Wet pallets; please fill me in...

[skraaal]

Two things here...if your paint is running into other paints, this means that your surface may not be flat enough. This is another reason why I use the lid and not the container.

Also, instead of using a sponge, which many people use, I would use the reusable paper towels on the market. Sometimes a sponge holds the water in a stange way...the water can settle at the bottom of the sponge and thus keep the parchment paper from staying wet. The reusable PT wont have this issue.

I use kitchen parchment paper. There are several brands of these. I found that the thicker stuff works the best. It may be worth buying several different brands and then finding the sturdiest one for your needs. Where I am from, you can get rolls of the stuff from the dollar store. However, my favborite brand retails for like $4 at the grocery store (Safeway, USA).

So first I soak my towels in cold water. Then, I pour out all the excess into the sink. There shouldnt be pools of water left over, you only need the water that the towels soaked up. But what I will do is place my parchment paper (PP) onto the towels. I will run my fingers along the PP until all air bubbles are gone, then Ill flip it over and get rid of bubbles on the other side. Now it is ready gfor use.

I really can't tell you how useful it is to have a working WP. So if its not working for you, try try again. Your efforts will pay off and ultimately save you in paint, time and money

I've heard about people using paper towels instead of or with sponge, my only issue with that is the bits of paper towel fibre that will end up mixing with your paint.

 

[MAXXxxx]

it won't, the paper towel is under the parchment, paint is on top.
used that at jarhead's workshop, worked better than the box+sponge that I have here at home.

 

[infelix]

I always used paper towels and haven't had any problems with getting fibers from them in my paint. I've tried using a sponge but neither of the ones I had at home at the time worked out for me so I stuck with paper.

 

[skraaal]

So I gave it another go today, and I placed four dots of different colored paints on the paper (I'm using P3 Wet Pallet Paper, which has had all around very good reviews) and as you can see, after an hour of leaving the paint on the pallet the paints have spread out dramatically.

Pros: 2 out of 5 paints are still wet and workable

Cons: All bar 1 color have drastically moved around without being touched and both the white and black paints, the white especially are almost dry. This means that during a painting session, or were I to leave it for a few days, the chance of the paints mixing so that they are unusable is super high.

I made sure that the cloth underneath the Pallet paper was super flat too before I applied the paint. I used regular re-usable cleaning cloths as the water holder rather than paper towels as less fibers come away from it and it holds water in the same type of manner. The base is a large Tupperware container lid.

Here's the pallet after an hour and half of not being touched on a level surface. The reservoir is still wet to the touch.

 

[Canny]

Wet pallets are fantastic, its all I use now, I just put metallics on the lid. My set up Take away container, Baking paper, and a paper towel to hold the water, I have been using this style of wet pallet for about a year. No probs. and I can come back to it in a few hours if I put the lid on. handy when you have kids.
3 day wet pallet painted orcs, Dwarves and afew other tid bits. I've been to Meg Maples class, I think it comes down to decent baking paper.

Looks like your some of your paint is toooo watery there Skraaal, I usually dip the tip of my brush in some water before I get the paintand have a wee swerl to get the consistency Im after. then I can change to viscosity as I go.

 

[EpicMiniArt]

yep thats pretty much what mine looks like except I use a sponge, never really tried it with paper towels though

 

[oistene]

I think you got too much water on it, skraaal. Pour off any excess, and if there's any water on top of the paper, remove it with a paper towel. It should be moist, not wet. On mine (I planned to make one for ages and never did, so I ended up buying a P3 one at the FLGS - it is great, though a bit small), the paint stays put, and dries up slightly after a little time - but not more than it can be revitalized with a brushfull of water.

 

[skraaal]

I should have clarified, there was no excess water ontop and the paint was just straight from the dropper bottle, no added water.

 

[oistene]

Then I really do not know why it runs so much. I also use the P3 paper, and I thin my paints, and that does not happen to me. It stays put. Is the air very humid where you are? If not, then only other possibility I can see is that you have too much water underneath. Try and see if you can pour some off.

The fact that some points run while other dry out, might suggest that the water underneath is unevenly distributed.

 

[strewart]

Air bubbles messing it up? I see a few small ones near the white paint, no idea if there are any under any of the paint. If there are air bubbles between the pallet surface and the sponge underneath it messes with the flatness and the moisture. Might be part of it.

 

[skraaal]

I guess I'll just keep playing around with it until I get it right.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I guess I'll just keep playing around with it until I get it right.

Good luck. Yes that is very strange behavior indeed from your paints. I'll even make extremely watered down glazes that don't do what your paint did. The only thing I can now guess is that you put too much paint down??? Try leaving just a drop or two. You may have already done this, in which case you may be experiencing perpetual earthquakes where you live.

BTW-That is the exact brand of reusable paper towels that I use. Notice, please, that I say reusable. There was a question earlier about the paper towels and wondering if they break up. For this reason, I use a reusable paper towel, so that I can avoid any messes.

Also, looking at your pic: Your paints dried out waaay too much. After a few hours, especially if you cover it, there should be almost no drying going on. Very often I go 5-7 days without touching my pallet, and need only a tiny bit of water or medium to get the paint back to a good consistency. A few hours should change a thing. Remember, wet each side of your paper. Put one side down, spread it even, then flip it and do the other side. Now ready for paint. But your set up looks otherwise very good.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Wet pallets are fantastic, its all I use now, I just put metallics on the lid. My set up Take away container, Baking paper, and a paper towel to hold the water, I have been using this style of wet pallet for about a year. No probs. and I can come back to it in a few hours if I put the lid on. handy when you have kids.
3 day wet pallet painted orcs, Dwarves and afew other tid bits. I've been to Meg Maples class, I think it comes down to decent baking paper.

Looks like your some of your paint is toooo watery there Skraaal, I usually dip the tip of my brush in some water before I get the paintand have a wee swerl to get the consistency Im after. then I can change to viscosity as I go.

To each his own, but I could never let my paper get this dry. As soon as an edge even hints that it will curl up, I reapply water everywhere. Once it dries out too much and edges just keep on curling, I'll throw it away.

 

[MrJim]

After reading this thread a couple weeks ago, I ordered the Masterson Sta-Wet (the smallest size) and it is one of the best investments I have made. Doesn't really keep GW paints usable from day to day, but you can definitely work a lot longer with them. Really cuts down on waste.

 

[loki_the_black]

I just upgraded my P3 Wet Palette to one of the Masterson Sta-Wet (the middle size one). It is definitely a much better product.

 

[Canny]

To each his own, but I could never let my paper get this dry. As soon as an edge even hints that it will curl up, I reapply water everywhere. Once it dries out too much and edges just keep on curling, I'll throw it away.

Back at ya, each to their own. the paper towl is wet enough, just baking paper a little big for the container.

Good to hear you have found something that works for you.You may find you go through more baking paper now.

 

[Josh The Stampede]

I just upgraded my P3 Wet Palette to one of the Masterson Sta-Wet (the middle size one). It is definitely a much better product.

Can you elaborate on what is better about it? I inherited a P3 one and two pads of the paper when a friend moved away. It was an upgrade from my homebrew one and it's nice not to have to cut paper down to size but I don't know that I would have paid money for a box with a sponge in it. What makes the Masterson worth the investment?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Can you elaborate on what is better about it? I inherited a P3 one and two pads of the paper when a friend moved away. It was an upgrade from my homebrew one and it's nice not to have to cut paper down to size but I don't know that I would have paid money for a box with a sponge in it. What makes the Masterson worth the investment?

Size and the quality of the water reservoir.

I opted to start with the P3 after any years of using a well palette.
YES there was a learning curve on changing but after a while I found that the limited size wasn't condusive to long term painting sessions and that the sponge tended to allow either too much water to wick through to the paper or to drain to the bottom of the palette.
Opting for the Masterton which is a similar price has given me more space to work with, since it's just slightly smaller than an A4 sheet of paper, and better water transfer as the depth profile of the tray is smaller and the "sponge" reservoir transfers water more consistently.

Hope that helps.

 

[loki_the_black]

Can you elaborate on what is better about it? I inherited a P3 one and two pads of the paper when a friend moved away. It was an upgrade from my homebrew one and it's nice not to have to cut paper down to size but I don't know that I would have paid money for a box with a sponge in it. What makes the Masterson worth the investment?

The sponge is more dense (holds water better), the paper is "better" (its more of think paper than baking paper) and fits (I always had to cut down the P3 as it expanded when wet, the lid is more air tight so the paint keeps longer and it is larger.