
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VK93 [2009-02-12 17:23:43 +0000 UTC]
oowww thank u so much this will help me get into highschool!
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ThatDarnKat [2009-01-31 21:05:28 +0000 UTC]
Thank you so much for posting this tidbit!! I'm actually going to try acrylics today and you saved me a headache!
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to ThatDarnKat [2009-01-31 21:56:58 +0000 UTC]
Cool! Also be sure to check the following links for a really in-depth acrylic painting tutorial I made a little while back. It might be a bit of overkill for your first time working with acrylics, but it might help you pick up a quick tip or two right off the bat.
tutorial page 1 = [link]
tutorial page 2 = [link]
Good luck!
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ThatDarnKat In reply to No-Sign-of-Sanity [2009-02-01 05:31:17 +0000 UTC]
Wow! Impressive tutorial; you definitely gave me some food for thought. Thanks!
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dragodraco [2009-01-29 10:52:51 +0000 UTC]
Thanks for taking the time to do something on Acrylics....Your wet pallet technique is much better than the one I´ve been using. I can see by the dates on the responses that this was done some time ago, however, good advice is timesless.
Thanks again, dragoraco
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Tristan-the-Dreamer In reply to ??? [2009-01-14 22:35:05 +0000 UTC]
I was getting sick of my paints drying out on me...thanks for the tips!
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adrianD [2008-12-30 03:17:21 +0000 UTC]
shazam w00t wow awesome! i've got to try this... but first I need to now how it's the "tracing paper" called in Spain xDDD
thanks for the tutorial!!!
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to adrianD [2008-12-31 01:54:28 +0000 UTC]
Tracing paper is just very thin paper that you can see thru. Here's a link to what I mean [link]
Hope that helps and happy new year!
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adrianD In reply to No-Sign-of-Sanity [2008-12-31 02:27:28 +0000 UTC]
aaah I know I know, here it's called 'apel de calco' ok ok, thanks!!
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namelessdragonic In reply to ??? [2008-12-24 05:33:27 +0000 UTC]
Ohh, this useful to know. o.o Also, your palette is much bigger than what I usually use. xD Great idea!
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Farewell-Spring [2008-12-12 09:58:01 +0000 UTC]
Awesome tutorial, really helpful, I do have a question, instead of using towel paper is it possible to replace that with watercolor paper?
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to Farewell-Spring [2008-12-12 18:03:40 +0000 UTC]
Maybe. You'd need a lot of it though because the paper towels kinda act like a storage well for the water so it can slowly seep in thru he tracing paper above over time. So in order to get the same effect you'd have to use a small stack of watercolor paper to do the same job and that might be kind of expensive. You'd probably be better off trying a an old t-shirt soaked in water instead.
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Farewell-Spring In reply to No-Sign-of-Sanity [2008-12-13 15:34:37 +0000 UTC]
I see, thank you for the tip
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bananasplitz01 [2008-11-27 19:27:49 +0000 UTC]
Oh my gosh thanks so much. When i was using acrylics I constantly had to keep remixing the paint until i was tearing my hair out. (actually) Too bad Ive finished it now but I'm definitly using this in the future. thanks again.
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Lil-Elle [2008-11-26 21:16:15 +0000 UTC]
o 3o I will use this technique for the rest of my painting life
thank goodness I haven't used acrylics too long and wasted tons of paint xD
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AriesCT [2008-10-27 13:29:48 +0000 UTC]
thanks for this great tip. I would like to try acrylic as a medium!
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LadyAshley1322 In reply to ??? [2008-10-20 17:40:08 +0000 UTC]
thx, great tip, will come in hady i hope.
thx again.
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TechneCreations In reply to ??? [2008-10-19 02:03:54 +0000 UTC]
Woah! I never thought of that!!! Thanks!!
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Andres-Blanco [2008-08-24 23:06:05 +0000 UTC]
wooooooo man i'm a acrilyc nerd actually and this thing help me pretty much!.
thank you!-
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JoanmarkustBabot [2008-08-16 17:09:18 +0000 UTC]
wHOAH!!
Usefull!!!!!
Thank you
that will me goes to hand painting again!!
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manic-otaku In reply to ??? [2008-08-04 13:43:23 +0000 UTC]
Wow, thankyou VERY much, this was really helpful!! I just got acrylics for my birthday and as I'm used to watercolours, this was such a frustrator!
Just a question - if I don't have tracing paper, I assume baking paper would do the trick? Essentially they are the same...
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to manic-otaku [2008-08-04 17:09:46 +0000 UTC]
Yep baking paper would work just fine. Glad I could help!
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pomp-berry In reply to ??? [2008-07-24 06:16:16 +0000 UTC]
This is awsome! I'm about to start on some acryllic projects and I had no clue I could preserve my palette... Call me a newbie, but hey, we all start off at some point.
Thanks for the help
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znow-white [2008-07-09 20:54:42 +0000 UTC]
Your wonderful tutorial has been featured here.[link]
Thank you for providing the gallery with such awesome Resources.
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No-Sign-of-Sanity In reply to znow-white [2008-07-10 17:46:08 +0000 UTC]
Sweet! Thanks Znow!
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Metalmuffin [2008-05-14 08:52:00 +0000 UTC]
hey that´s real cool. I have to try that- thanks for sharing your wisdom
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DamnTorren [2008-05-03 20:36:34 +0000 UTC]
...This is also amazingly helpful. Damn, xD I'm one of those damn poor college students, and this is a great alternative to oils. Those are always so pesky to use when you have to drag your canvas back and forth to paint on |:C
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AlysaTaladay [2008-04-26 17:27:08 +0000 UTC]
Can't say I've had much trouble keeping my paints from drying out, but that is a very interesting idea. I'll definitely have to try it sometime, especially when I have to start working on larger canvases all the time. Having a large palette like that in my possession would definitely be a plus, too. Haha, all my classmates are going to look at me like I've lost my mind...(as if they have much room to speak about who's crazy).
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dead-pet [2008-02-29 15:56:47 +0000 UTC]
Thank you ever so much...I will be sure to try it, that's what puts me off acrylics- they are expensive end dry out instantly.
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keight [2008-02-22 05:44:06 +0000 UTC]
More fun than correlle plates, plastic wrap, and film canisters. Thanks.
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Hungrysparrow [2008-02-22 00:49:38 +0000 UTC]
Have you seen the stay wet palletes in the art shops. They work on basically the same principal, but they cost way more. Thanks for the tutorial and for saving me some money when I next try out acrylics.
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WatashiNoTenshi In reply to ??? [2008-02-04 17:13:29 +0000 UTC]
nice one ^^
helped quite bit i would never guess something like that would help
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