Lee Angold Uncategorized DIY Christmas Tiny Palettes

DIY Christmas Tiny Palettes

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As holiday gifts, several people on my list are receiving lovingly handmade tiny watercolour palettes, filled with a selection of artist quality paints.  I’m also making a couple different versions for myself.

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My palettes are a shameless rip-off.  Last year, while putting together my urban sketching kit, I came across the absolutely amazing Expeditionary Art Pocket Palette by Maria Corryel Martin.

This palette has a number of advantages over other travel palettes.  it is extremely compact, fitting 14 colours into a business card holder. The pans are shallow but have more surface area than a standard half pan, making this a very usable palette that holds a surprising amount of paint.  In addition, the pans are made of tin and attach magnetically to the palette box, which means if you purchase extra pans, you can swap colours around at will.

Most cleverly (Maria Corryel Martin is a visionary genius), the Pocket Palette is assembled entirely out of commercially available products.  It is a snazzier version of the popular DIY watercolour kits made from Altoids tins, blister packs of gum, dollar store makeup palettes, etc.  Immediately, my gears started churning thinking of all the variations I could make myself. I’ll show you how to DIY your own palettes.

NOTE:  If you just want 1 or 2 basic palettes, support a brilliant artist by buying  from Expeditionary Art.  DIY is only cheaper if you plan to make several palettes or customize them.

What you’ll need:

How to assemble:

  • First, create your mixing surface by masking off the rest of the cardholder/box and using spray enamel on the inside lid.  Allow to dry according to package directions.
  • Squeeze your desired tube paints into tin makeup pans, and allow to dry.
  • Once your mixing surface is dry, stick the magnetic sheet to the inside bottom of your cardholder/box
  • Arrange your paint pans on the magnet surface.

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  • Paint colour swatches on watercolour paper for reference.  I used the makeup pans as a template.
  • Done!  Easy-peasy.

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The pictures in this post are of a palette I made and filled for my sister. For my sister’s watercolour kit,  I stuck fairly close to the original Expeditionary Art design. I ordered a business card holder engraved with her name from Vistaprint. My studio business card is included for scale reference.My enamel paint did not arrive in time, so my sister’s palette won’t get a mixing surface until later.

The chart below shows the colours I included in her set (she also received 5 empty pans to swap out with her own tubes).

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Most colours are from my usual studio tube set.  However, I also purchased a QoR High Chroma Set just for travel kits.  Two of my current favourite pigments are Green Gold/Azo Green (Py129) and Cobalt Teal (PB50) but these are both extra sticky liquid in my favourite M. Graham, and thus unsuitable for small travel pans.  QoR’s High Chroma set includes lovely versions of these pigments, as well as a deep rosy PR122 Quinacridone Magenta and a very rich PV23 Dioxazine Purple, which I also included in this palette.

In a later post, I will share some of the other small magnetic travel palettes I am working on for myself and others.

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