The first impression people get when they see my palette is "How does he ever get any bright colors in his paintings" and " what a slob and why doesn't he clean his palette".
There are many good reasons I do not clean my palette and why I also don't let my students clean their palette. Before I tell you why I have a dirty palette, I need
to explain to you a little about this medium of watercolor I use.
When painting with watercolor and when you want a juicy vibrant wash you need to use fresh juicy wet paint, and not the kids kind of dried up paints that come in little cakes that are so hard to rejuvenate.
As a professional watercolorist, one should usually squeeze out fresh paint into your palette each time you paint, and not just a small pea size amount. Squeezing out a large amount of
fresh paint along with Floating-Your-Pigment will give you the best vibrant, juicy washes.
Squeezing out fresh paint is something I also don't do every time I paint, I will explain that below too.
Here are the reasons I don't clean my palette:
- I use high-quality paints - Instead of squeezing out fresh paint each time I have learned that Holbein Watercolors always stay workable. This paint
doesn't dry to a hard unworkable clump and instantly rejuvenates with a drop of water.
Since the Holbein paint doesn't dry hard, I squeeze out the whole tube into my palette and it never gets hard and is always fresh to work with. No need to bring along tubes of paint when going to my classes. - My colors rejuvenate instantly - Since Holbein watercolors always stay workable, I leave the colors I mix on the mixing part of the tray and let
them dry. I then add a little water if I need those colors in the mixing tray . Those colors are usually great for making grays.
- I save money by not cleaning my palette - I cringe every time I see students take their palettes over to a sink and run water over the whole palette so everything is clean. To stop them from doing this I usually tell them that they just washed at least 5 dollars worth of paint down the drain.
This usually stops them from doing this again.
- I get great grays from my dirty palette - I leave the mixing area of my palette dirty so that when I need to mix a gray I just rejuvenate those colors in the mixing area and I instantly get gray. If I need an area clean I just use a wet cloth and wipe away a small area to mix some fresh colors or use the cover of the palette which I don't mind cleaning.
Below you will see my students
palettes that I am so proud to show you.
Stay dirty my friends!
