Using a Paint Pallet in Watercolor Painting

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m John Junger. I’m do the paintings that we’re going to be talking about, the watercolors. I’m here representing expertvillage.com. This is my pallet that I carry with me when I’m in the field or in the studio. I like to use this….this is a Frank Web watercolor pallet that can be purchased from various suppliers. There are all kinds of names and different suppliers. However, you have to find the pallet that works best for you. I like this one because it has a number of pallets. I use a variety of colors. Some of them have larger well for the paint, which means you can use fewer colors. The way I work, these are big enough, for the most part, for what I’m doing. The thing that you should never do is let get into this shape. The colors should not run into each other, and they shouldn’t be mixed and left in this condition. However, when you’re out painting in the field, a lot of time you don’t have much choice. You have wet color in your wells, and when you put it into your valise or your car it tends to run, try to let them dry. However, it’s easy enough to clean up with a sponge and a pail of water. You should always start out with a relatively clean pallet, and that is not that hard to do. Sometimes, I like my colors to mix together a little bit, so that they’re not so out of primer or pure bright red color, bright orange color. If you’re going to clean up the wells themselves you might need a stiff bristle brush like this to pull some of the color out so that it’s not mixed in your well itself. It’s always good to start out with some fresh color when you’re painting. Fresh color tends to work better than something that’s dry, hard, and more gradual. Some colors will become kind of like sand when they harden. Other colors will become very workable again without much messing with them. That’s a nice painting right there. "