Jill, you’ve asked a hard question and your dilemma is exactly why i almost solely use pans now, but I just snagged a gorgeously humungous porcelain palette on an awesome holiday special, so my studio will soon be moving back into immoveable wells. I’ll still stick to full pans when traveling though.
I’ve also done the pop-and-restick method with decent success. A lot of the success depends upon the paint. Since you mostly use Daniel Smith, you are in luck! That is the easiest brand to peel off and restick. Something about their binders don’t stick very well anyway (hence all those chiming in and saying that DS popped out of their palettes).
I use an Xacto knife to gently lift up the edge and then switch to fingers to peel the entire pigment blob off of the palette. With this method, I’ve even had great success peeling Daniel Smith out of pans.
Good luck! Rooting for ya! 🙂
Tonya, Not Fair to tease us without PICTURES of your new porcelain palette. Can’t wait to see what you snagged.
Jill, have you ever thought of putting extra colors into half pans and just keeping them on a tray with a little bluetac? Then you can move them back and forth onto and off of your static palette. A friend does this and it seems to work well for her.
Jen, it’s still in the box but this one is it. Love it! Or I will when I eventually get enough nerve to break it out and fill it. 😀 I grabbed it for $15 on a 12 Days of Christmas deal.
Cheap Joe’s has them also and that’s where I got mine, but Jackson’s often has better shipping. If you like it, keep a lookout for sales. Cheap Joe’s marks these down fairly often. In fact, their prices constantly change (as bad as Amazon) which is a big pet peeve of mine when shopping there, but oh well.
I love the look of those kind of palettes, but they’re too big for my space. I’d love to find one about 5 x 7 for mixing.
OooOOoo VERY nice Tonya! I have one like that sitting on my wishlist. Right now it’s absence isn’t hampering my workflow, so maybe after I get my fill of other goodies I’ll cave, lol.
Right now I have 2 Target square ceramic dinner plates that I use for heavy studio mixing right now (Sandra, one is only 8 x 8 if that’s closer to the size you’re seeking, but no wells.) I finally picked up the tiny flower porcelain palette from Cheap Joes, and it’s too cute. I’m using it for tonal studies, so I can keep the colors separate. I ALSO, lol, (can you tell I just rotate palettes instead of cleaning them?) use this glass candle holder for new paints, or whatever. I usually make sure it’s on a sheet of white paper so I can see the true colors, but if you’re using toned paper, you could always slip a sheet of that underneath to preview the color shift (maybe?). I guess I could do that for the removable mixing tray in the mijello as well.
Franklin wanted to say hello as well, photobombing my picture. lol He likes to jump up on my lap when I paint.
Jill, 8 x 8 would still be too big. After seeing Tonya’s score, I looked around and saw this mini Richardson that is 4.5 x 4 so I may get one of those. It would be about the right size. I’m like you – I actually have several mixing palettes – egg dishes, a butcher pan, a guerilla plastic palette, etc. Most are just too large, except the guerilla but it’s plastic and stained which annoys me. I think it’s probably like trying to find the right guy – you never find the perfect one, lol. I’ve settled for my guy, and he’s perfect enough, but I’m still trying to find the right paint palette. And the right travel tin and the right purse and the… well, you get the idea.
Lol, only too well Sandra! I actually have that one and its bigger brother on an Amazon wish list too! I love small things, hehe. I have yet to buy it though, because I know myself too much and have yet to figure out if it will add value, or if I just think it’s cute. Plus, I need to declutter. eh. So hard, I have a box of art supplies I don’t use that I was “going to donate” and they’ve been sitting on my floor for months because I feel like I’m abandoning a pet or something. 🙁
Kate and I are trying to arrange a meet-up for the Portland Oregon USA Peeps and I have a bunch of stuff sitting in a pile for possible trade. Instead of buying the jackson palette, I may just pull out my lidded ice trays. They’re a little too long, but I like the deep ice wells for pre-mixing a lot of my darks. I wish the lids sealed each well, but the color does run so it’s an at-home solution only.
Jill, I have those square Target plates that I use for mixing!!! 😀 They are amazing. When I have a big mixing job going on, I’ve even used hot glue to create separate mixing areas. It peels right off when I’m through. Love it!
For the first year I painted, I used a ceramic egg tray as a palette. However, it only held 16 colors (eggs???) and I had to keep around an extra plate for mixing. I don’t mind the large palette because it has plenty of wells for all my colors, plus a mixing surface, plus extra wells for more colors and mixing if needed.
I’m a minimalist at heart, and purchasing that hefty sucker was a huge mind adjustment for me, but when I tallied up my current palette and mixing areas, it turns out that the big palette takes up no more space. Funny how the mind works, though. 🙂
Cheap Joe’s and Jackson’s both offer a half-sized version of my big palette. I originally wanted that one, but again, it won’t hold all my colors. But I do like it!
Tonya, I think the companies put out all these goodies just to torture us (and make money doing it, of course)!
Jill one of my pans like that broke within a few months… I’m really not hard on them! I don’t think I could live wihtout being able to pop colors in and out of the pan.
Oh gads Sandra how can we live so close and have such different experiences? MGraham after days still is tacky — hair sticks to it! Sennelier dries just fine from the tube! What a riot! Sennelier pan is dry, but I am nto fond of because they are half-pans!
Lol! Kate, I suppose it could have to do with the heat and humidity in our homes. I usually set my pans a few feet from a heating vent after I’ve poured them, if it’s cold weather. That might make a difference too.
Lol, I believe you Kate! I think Sandra has a good point too, climate and moisture probably have a good say in what methods will work for anyone. I actually find it engrossing how every artist develops such a personal and intricate relationship with their supplies, it really does become an extension of yourself, with no less detail. There are no two setups exactly alike; on my own desk I alternate depending on my mood! Even if I don’t intend to adapt another method, I LOVE hearing what everyone else is doing. I could sit down with some snacks to an evening of reading Doodlewash forums. Oh wait, sometimes I actually do that… when I should be painting, hehe.
Doodlewash can be addicting! Maybe Charlie should post a warning, lol.
