Artists Palettes for Oil Painting, wooden palette, laying of colours, cleaning using Zest-it.

Palettes for Oil painting.

Wooden studio palettes are traditionally made of Mahogany in a kidney shape with thumb hole and finger grip, held along the forearm between elbow and wrist. (New wooden palettes need to be oiled well with Linseed oil to prepare them for use).
If you don't want to go to the expense of a traditional wooden one, you can make your own from mdf or plywood (1/2" thick). Sand the palette to give a smooth thumb hole and edges. Apply at least two coats of varnish, rub down between each application and allow to dry throughly.

There are many shapes of palette on the market today and available in a variety of materials other than wood - clear and white acrylic, glass, porcelain, plastic and tear-off.
One thing they need to be is non-absorbent and preferably easy to clean.

A large palette is not a necessity, but certainly a pleasure when it comes to mixing paint. Any palette after all, is your 'thinking ground', a place where you mix colours, judge their properties, make decisions, it needs to be comfortable to hold and suitable for the way you work.

Acrylic and plastic palettes are easy to clean, the oil paint can be scraped off using a palette knife and the surface wiped. Greaseproof paper and tear-off palettes are easy to dispose of at the end of a painting session. Glass and Porcelain are more appropriate if you are seated as they are quite heavy.

The type of palette is very much a personal choice, a large palette is very useful if you are standing at an easel, not so vital if you prefer to be seated. You can of course adapt any suitable surface as your palette, greaseproof paper, paper plate or butchers tray.

Laying colours on the Palette

When laying the colours out on your palette, it's a good idea to lay them out in some sort of logical order. That order can be from light to dark, in colour families, following the colour wheel or frequency of use. It's also a good idea to put them close to the outside top edge of the palette, this leaves plenty of working/mixing area in the centre.
Try and judge how much paint you will need, too little can be frustrating as you need to squeeze out more and too little can be wasteful. Notice also which colour you 'always' use and buy them in bigger tubes, it works out more economical.

Laying the colours out in the same way each time is also good practice, you don't have to stop and search for the colour and it helps to prevent those little accidents - like picking up the wrong colour!

Cleaning the Palette

Some people don't bother to clean the palette, leaving dried paint in hard ridged masses, adding new paint as required. Others clean the palette after each painting session, it's all a matter of personal choice and how you prefer to work.
If you prefer to keep your palette clean, then scrape off the remains of the un-used paint with a palette knife and wipe onto newspaper or kitchen towel. Wipe the palette with kitchen towel. Then wipe over with kitchen towel dipped in Zest-it Oil Paint Dilutant and Brush Cleaner or Zest-it Solvent, a little goes a long way. Wipe and dry off the palette with kitchen towel, it will be clean and ready for use next time!

If you have dried paint on the palette which you want to remove, scrape off what you can with a palette knife, smear a small amount of Zest-it Brush Cleaner over the dried paint, take 5 or have a cup of tea. During this time the Zest-it will have softened the dried paint making it much easier to remove with the knife. Wipe down between each application. Repeat as necessary, drying it off finally with kitchen towel.

Some artists clean the paint off the mixing area as they work, others leave the paint on until the painting is finished, again it's personal choice, whatever suits you best.

Note: If you use the above cleaning process on a wooden palette that has not yet formed a protective patina, then it's as well to rub it over with kitchen towel dipped in Linseed oil after cleaning, this will help to protect the wood and build up the paint mixing surface.

We stock 'easy to clean' white palettes in our online shop at J and T's Art and Calligraphy
You can see the palette in use in this video clip about using Zest-it for thinning paint and cleaning brushes.