try something new

I have found over the past year that I have become a little too settled in my ways as a painter.  My models look nice, but not great, and I find I have become satisfied with that.  I think I will need to shake some things up to improve my painting.  I also think it is important for people to keep learning and trying new things throughout their life.

I decided to start small in my changes.  I had heard about and seen many videos about wet palettes.  I decided to try making one.  I had just watched a video by DizzyAngelDemon on how to make a wet palette and was inspired.   For the past few years, I have been using a tile I bought at Rona (Canadian Home Depot) for under a dollar.  When it’s full, I just soak it in water for 10 minutes and use a plastic putty knife to scrape off the old paint.  I liked it, but it was hard to keep diluted paints from drying up when I was trying to do a wash or some layering.

The first thing I had to do was find a container.  I settled on a pencil case from Staples.  I had bought a set for my classroom to keep pencil crayons in, so knew they were durable and the little clips on the ends keep the lid on securely.  I also bought some sponge cloths from Wal-Mart as suggested in the video.  It was just a matter of turning the case over and tracing the outline on the sponge cloth and cutting it out.  I had to trim it a bit to fit right, but not much.  Finally, I raided my wife’s supply of parchment paper and cut out a piece the right size.  I had some distilled water around (I don’t know if it is essential, but couldn’t hurt) and soaked the sponge.  Voila!

Some of the problems I had were determining how much water to put in the sponge.  I ended up adding water a few times.  It turns out that you want the sponge saturated to the point where it won’t hold any more water, but you don’t want water sloshing around in the bottom of the container.  The second problem I ran into was not having the parchment paper trimmed small enough.  I couldn’t get the paper to lay flat on the sponge, so it would let water through.  I played with the size of the paper and when it was smaller it would lay down flat.  Finally, I discovered too late that my pencil case had channels in the lid to let in air.  Not good when you want to keep something wet.  I adapted and now lay a sheet of wax paper a little larger than the lid on top of the opening before securing the lid.  This seems to work.

I’ve tried out the wet palette a few times and it works as advertised.  I spend less time pulling paint out of the pot and when I have to leave the table to answer a summons from my wife, I don’t have to kiss that paint goodbye.  I’m pretty happy with my little creation, and I’ll keep playing with it and see if it permanently replaces my tile.