How to create a Wet Palette with almost no cost

I have just built my own wet palette with material you can find in almost every household.


You need:

1. Flat plastic box with lid. Package for meat, sausages, ham etc. (supermarket etc).
2. Parchment paper (baking paper)
3. Sponge cloth, 4mm thick, (maybe paper towel etc. will also do).

It's possible to use a porcelain plate or another flat vessel. This will keep the the paint wet while you paint, for one painting session. But the idea of a wet palette is actually that you can close the lid and the moisture keeps the paint wet for some days. The more flat the box is the easier is the use of the wet palette (the handling with the brush, movement of the brush in and out of the palette).


Parchment paper (baking paper) is the paper you put under the cake or pie when you bake them. You can buy it in a supermarket where you can buy backing mixtures, cake, bakery products etc. Parchment paper is semipermeable, some moisture is coming through the paper without wetting the paint to much.


First you cut the sponge cloth in (3) pieces that it fits on the bottom of the plastic box. If you use more layers (here 3) than it can suck more water. The sponge cloth has a quite smooth surface so it fits very well our purpose. Give some water on the sponge cloth before you put the parchment paper on top.


You cut out several pieces of parchment paper fitting on the bottom of the plastic above the sponge cloth. If you cut several parchment papers in advance you have them ready when you paint and need to change them.





If you want to stop or interrupt your painting session you close the lid and go on painting the next day. In my first test of the wet palette the paint was still wet after 4 days. Check it out, it's quite simple and cheap.