painter's palette - Daniel Kenneth

I finally broke down and bought a painter’s palette. I’ve always been a little thrifty with painting. I wait for the best deals, use household goods when I can, and buy relatively inexpensive brushes. Art supplies can be very expensive and while I’m not a cheap person, I do have a lot of interest in different art mediums so I need to spread that art supply money around. Up until now, I’ve always made do with wax paper or palette paper… because cleanup is as easy as tossing the paper in the trash can. But, using an actual palette seems to be a thing, and for $15-ish I figured why not give it a try?

When I bought it, it was all plastic wrapped and such, so you really couldn’t try it. Slipping it on my thumb I noticed it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but after a few hours of painting, I’m sure I’ll appreciate the rubber thumb cushion. After using it for a bit I realized what I’d really like is a plain board with a cushioned strap on the bottom so you can hold it flat in your hand without worrying about dropping it.

And then there was the cleanup. I keep moist hand wipes around the art spaces to just do a quick clean up and I thought, ‘hey, this will be a breeze.’ Nope. By the time I was ready to stop for the night most of my paint had dried and while most of the paint came off after a little wiping there’s still a very thin layer of paint on the board that’s almost like a stain. I know you can use a razor to scrape old paint off, but I wanted to avoid scratching up my new palette on the first use. I scrubbed with all my might and finally just tossed it on the table and decided it wasn’t going to get any better without a magic eraser sponge or something more than moist wipes.

So… I guess I’m happy I bought it, but I wouldn’t mind redesigning it and maybe changing it’s color since stains will obviously drive me crazy. I’ll keep using it and maybe my attitude towards it will change. Palettes are a thing, after all, I just need to figure out why.