Quite some time ago, I tried out a wet palette to see if it helped with painting. I had originally intended to report back and, well, apparently failed to. After about a month of using it, I decided it wasn't really for me. I had some challenges with it, particularly in getting a new piece of paper prepped and in place. The paper needed a lot of soaking time, and often curled up at the edge. Eventually I abandoned it and went back to my old ways.
Recently however, there was a tutorial on Hand Cannon about building a cheap wet palette. In that article, Autumn mentions that the P3 palette paper works better than wax or parchment paper. It got me thinking that I should give the wet palette another try. The picture of the various types of paper on the palette was what really sold me. I found an additional artical on CMON where the author mentions using tracing paper. So with that knowledge in hand, I headed off to my local Michael's to find some tracing paper. However, what I found instead was much more interesting...
Sta-Wet Acrylic Paper, by Masterson Art Products Inc. It was $4 for a pack of 30 sheets of 8.5x7" wet palette paper designed for water-based acrylics. Fascinated, I snatched it up. I built a quick blister-pack wet palette, added water, cut down a piece of paper, and gave it 10 minutes to properly soak. No curling of the paper or anything, and it was ready to go. And I have to say, it definitely worked better than the parchment paper did before.
Although I'd like to say I'm going to use it for a couple weeks and report back, well, that didn't work out so well in the past. And given my current projects, I may not be using it a lot. However, I wanted to share this find with other painters out there that might be interested.
Recently however, there was a tutorial on Hand Cannon about building a cheap wet palette. In that article, Autumn mentions that the P3 palette paper works better than wax or parchment paper. It got me thinking that I should give the wet palette another try. The picture of the various types of paper on the palette was what really sold me. I found an additional artical on CMON where the author mentions using tracing paper. So with that knowledge in hand, I headed off to my local Michael's to find some tracing paper. However, what I found instead was much more interesting...
Sta-Wet Acrylic Paper, by Masterson Art Products Inc. It was $4 for a pack of 30 sheets of 8.5x7" wet palette paper designed for water-based acrylics. Fascinated, I snatched it up. I built a quick blister-pack wet palette, added water, cut down a piece of paper, and gave it 10 minutes to properly soak. No curling of the paper or anything, and it was ready to go. And I have to say, it definitely worked better than the parchment paper did before.
Although I'd like to say I'm going to use it for a couple weeks and report back, well, that didn't work out so well in the past. And given my current projects, I may not be using it a lot. However, I wanted to share this find with other painters out there that might be interested.
Fantastic tip. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with curling paper and have tried various things to remedy it (weighting the corners, thumb tacks, magnets, etc.) but the paper not curling sounds the best of all. I really couldn't do without a wet palette at this point.
I love wet palettes! I turn the paper over after about 30sec or so though, to get rid of the curling.
ReplyDeleteI just started using P3's paper and it works like a charm :)