DIY Travel Palettes

[Tonya L]

Kate, what’s that teal color near the middle on the bottom row? It’s the first one after the greens. Looks pretty pretty!

[Daniel MacBride]

This is one of mine (minus my nib for sketching, but you get the idea lol):

[Jennifer McLean]

great tin, cool that you found a size that fits the mini spray bottle. Looks ready to use!

[Daniel MacBride]

Thanks, it’s an old tobacco tin (the lid has a Scottish Saltire flag on it). It’s the perfect size to fit everything I could possibly need in it, when it’s closed I can put a few bits of watercolour paper for testing colours and a folded up paper towel for wiping brushes on inside the lid too. Fits nicely in my pocket, and I can fit a water brush in there as well if I want to. The pans are attached with magnetic tape so I can easily swap them out for other colours. I’m in the process of making a couple more different field boxes up from different sized tins – one is the tin that my last batch of graphite pencils came in so that will be a bit different set-up because it’s long and skinny (and means I can put a full size brush and pencil or nib in there instead of short ones with a straw). I have a bit of a collection of tins for making into field boxes lol – I’ll have to post more pics as I get them all made up 🙂

[Elizabeth Metz]

Seconding this ^^.  In my totally unofficial survey of the two brands of enamel at Walmart (science!), I also found that the car enamel doesn’t make your paint bead up as much as the spray all-material enamel they sell with the other home decor type paints.  (So I can see the color better when mixing.)

[Elizabeth Metz]

Careful with the magic erasers, though — they’ve got an abrasive quality that will damage stuff over time/repeated scrubbing. :/

[Elizabeth Metz]

Okay, seriously….that’s brilliant and beautiful.  I love the whole color wheel thing at the top.

[Elizabeth Metz]

What kind of magnets are you using, Jennifer?  I tried that with one of mine and the self-stick circle dealies kept popping right off after a day or two.

(I ended up just getting that blue sticky-tack stuff for teenagers who want to hang posters of Lief Garrett to the walls of their rooms.*  That works like a charm.)

*may be a dated reference.

[Elizabeth Metz]

If it’s a sickness, it’s a pervasive one.  I’m pretty much just sitting here in a pool of my own drool at this point.

We should probably mark this thread NSFW.

[Jennifer McLean]

Yes, I know, I could buy and buy and buy and look and look and look all day. I think of it as paint porn. seriously better than naked men. Sorry to the naked men. ;o) Now, if he was covered in paint… Heheheheh.

[Daniel MacBride]

I’m in Australia and I use Sennelier a LOT – so far I haven’t had any issues with drying time, but maybe that depends on where in Australia, because some parts are way more humid than others.

[Jennifer McLean]

Ooh, Lief Garrett, is he covered in paint? LOL. I got the sheet of magnets so there was more surface area. And yes if you just use their “sticky” on the back they kinda pull off the magnets after a couple weeks. So what I found is that if you get the sheets and pull the sticky off the back it does remove in kinda one sheet. I think. I had the roll up half inch magnets from the same company and found that the curve never left the magnet and that pulled off the bottom of the pan just as much as it was the glue’s fault so with my last strip I pulled the sticky off and glued the magnet with gorilla super glue. It works well. ***it IS Crazy glue but better so DON’T glue your half pans to your fingers!!***

LOL.You only need one tiny drop then I smooshed the magnet a little on the back of the half pan and held it for a count of ten, DONE. Even better, the gorilla super glue doesn’t seem to clog like crazy glue. which makes for a less mad person (me). :o)

I didn’t love the Bluetac as it was uneven and I’m hyper perfectionistic with my palettes, everything has to line up. It’s a sickness. ;o)

[Jennifer McLean]

well totally! It would be cruel to tell me about all your palettes then not PHOTOGRAPH them, you’re not a sadist are you?? ;o)

I think many artists are absolutely addicted to making their own palettes, looking for the perfect set up. They’re fun to make! I can’t help myself, the only thing keeping me from hoarding status is my bank account, my credit card screams every time I come near it.

[Daniel MacBride]

LOL I hear that, my card hates me too! I have so much fun collecting art supplies, and then even more fun using them 😀 I love making up travel palettes – it’s fun to find different tins and containers and see how they can be adapted, and since I legit have OCD I like to have different paints in separate palettes (can NOT mix brands in the same tin lol, God forbid!) The one in my first post lives in my satchel along with my favourite notebook (it has a leather cover embossed with a compass rose and “Not all who wander are lost”, and I can refill the pages). It’s just Cotmans, but still a great little box for sketching and journaling stuff – and the colours in it are probably my favourite basic mixing set for painting on the go 🙂

[Anonymous]

Sandra, what do you use for a mixing area when you recycle an aluminum tin? I know some people spray paint the lid white, but for small tins, that’s not much space.