Painting Palette

Aside from my beau with whom I co-founded 3 awesome tots, I have a companion that has been with me for a long time. It is always by my side when I am labouring and sweating as I try to pour my heart out on canvas.

Its form has changed a lot over the years but it still remains as trusted as ever. I am talking about my Painting Palette (clutches it closely!)

A Painting Palette is one of the most essential piece of equipment to have as an artist, if not the most essential (even though some artists do not use palettes at all!).

Palettes are made from different materials and there also some materials which are inexpensive and can be used as a palette including:

Wall tile (preferably white!)
Wood - Can be Oval or Rectangular
Paper plates
Glass
Ceramic
Perspex
Tear out paper palette
Transparent Acrylic Palettes

I have used most on the list above as a Painting Palette except Perspex.

Wall tiles were very good to use because they were very easy to clean but were oft too small for me as I used small tiles then (because there were loads of unused tiles lying around in my country home!)

Nkolika Anyabolu — USING A TILE PALETTE IN 2006

Painting Palettes made out of wood are very traditional. They are hand-sanded and oiled 5mm thick wooden palettes which are made from wood fibre.

But I found them a pain. Not only were they very expensive but I found them incredibly difficult to clean. Thus mine got destroyed after the paints dried on it; mainly due to my inexperience.

In general wooden palettes are by far the most popular painting palettes, they need to be oiled often though.

I use paper plates as a Painting Palette occasionally when using Acrylic, and this is by far the most inexpensive.

I find the Tear out palettes very useful too. Though they come in different sizes they are not for doing large scale work. They are so easy to use and maintain.

Now I am using a large glass palette which I love. I found a video on YouTube where an artist explained how to make a glass Painting Palette and of course, I made one.

Because it is big I have a lot of room to play with and it can be cleaned so easily. For this, I use a glass scraper.