Wet Palette Tutorial

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direweasel
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Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by direweasel »


Moderator's EDIT:
This tutorial originated in the following thread: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss
Great thanks to direweasel for the tutorial made below. I moved all related comments in here.

Calisson.
/EDIT.
-=-=-


Get a wet palette, and never deal with paint drying too quickly ever again. If there's one piece of advice I wished I had gotten when I started painting, that's it. It makes such a huge difference.

Here, I'll even post a link:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/maste ... y-palette/

Seriously, just buy it. Then buy a roll of "parchment paper" from wal mart - it's like $3 for a roll that will last you for years.
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by Lion of flanders »

I'll second the wet palette thing. I painted for about 20 years before I tried it and what the hell was I doing without it...

Parchment/baking paper works better than the papers that came with my wet palette, so I'll second that idea as well. Keeping your paint consistent and your mixes is a huge timesaver. Not to mention that you can be in the middle of painting, leave your work for hours and come back to right where you left off. Also, you waste very little paint with the wet palette.
That's silly! Playin with little statues, pretendin' they're fightin'! Why not just round up a bunch of real goblins and lettem' whack it out?
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by Calisson »

direweasel wrote:Get a wet palette, and never deal with paint drying too quickly ever again. If there's one piece of advice I wished I had gotten when I started painting, that's it. It makes such a huge difference.

Here, I'll even post a link:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/maste ... y-palette/

Seriously, just buy it. Then buy a roll of "parchment paper" from wal mart - it's like $3 for a roll that will last you for years.
Great idea!
Is it written in a tutorial?
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by Lion of flanders »

Yep, that's the one I have. Works great with baking paper which costs basically nothing (especially if your significant other likes to bake, you don't even have to leave the house to buy a roll as you probably already have some :D )
That's silly! Playin with little statues, pretendin' they're fightin'! Why not just round up a bunch of real goblins and lettem' whack it out?
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by flatworldsedge »

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts, recommendations and comments - even at this early stage.

As suggested, I've jumped in a picked up a proper wet palette. I was in town passing the London Graphic Centre and they had massive ones for £19.50 (see below). Very happy so far - it is keeping the paint wet between sessions and making it way easier to achieve a consistent consistency. The mix is still a little thin, but I'm keeping it similar for all the Cold Ones on my first layer so they don't differ too much.
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Here's the brand I bought.  I figured I'd get a proper one first time around, then use baking paper and kitchen towel once I understand the basic mechanics of the thing.
Here's the brand I bought. I figured I'd get a proper one first time around, then use baking paper and kitchen towel once I understand the basic mechanics of the thing.
Here's the wet palette in use.  The paper ridges a little, but I'm finding that really useful in controlling the spread and swiping off excess without wastage.  The toothbrush is proving really useful at de-dusting some of the excess or partially bonded primer before painting.
Here's the wet palette in use. The paper ridges a little, but I'm finding that really useful in controlling the spread and swiping off excess without wastage. The toothbrush is proving really useful at de-dusting some of the excess or partially bonded primer before painting.
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by direweasel »

Calisson wrote:Is it written in a tutorial?
Heartsbane wrote:I'm interested by the comments on wet palattes, I might have to give one another try.

Another option is retarder medium which slows the drying time of the paint dramatically. It does alter the consistency of the paint slightly, but personally I like how using quite alot makes paints more translucent without making them runnier - great for painting highlights.


You want me to write a "wet palette tutorial"? I could totally do that. It would take about 10 min.
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by flatworldsedge »

direweasel wrote:You want me to write a "wet palette tutorial"? I could totally do that. It would take about 10 min.


That would be incredible. I think I'm doing it right... but... I'd be especially interested in any tips on mixing/blending using the palette. Do you have any issues with colours "polluting" the reservoir, for instance?
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by Vulcan »

For a cheap alternative, get a flat 'tupperware' container. Put sponges in it to cover the entire bottom. Cut a piece of parchment to fit on top. Add water to saturate the sponges, but not so much as to make the parchment soggy. Add paint, and when you have to stop just cover it with the lid and seal. The paint will stay fresh for a good long time.
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by cultofkhaine »

Thanks for the wet pallet tutorial link - I must give this a try (perhaps on my Secret Santa) :D
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by direweasel »

flatworldsedge wrote:
direweasel wrote:You want me to write a "wet palette tutorial"? I could totally do that. It would take about 10 min.


That would be incredible. I think I'm doing it right... but... I'd be especially interested in any tips on mixing/blending using the palette. Do you have any issues with colours "polluting" the reservoir, for instance?


I'll put one together this weekend. I'll cover usage tips, including the mixing/blending, as well as general usage, care and upkeep. Anybody else have anything particular they want me to cover?
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

Apocalypse Drow! Plog: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75360
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by flatworldsedge »

direweasel wrote:
flatworldsedge wrote:
direweasel wrote:...You want me to write a "wet palette tutorial"?... I'll put one together this weekend...


You are dictionary definition awesome - thanks so much!
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by direweasel »

flatworldsedge wrote:You are dictionary definition awesome - thanks so much!


Could I get you to have a talk with my wife? She doesn't seem to see it some days. :)

Nah, just kidding, but it's no problem. I don't consider myself a painting expert by any means, but I have used one of these for 3-4 years, so hopefully I can have some helpful info for somebody.
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

Apocalypse Drow! Plog: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75360
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by flatworldsedge »

@direweasel - Thanks again! By the way, it turns out I'm a little more in need of that tutorial than I'd hoped! Leaving paint for an hour or so was perfect, but I left some for ~20 hrs, and it's split rather oddly!
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Close up of paint left ~20 hours on wet palette - I think I might have put too much water in the tray last night.  Any thoughts/advice appreciated!
Close up of paint left ~20 hours on wet palette - I think I might have put too much water in the tray last night. Any thoughts/advice appreciated!
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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by direweasel »

Well, it depends in part on the paint used. I've seen paints left on for a week with no issues. Others will seperate out into composite colors - Vallejo paints seem to do this most often - but those are fixed by mixing them back together on the pallete. I would guess the same to be true with this as well.
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

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Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by direweasel »

OK, by request, I have decided to put together a little bit of a tutorial covering tips on the use, care, and upkeep of the wet palette.

First a general note. If you don't have one of these, you really should get one. I'm going to be talking particularly about the Masterson Handy Palette, as shown here:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/maste ... y-palette/

However, that said, these notes should work for pretty much any commercially available wet palette on the market. You can also make your own, using tupperware and the like, but honestly, for as cheap as these things are, and for how much use you get out them, I feel like it's worth the investment to do it right. But your mileage may vary, and again, these tips should carry over pretty well.

OK, so the first tip, assuming you did buy one of these, is to take the paper that comes with your wet palette, and throw it away. Buy "Parchment Paper" readily available at any supermarket, less than $3 for a roll that will last you a LONG time.

I also bought a replacement pack of sponges, after my first one tore while I was cleaning it once. (More on that below). They last a long time, I've had my palette for 5 years, and I'm still on my 2nd sponge, so again, for the time you get out of these, I feel like it's worth the investment. This picture shows the replacement sponges, the Parchment paper, the scissors I use to cut it down to size, and of course, the palette itself.

Image

Now, get your sponge good and soaking wet, I recommend using cold water. Warm water serves no purpose except to encourage mold. Mold likes moist, warm, and dark. Guess what your wet palette sponge is like when you are not using it?

The parchment paper comes in rolls, meaning that it's got a natural curve when you pull it out. Here's a tip for flattening it out:

Image

I cut my parchment in advance and let it sit under a book for days. Honestly, I don't know how much difference it makes, but what the heck. :)

Image

You're probably wondering why I posted a picture of my painting table. Well, you'll notice the palette on the left, but the other thing I want you to notice is 3 little water cups. The one on the left is for washing metallic paints off your brush, the one on the right is for non-metallics. The one with the dropper in it is for the palette. Here ya go:

Image

The dropper came with baby medicine. I have 3 or 4 of them. I'm sure you can find the same kind of thing cheap elsewhere.

OK time to paint right? You get your parchment paper cut to size, you put it on your wet palette, it's all ready to go, and then this happens:

Image

I found this extremely frustrating when I started using these things. That's why I started doing the thing where I flattened it out under a book. It didn't do anything for this. So what DO you do? Well, what I do is let it roll like this once, then flip it over and put it on the palette again. It will roll again, but more slowly. Then, what you do is pick it up, and fold the corners under, like this:

Image

Do that on all four corners, and your paper SHOULD sit flat on the sponge.

Image

Another method is to hold all four corners down with your fingers for at least 30 seconds. By that time, it should be held down well enough that it won't curl.

Yay, FINALLY ready to paint!

So here ya go, take a big old brush (not one of your good detail brushes), and pat some paint down on your palette. The paint pictured is my favorite color, P3's "Sanguine Base".

Image

Then you need to add a bit of water to the paint to thin it a bit. I tried to time the photo for the drop actually coming out. Yeah, a bit late. It was a nice try.

Image

Then paint as you normally would.

Now, it's time to apply the shadow to your Sanguine Base. If you're done using the Sanguine Base, you can add the shadow color right to what's left there. If not, you can make a new spot, and leave the original color there. In this case, I'm adding some Vallejo Game Color "Night Blue".

Image

Now, whether you add more water or not here depends on several factors - are you adding a lot of the shadow color to the original? Is it already watered down enough? In this case, I felt it didn't need more water added, so I mixed up what was there and applied my shadow to my mini.

Image

Shadow ready to apply, good to go.

Now, the next question - how long will paint stay good on the palette? If you leave the top off, it should stay wet for at least 2-3 hours, depending on how wet your sponge was when you started. That's still WAY longer than it would stay wet and usable on a dry palette. But if you close the lid securely, it should stay usable for over a week. Very useful for making sure your paint mixes stay uniform over a large unit of troops.

However, if you leave paint on the palette too long, some paints will start to separate into their composite colors. SOMETIMES you can save that just by mixing it back together with a brush, and maybe a drop of water if you need it. Other times, you just can't, in which case you'll need to make the color again.

The other thing that can happen if you leave paints on too long, especially dark paints, you'll discover that the physics that keep your paint wet through the paper apparently works both ways:

Image

You might not care about this, but if you're OCD like I am, I won't paint on that. It also goes back to what I was talking about earlier about the mold. I can't tell if my sponge is moldy if I have some paint seepage coming through like this. And I'm REALLY not going to paint on that! (I'm allergic to mold too)

So, cleaning your sponge with hot water and a wringing it out gently should get rid of this discoloration. If I do think that there might be some mold involved too, I'll spray it with some Lysol spray as well. I haven't seen any adverse effects from doing so. Another way to do this is to put a single drop of anti-bacterial dish soap right on the sponge, fill it with water, and then let most of the water out. The soap will permeate the sponge and will help keep the mold from growing there.

That's all I can think of. If anybody has more questions, or would like something else demonstrated, let me know, and I'll answer as best I can. I'm certainly no expert on painting, but I have been using one of these for about 5 years, so if anybody else can benefit from that experience, I'm happy to help.
Last edited by direweasel on Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

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Re: [PLOG] The vengence of Veysha Everkiss

Post by direweasel »

direweasel wrote:
flatworldsedge wrote:
direweasel wrote:You want me to write a "wet palette tutorial"? I could totally do that. It would take about 10 min.


That would be incredible. I think I'm doing it right... but... I'd be especially interested in any tips on mixing/blending using the palette. Do you have any issues with colours "polluting" the reservoir, for instance?


I'll put one together this weekend. I'll cover usage tips, including the mixing/blending, as well as general usage, care and upkeep. Anybody else have anything particular they want me to cover?


OK, that's done now. Have a look and let me know what you think. And if there's anything else you'd like me to address, let me know and I'll see what I can do. :)
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

Apocalypse Drow! Plog: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75360
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by flatworldsedge »

Wow - thanks so much. This is awesome. I love the tip about folding the corners of the paper - I was having the issue with it rolling up, and it is an elegant solution.

I especially appreciate all the pictures to illustrate. So helpful, and I'm re-reading it now in prep for this evening's painting to come. Magic stuff, and so generous to invest your time in creating it for the community. You're a gentleman.
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by direweasel »

Glad I could do it. I've taken more than enough good info from this site, both on army builds, tactics, painting, and so on. If I can give anything back I will do it. :)

Anyway, thanks also to Calisson for neatly moving the conversation here as well.

Now, if anybody comes up with a wet-palette related topic that I didn't cover, feel free to ask. I'll do what I can. No sense making a tutorial that is incomplete in some way or another. :)
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

Apocalypse Drow! Plog: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75360
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by Khaleth Blackheart »

Thanks for the tutorial direweasel :)
I may have to buy one and try it out :)
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by ferny »

Last night I dreamt I bought one of these. I'm slightly worried what else could happen knowing the Drucchii can get into my sleeping head...
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by direweasel »

ferny wrote:Last night I dreamt I bought one of these. I'm slightly worried what else could happen knowing the Drucchii can get into my sleeping head...


There are worse dreams to have, especially if you can involve some amorous (as opposed to murderous) Witch Elves in there, you might have a winner.

I usually don't remember my dreams, but when I do, they are usually about stuff going wrong at work. They get enough of my time when I'm awake, nobody is paying me to be there while I'm sleeping too! :?
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by Lion of flanders »

Regarding the "curling up" that the paper does when you put it down initially....I have found that if your sponge is nice and wet, you lay it down and just hold the edges for 30 seconds or so it will absorb the water enough so that it won't curl, i.e the curling is caused by the downside of the paper having absorbed water, but the upside is still dry.
That's silly! Playin with little statues, pretendin' they're fightin'! Why not just round up a bunch of real goblins and lettem' whack it out?
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by direweasel »

Lion of flanders wrote:Regarding the "curling up" that the paper does when you put it down initially....I have found that if your sponge is nice and wet, you lay it down and just hold the edges for 30 seconds or so it will absorb the water enough so that it won't curl, i.e the curling is caused by the downside of the paper having absorbed water, but the upside is still dry.


Good to know Lion - I'll try that next time! :)
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

Apocalypse Drow! Plog: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75360
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by cultofkhaine »

Thank you for this tutorial direweasel I can not believe I have not tried this before. I gave it a bash over the weekend and it has totally revolutionised the way I now paint minis. I cringe to think how much dried up paint I have wasted over the years :cry:
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Re: Wet Palette Tutorial

Post by direweasel »

I felt the same way. In addition, I was always afraid to mix paint colors because I was afraid I would do half a unit, and then not be able to sufficiently duplicate the color to finish the other half. So it's helped out a lot for me in that regard as well. Wet palettes have made me a much better and more confident painter, and while that sounds like hyperbole, it's really quite accurate.

I will say that my fear of mixing paints has had one benefit. I own a TON of different shades of paint. You name it, Reaper, P3, Vallejo, GW. I have lots and lots of different colors. I went through last week and sorted out all the greens trying to decide which one I wanted to use, I had over 20 unique greens.
Chinese Relativity Axiom: No matter how glorious your triumphs, nor how miserable your failures, there will always be at least one billion people in China who don't give a damn.

Apocalypse Drow! Plog: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75360
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