Palette Check Up: Is the New System Working?
Greetings! It has been a few months now since I started using a new watercolour palette system. So I thought now would be a good time to check in with you all (and myself) on how well it is working in my creative practice. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
My travel palette with a limited selection of six watercolours.
How this all began
What is the palette system I speak of? Well, over the winter I wondered if decluttering what I owned and instead curating my palettes selectively and with intention would help my painting practice. This wasn’t a push for minimalism, but more of becoming aware of what things helped me or hindered me - and then doing something about it. What did I love using, and why did I keep picking that up over my other supplies? What was helping me paint more often? What made painting annoying or difficult? What prevented me from using a supply? I had noticed how much more free I felt while sketching after I had gone through my drawing tools, and I wondered if doing the same with my watercolours would have a similar effect.
After some reflection I decided that I wanted to create a system that would accomplish the following:
each palette must have a practical purpose, based upon my current needs/wants
the system must make my paint collection as in-view as possible
there must be some space for my lesser used pigments or for playing with new ones, and help me test what balance of restriction and space for exploration I want in my painting practice
there would be a larger option for painting at home, and a smaller option for painting on the go
use what I already own and love first, then fill in gaps based on characteristics I love
Limitation has been a wonderful help in my art practice, but to make my heart sing it is also best balanced with some level of variety and ability to discover new things. I wanted to understand what that balance is for me when it comes to palettes.
The second point about having my pigments as in-view as possible was because of something I have noticed about myself. If things are tidily put away, they become quite literally out of sight out of mind for me. I forget I even have them. A poor tube of Cobalt Turquoise Light had been hiding at the bottom of my paint tube storage box for over five years, and I would re-discover it every time I went into the box to refill my ultramarine blue. I would remind myself to use it again soon, only to forget about it again.
All of my pans and poured out paints were also scattered across a multitude of palettes I had built up for various purposes over the course of years. My very first student grade Cotman palette, a series of cheap plastic palettes bought empty for various watercolour course requirements, metal tins bought empty to store half pans and full pans. The colours that existed outside of my main palette were scattered in various places, which added to the out-of-sight problem, and raised its own issue of expending time and energy going through them all.
I wanted a single dedicated place for the pigments I enjoyed but didn’t use every single day, so that they were always in view. That way I could actually find out how much I reach for a colour when I can see them all in front of me. With these things in mind I settled on the idea of a three palette system: a main palette, a travel palette, and an expansion palette.
My main palette, with a healthy layer of dust after being left open overnight - oops!
The main palette was something I was already using. My previous system was more of a “main palette, and then everything else” kind of set-up. It contains the pigments I use the most frequently, and don’t tend to change. At most one or two colours may be swapped out once a year. As such it is my comfort zone, since I have a good knowledge of and familiarity with the palette.
The travel palette is a compact micro portable painter containing six half pans. It has been my favourite on the go painting companion so far, and as such won its place over my other small palette that I then gave away to a friend’s friend.
Finally we have the expansion palette. The new home for the pigments that don’t live on my main palette, and for any new pigments that I want to study. This one I picked up new, based on characteristics that I love in a palette and what I thought would fit its purpose. I love painting with slanted wells, but I equally love the convenience of moving pans of paint around (on palettes that aren’t my main palette). Turns out that Holbein envisioned such a dilemma and addressed it with the RP-24 and RP-30 palettes. They are relatively new to the market, and only just seem to be popping up in different countries. It surfaced in a UK store around the time I was contemplating all of this, so stars aligned. To get disclaimers out of the way, I bought it myself and I was not sponsored.
(Note: a thorough list of the pigments in each palette can be found in my FAQ, in case you are curious!)
Expanding my horizons (hehe)
My expansion palette is the Holbein RP-24 watercolour palette, with slanted wells that snap into place and can be moved around. The palette fits 24 “half pans” or 12 “full pans” that take up two slots. In practice, the Holbein “half pans” are more akin to the size of standard full pans, but shaped as a slanted well. From here on I will refer to them as slanted pans, and I will only be talking about the half size. For the purpose that this palette serves, I did not feel the full size would suit my needs so I have no experience with them.
The slanted pans click into place with a circular notch system (see top-right of below picture). So far they stay in place once they are clicked in. I haven’t had any of the slanted pans fall out from the top side while the palette was stored closed.
My expansion palette on a little outdoor excursion.
When I first set up the palette I started by adding in all the colours that I already owned, but weren’t on my main palette. Cobalt Turquoise Light finally had a home! I made a video at the time which you can watch here. The remaining space has been my “playground” for playing with and studying new pigments. Part of my art goals at the moment include widening my pigment and colour mixing knowledge, and addressing areas of the colour wheel I have less experience with. One such area for example is warm yellows, and I picked up Isoindolinone Yellow Deep PY110 to study for that reason.
How has it affected my painting practice?
Having a dedicated learning space has enabled me to have eyes on the pigments I own, have a place to go to when I want to learn, and helps restrict me from overwhelming myself with too much at once. Yes, I have space to learn new pigments but it is finite. I have to make conscious decisions and prioritise. The balance of limitation and freedom to explore in action!
One of the biggest changes I have noticed in my painting process is how I select colours for a painting. The two big-palettes system and the detachable slanted wells have played a big role in this. With all of my paints now visible in two palettes, I can quickly assess what I have and what I could use. Both palettes are stored together, one on top of the other. There is no mishmashed collection spread across a handful of palettes with various duplicated paints, or paints left in their tubes to be poured out “one day”. I just open two palettes and everything is on display. I then click out any colours I want to use from my expansion palette, and rest the slanted wells on my main palette.
Three pans taken from my expansion palette, resting on a mixing area of my main palette.
I don’t have a lot of desk space, so this has been ideal for having only one palette open but being able to use any arrangement of colours in my collection. I recently painted a nudibranch-inspired mermaid illustration, and selected the above colours from my expansion palette. From left to right is Isoindolinone Yellow Deep PY110, Cobalt Turquoise Light PG50, and Phthalo Blue GS PB15. They joined some of my more frequently used pigments from my main palette to create the mermaid.
I imagine a similar set up could be achieved with a main palette and a secondary palette of half pans or full pans that aren’t too much of a hassle to repeatedly take out of and put back in the tin.
As for travelling and painting plein air, it has helped streamline my decision making. All I have to decide is how big I want to go and then pick the corresponding palette. The micro palette is the most obvious choice, and serves me well for a compact kit. Sometimes I may just be painting in the garden though, and lugging a bigger palette around isn’t as much of a hassle. Less brainpower used on art supply choices, and more brain power for actually getting a painting going.
Do I recommend this to others?
This palette system is working well for me at the moment, and I look forward to seeing how it evolves over time. Art supplies are quite a subjective topic, based on everything from individual preferences to what is accessible in one area over another. I encourage you to learn about your own needs and preferences to help you decide what your kit looks like. I share my thought process today to show my own journey of learning about myself and how that can help me make choices to benefit my art practice. Taking inspiration from others can be invaluable, depending on how and why it inspires us. In other words: I love this system and the palettes I am using at the moment. but they wont be a one-size-fits-all solution to every artist. If you do have any questions about the palettes or the Holbein RP-24 palette specifically though, please leave them in the comments and I’ll get back to you.
Happy drawing, talk to you again soon.
