So, what is wet palette? It is a box that keeps your acrylic paints and their mixtures wet for hours if not days. It will be more clear when you see it.
Of course, you can always buy one. Company P3 produces one, Masterson Sta-Wet, Daler Rowney, Winsor & Newton etc. You can find them on Amazon, Ebay and many art shops. They aren't that expensive but shipping costs kill the mood for buying it (at least in my case). But we can always make our own for few €/$ and save the rest of money for nice cold glass of beer (several glasses to be more precise
).What would you need:
"Special" paper. Above mentioned companies sell refill papers. They also aren't expensive but, again, I don't want to pay postage more than I would pay for paper. Luckily you can use baking paper that is very cheap (around 2€ or more). As I googled, point is to get silicone parchment paper, not waxed paper. Waxed paper start to dissolves after 30 or more minutes in contact with water. For that reason I tested something our German friends call "pauspapier". Sorry, I don't know English word but it is transparent paper used in technical drawing and I found it in office supply store. I paid 0,07€ for A4 sheet. It is enough to make 4 wet palettes (in my case).
Then, plastic box. It has to have some sort of lid so wet pallet can be tight closed when you're not using it. Empty, plastic ice cream box should work fine. For those who don't like ice cream, you can send it to Remco and I'm sure he'll return you empty box
Some paper towels (or something similar that retains water, like sponge or something).
And finally, you would need a cup of water. I'm sure most of you know how water looks like so I won't upload any photos of it
First step is to fold (cut to size if necessary) paper towels and place them into box. After you place them, soak them generously in water. Don't worry if you put too much water you can always drain excess. Just take care that towels are wet enough and they don't float.
Cut to size and place "special" paper on top of of wet towels. Lighlty press it that paper becomes wet at surface.
Place drops of paint on wet palette.
And finally, mix them (I prefer in circular motion of brush, lighter to darker tones) to get various shades you would need. Here, I did quick mix for painting skintones and faces. It's not the best in the world but I made it just to test paper and to make this tutorial.
Like that your paint mixtures stay wet for much longer time, you have more combinations of shades and you can close box and reuse paints after few days,
I hope you like it. Comments are welcome.
Moderator
As for the Tracing Paper it brought back old memories of my School Days.Norman School here in Norwich,all Mad Hatter`s one and all. We used JAYS TOILET ROLL,as Tracing Paper because it was made of the same stuff,and our School was rather tight with its budget. Gosh! That 55 years ago. Nothing to do with your topic just old time memories of days long gone past. Beano Boy
