After reading articles and watching Youtube videos on the benefits of the wet palette when using acrylics, I bought the AK product and set it up according to the instructions. I really liked the reesults, and it makes acrylic painting much easier.
The problem? It’s been about a week and a half and it’s really starting to give off an odour. Am I doing something wrong? It mentions keeping it in the fridge if you don’t use for long periods, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly, or maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised?
I don’t think you are to keep it wet with paint on it indefinately, maybe a few days. I thought after that you threw the paper away and cleaned the tray and sponge and let it dry until you used it again. Maybe I’m wrong. It sounds like it is stagnant water, growing mold and bacteria. It sounds like you are using it wrong.
Add a little ammonia to the water used to wet your sponge. Ammonia will not hurt the sponge or the paper, but will help retard the growth of mold. To keep your palette smelling fresh, sprinkle a little baking soda on the bottom of the palette before placing your sponge down.
For palettes, I use the carboard flers I get in the mail. You must use the plastic covered ones. The glossier are needed. The more glossy the better, meaning a thicker coating (best to use ones with that glossy plastic on both sides). The plastic coating is waterproof, thin CA proof, enamel proof. Only thing that soaks in is lacquer. I use these palettes for paint mixing, and for gluing with CA. Works great, and cheap. I collect that kind of mail just for palettes, and with election season now, I get more than enough.
What in the name of flurry is a wet Palette? I know what a Palette is. I have done oil painting and such and I have a smaller version of the one Bob Ross uses. I use a little one for modeling. Now what is the use and need for a wet palette as well?
I have been planning on geting one, but i thought you could keep it wet as long as you wanted. I had not thought about the effects of the water in there for a long period though.
Basicaly, its a container, often a plastic tub, with a wet substance, tissue for example. It can be used to mix small amount of acrylic paint and keep it from going dry for longer than usual. Its used mainly by figure painters.
I think that the longest I’ve kept a batch of paint on my wet palette has been three days? Definitely not a long-term storage solution, but handy as heck for figure painting.
Also, consider using distilled water in the palette instead of tap water. I have hard water in the place I’m renting and the minerals seem to bring their own sets of issues with Vallejo’s acrylics, as well as the various smells and organic material the plumbing carries with it. The distilled water makes things easier and there’s less of a chance of weird smells.
I have to offer a minor correction, or clarification, about the “wet” part. I don’t know of any wet palettes that use tissue. It’d fall apart. Rather, a wet palette typically contains a sponge of some kind, and a permeable paper that can stand up to being wet.
When I first started working with one, I made my own out of a take-out container, a kitchen sponge, and brown packaging paper as the permeable paper:
Some people use kitchen parchment paper. But most brands are treated with silicone, to make them impermeable-so things don’t stick-and you have to prepare the paper, if you want to use it as a palette. The trick I have read about is to boil the paper. Personally, I don’t use it, that’s too much effort.
I used that palette for a year or two, to get used to working with one, and then I bought myself a commercially-produced palette, from GreenGrass Games.
My homemade palette worked OK, though with repeated use, yes, the sponge would get a little grungey, the plastic wore out and cracked, losing the air-tight quality, and the packaging paper would start to break down, resulting in fibers in my paint.
To clean the sponge, I would just nuke it from time to time. I could keep paint for about a week. I refreshed the palette by pouring a little water in it as it evaporated.
The GreenGrass palette is nice, because it has a small footprint on the bench. Their paper is super-fine. And you can re-use a piece of paper. But I sometimes find myself looking back on my homemade one, because I got so used to how it works.
Also, though I paint figures, I use it on any model work involving water-based acrylics.
It does help working on a subject, to be able to keep a batch of colors fresh from one session to the next.
Thanks for the help, everyone. Yes, I should have cleaned it out more often (I wish that this had been mentioned in the instructions). I did use distilled water, and it still smelled. I guess I will try to wash it out tonight.
I just looked at the AK wet pallette. Nice little unit, looks like a good choice. [Y]
Keep in mind the paper is meant to be disposable, not reusable. When you’re done with a session or the palette is used up, just dispose of the paper top layer and leave the lid open to allow the sponge to dry.
I can see no need to clean anything, I’ve had mine for several years and certainly haven’t.
One thing I’ve noticed is that you have to adjust downward the amount of paint you use. When you squeeze acrylic paint out on a regular palette, you know that there is going to be some wastage, as even with a thinner it starts to dry at the edges before too long. Not so on a wet palette, I squeezed out four big drops of Vallejo black and it was still wet when I used it all up 45 minutes later. If you put out too much, it stays wet in a big puddle on the palette, which might lead to odor problems, but will also flow around the palette if you tilt it (to close it or just to move it around on your workspace). It will possibly (read: inevitably) blend into that perfect mix that you wanted to keep for the next session.
I second this; I keep a gallon jug of distilled water at my desk for mixing paint and decaling.
I made my own wet pallet, I stole a shallow Tupperware container from the kitchen that seals shut with latches, cut two sponges to fit, and simply top it up with some distilled water to keep the sponges wet. If you go on amazon you can find parchment paper that comes in a box of 1000 sheets in 5in by 5in squares, and if I remember right it was under 10 bucks. As soon as one sheet is used up, I toss it and get a fresh sheet. For those that have never used a wet pallet, I suggest checking it out; it’ll make painting figures night and day easier, along with anything you’re trying to add detail too.
Absolutely. If you use water-based paints of any kind, the wet palette can make using them much easier. If I could figure out a practical way to use a wet palette with other acrylics, like with Tamiya’s, I would.
Question: Why not Tamiya acrylics, which I have used exclusively? I was having a lot of trouble getting the paint to flow smoothly and dry evenly, so I recently bought some Tamiya retarder, which helps. However, the wet palette sounds useful. (I don’t use an airbrush, which just wouldn’t work in my small apartment.)
I took up airbrushing while living in a two room apartment with half bath and half kitchen. In fact it could be argued I took up airbrushing because I lived there, having prior to that been a fan of rattle cans. That was 1974ish… Not knocking brushes mind you, do that too to some degree.
