How long will oil paint stay wet on palette? How to Save Your Colors

[@gmeloche4936]

A trick I know is that if you box your oil in a relatively air tight container. Then put a cotton ball with a bit clove oil on it and it prevents the oil paint from hardening/drying.

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

Silly question maybe, but where do I buy clove oil?

[@a.humphries8678]

Clove essential oil?

[@rayjones1394]

So glad you're here. I'm recently retired, and am thinking of putting my old, former-stoner days watching Bob Ross shows in the 1970s-'80s to use.

[@thesoulcanvasexperience]

I'm so happy I found your channel. I just started playing with oil painting about 10 days ago, and every question that has come up since has been answered in one of your videos. I looove the secret tip at the end of this one. Thanks for the great content!

[@marvellloyd2666]

In the winter time up here in Alaska, when no one wants to "Plen Air" paint and all are indoors. Do what I do when Im done painting for the day and may or may not paint agin within a week. Throw the damn Palette out side into a snow bank.

[@dicty2]

I use one of those plastic lunch boxes that have a silicone seal and a lid that clamps on. Put the paint on the upside down lid then use the box part as the lid. Stores in the fridge for several days. The limited air in the sealed box reduces the chemical reaction with oxygen that dries the paint.

[@CaptainFutureman]

I like your idea of using it upside down. That takes care of the high walls around the palette preventing you from using a palette knife from all angles.

[@mariazarjoo9960]

Something else I do to save the colours on my pallette, is that I mixed the colours, and paint a blank canvas, so for my next painting I don't paint on plain white and have a brown-gray ish background if that makes sense 😊

[@diegoallcore]

A lot of sense

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

Brilliant idea. Thanks.

[@MrKongatthegates]

yes, but even using a thick layer of paint is a waste, you can use a quarter of a teaspoon paint mixed with turps to tone a canvas.

[@dianehoweart6084]

Scrape your oil paints onto a plastic pallet or lid and put it in cold water, make sure its submerged and then take it out when you want the paints again and put them back on your normal pallet. I've done this a lot in the past and it does work.

[@gitbuh12345qwerty]

Paint everyday. Genius. I was really wondering what the secret was going to be, and in my opinion, for everything art related, "Do it everyday." Is essentially the secret to everything.

[@mariazarjoo9960]

Yes as a matter of fact research on the secret to becoming successful in any field, has come to the conclusion that persistence and consistency is the key 👍

[@lisaldumais2387]

I have a plastic eye glass case that is just the right size to scoop my paints into and I can stick it in the freeze. It is a small and hard so it can not get smashed when my family is digging in the freeze for something.

[@dangitdoodles]

fun story, me and 2 co-workers ended up breaking our gamblin oil paint cabinet while trying to get a paint for a customer... we ended up tipping all of the paints out of the cabinet, we're just waiting on a replacement now so if you ever have a Michaels employee that's struggling to open one of the lock-up cabinets and they say something like "how many Michaels employees does it take to open one of these" just say 3

[@firechild81022]

I‘m currently working on a big oil portrait (70x50cm) as part of my art degree project, and due to time management I‘m painting pretty much everyday, BUT I still try to keep my paint wet by covering it in Saran Wrap when I leave for the day, because I‘m working with a full palette (about 22 colours at all times) and I just can’t use every colour every day. Sometimes I don’t touch a colour for a week or more. After a certain amount of time the paint will become more chewy than wet. What I like to do at the beginning while setting up my palette and to „wet“ the chewy paint again is mixing it with linseed oil. It reduced my wasted paint soooo much, because it slowes down the hardening of the paint (which is also great for big detailed paintings you work weeks or even months on)

[@matheusmartins3177]

Hey how was the final result of your panting?

[@winterdesert1]

I want to start painting again and to find out that oils last 2-3 days is really good to know. I didn't know that. Now I really want to start painting again! Thanks.

[@floridacrackerguitartips6004]

Great video! I saw a video where a plein air painter stored his paint in the large 7-day pill containers that people use for their medication. In fact, the container is the source of his colors and only uses his pallet for mixing color. He pulls the paint out of the container with a cleaned/wiped-off pallet knife. I haven't tried it yet but plan to. Thanks

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

Now there's an idea I wanna try. Thank you. :) ........ joyce

[@douglasriddle6447]

Secret for saving paint........Zip lock bags. Go to the Dollar store and buy a box of Zip lock bags. Scrape the paint you want to save off your palette with a palette knife, and put the paint in one of the bottom corners of the bag. Squeeze the air out of the bag, label the bag with a magic marker, toss it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. When you go to use the paint, clip the corner of the bag where the paint is and squeeze out the paint.

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

I love this idea, specially since I want to pre-mix flesh colors for quickly portraits !!!!

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

How long have you found that this method keeps the paint fresh. One youtuber using aluminum foil and says that keeps oils fresh indefinitely.

[@gadjoemi0722]

🤩🤩🤩 I was waiting for some magic formula at the end how to save paints, and boom your tip is really the best formula I've ever heard!! Lol. Thank you!!

[@paintcoach]

My pleasure 😊

[@cynthiamarston2208]

I bought fifteen 20 ml screw top wide glass jars I jewelry glue to a board of most used paints. Remove some to pallet and try not to contaminate those little piles while using then return any little pile to 20ml jar. If I were do atypical large lots of paint painting just use the oils up on it best as possible. I have larger 2 Oz jars too. I’ve never used my mixed up mud....some day maybe. Saran Wrap for already mixed paint and mud in larger glass jars of mixed colors I don’t like. I tried clove oil and cover with glass bake pan but fast drying colors still kinda dry. Never tried the freezer! Transfer piles to smaller container and snap lid it is worth a try for already mixed paints. I do art every day but painting is more sporadic.....some days in a row others a couple days off in between type deal....now we need best idea to keep paint wet on portrait size paintings! Once that gets tacky you have to use the layering method.....which to me feels like doing a whole new painting.....

[@RobertF-]

Some other things you can do is put the whole palette in a Tupperware container. That only works if the palette is small enough though. Another trick I heard an artist mention once is you can put the paint under water and it will keep that way since oil and water don't mix. That's if you're not using Water Mixable Oil Paints though.

[@markborder906]

That is what I do. I use an old ice-cream container with a second cut-down lid that I put the paint onto. For both water mixable and acrylic I again keep them in similar containers but just spray the inside of the container.

[@bernard6486]

I have two Masterson paint keeper box. In one of them I saved a premix palette of 32 shades and tints mix from 3 colors on palette paper. The palette paper was taped around the edges to the paint keeper box. I used the paints at least once a week for two months. I had a refrigerator with a freezer compartment in which I could store the box. The paints never dried during the process even though the paint mixes were exposed to air while I was painting and it was hours until they were returned to the freezer.🙂 The colors were Titanium White, Blue-Black and Red Oxide. On other occasions, I utilized the other Masterson box in the same manner. There's a piece of glass cut to fit the bottom on which I kept paints; the freezer kept the paints, other than the earth colors, fresh for many months. Our new "modern" refrigerator has a very weirdly configured freezer. I cannot fit the Masterson box in it.🙁

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

Thanks!

[@x-tremevidpro]

❤️ your last tip! I paint everyday and that 😏 face you made mixed well together.😅

[@zpitfiyer]

Lol. My bubble thought went: but there are days when the art juice ain't there.

[@CaptainFutureman]

But you don't need art juice to tone a canvas grey. In fact, a semi-mindless activity like that might sometimes just get the juice flowing.

[@chipwalter4490]

Thank you Paint Coach. I’m going to put my paints in the fridge right now AND use them tomorrow. (They are already in those little plastic snap cups with lids

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

I was wondering since I use those kinds of containers to store pre-mixed acrylics that I spray with a mist before covering. BUT I wondered if storing oils with no misting of course, wouldn't the paint oxidize anyway using the air that's above the paint in the little containers? I need to solve this today if possible. ..... joyce

[@Art_of_Ramon]

50/50 clove oil and walnut oil, in a small mist sprayer, and spray over it all.

[@ashaw3737]

Press & seal wrap can help, a little bit of paint gets removed when you pull it back off, but it has helped me.

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

I love this simple idea! How long does it keep the oil paints fresh? I've done this with acrylics but using 2 layers to keep the paint fresh longer and I spray a water mist over the paint before applying the suran wrap. I want to switch from acrylics to oils.

[@matthewgrennell9293]

I run into this issue frequently. This is very helpful.

[@kalilavalezina]

This tip might be really obvious and well known, but I discovered you can wrap brushes in clingfilm to keep them from drying out. If you coat the bristles with an oil first, they can sit like that for some time. Not sure how good it is for the brush long-term however! This can be useful if you run out of time to clean your brushes and know you won't be back in the studio for some days.

[@newbietubie]

Use that stay-wet plastic box to store your paint & palette THEN pour water over it. The water will extend the working time of your palette by a lot. The paint will still oxidize/dry over long periods of time but they will generally be workable for a lot longer. Be Sure to shake of any dripping water before you start painting. Also, heads-up, if you use a lot of oil/medium this tends to drift away where as your "out-of-the-tube" paint stays put.

[@MrKuire]

35 mm film cans work well for storing premixed colors or tube colors you scrape of your palette between sessions and they're free! Plus it keeps them out of the landfill. Just go to your local camera store that processes film and they will gladly give you as many as you want.

[@renjiai]

I found a wide flat plastic box that will fit my palette in it at the craft store. When I'm done painting I'll pop my palette in it and then cover the oil paints with water. It's also a good way to store them in the freezer, but I usually don't have room. I'll dip brushes in linseed oil and then make sure I get back to painting within a couple of days. If it's longer then that I'll clean them.

[@salvathijazi431]

You can put your left out paint in a pill box too

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

Is it difficult to clean the pillbox after a color is used up.

[@sambarboo4701]

Final Tip = BRILLIANT!

[@mayo_poppins]

My paint started drying in the thinner spots i spread it onto my pallet and I thought about the people on my TikTok fyp that turn eyeshadow into water colors and it gave me the, oh so complex idea of mixing in linseed oil into my paint to rehydrate the paint with oil. I tried it and after quite a while working it into the paint, it actually worked. I had to go at it for a long time but the dried out flaky bits eventually became gooppy and thick again. I literally did this on a whim and it worked out so, I mean, that's my tip for if you neglect doing something about the paint left on your pallet and feel guilty about wasting it.

[@nikl1aus874]

Loved the video, not a great fan of art but yours are AMAZING! I also loved you in the short film 'Will The Machine' you have a new fan here!

[@tamaragontarek1366]

Great advice. The stay wet pallets are perfect for acrylic paints, and maybe gouache. I used them with my acrylics and they work beautifully. Like he said... not so much for oils...

[@sandramoore9897]

Thanks for the tips! ~ I paint every day too - works for me. :) Squeeze out smaller amounts of paint - then there's no need to store it.... :)

[@jumanas4012]

how about saving paint in a tube or in water ?

[@fereshmahta6113]

use clove oil to prevent the oil paint from hardening/ and drying.

[@bobcopple1581]

hi coach, you are doing great videos. thanks for sharing. I learn a lot from your videos. I paint with water mixables and some times I mix colors and I can put them in the stay wet box like the one you showed and they will keep for a couple of weeks by laying in a few damp paper towels and cover it with a sheet of parchment paper and it fits perfectly. I can mix a lot of colors to use on a painting later. I haven't really tested how long they will stay workable.

[@nickbailey8650]

Hi Chris, what is that thing you put on your pallette before you cover it with cling film to stop the paint from drying, do you know about that?

[@pauls3696]

Great tip I've just gone through my rubbish bin to get out some Jam jars that I binned lol just mixed the paint left on my pallet and chucked it in there lol many thanks I now have more paint to play with 👍👍👍

[@fereshmahta6113]

i mixed the leftover and paint it as a background for the next painting!

[@john-nx4xn]

Could you put a drop of linseed oil over the exposed surface?

[@leeludlowart237]

Would cling film around the pallet stop them from drying ? I know it’s messy but I can live with that

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

I've done this with acrylics. But I used 2 layers of cling wrap. For some reason using one layer didn't work as long.

[@taiel5142]

How big is the palette behind you?

[@blazingjalapeno9096]

Very big

[@joebrann4612]

I use baby jars and pour water over them

[@john-nx4xn]

Could you put a little drop of linseed oil on it a very gently push it over the exposed surface area? I've never painted with oils. I have no clue ✌️

[@charlestaylor6279]

Hi Chris, you mentioned plastic boxes are available to stop your paint from drying, but they don't work. Well they probably don't work with oil paint but they are OK with acrylic paint. I just spray water on the paint inside the box and that stops the acrylic paint from drying for a few days. I do use acrylic first on a painting because it does dry so quickly and then I use oil paint over the acrylic to finish off. I notice that you never seem to mention acrylic. May I ask why ? Kind regards - Chris in Thailand

[@bvm5950]

I have heard of clove oil as a preserver. Any comments

[@firechild81022]

I recommend linseed oil, works great!

[@martimajor4766]

Days of the week pill organizers

[@annekabrimhall1059]

Get a flattish Rubbermaid with a lid. Use as a palette. Cheaper than a palette with a lid. Especially good for long term like leaving on vacay.

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

But since there is trapped air inside, doesn't oil paint still oxidize and harden? I'm just asking because I'm starting oils now and I'm learning from everywhere. :)

[@annekabrimhall1059]

@@joycehandersonfriends3225 Yes, but only the outside layer that you can pop. Get the best size to limit empty space. In winter I set my palette outside without covering it. It oxidizes VERY slowly in the cold. That way the kids don’t get into it lol

[@GavinConstable-s9r]

love your work

[@Lanelle_bella]

I haven't tried this but I thought over the problem some. Use a piece of wax parchment paper as a palette. Before you begin fold it in half. Unfold it and place your paints near the center crease apart from each other. Once your done for the day fold it where no air is in between (don't press where it can leak out). Clamp the edges with chip clips so no air hits the paint. In the morning (or in a few days) unfold and your paint is a little spread out but should still be wet. At least that's the theory. I'll update this once I try it... (If I remember where I posted this...)

[@a.humphries8678]

Do you have to add anything to brown leftover paint in jar? I did this but it dried up, fast.

[@joycehandersonfriends3225]

I'm curious because I want to do this asap even today but ..... What about the oxygen that's trapped inside your small bottle you are saving pre-mixed oil paint in. Would that little bit of trapped air not cause the oils to continue to oxidize and harden?. ..... A wonderful tip I just saw on youtube was put your pre-mixed paint on aluminum foil and fold the sides tightly around your blob of paint. When ready to use, just cut a tiny slit in one corner, squeeze out the amount of paint you need, and then fold the foil back over the paint tightly. This way the paint stays air tight.

[@GebahiArtworks]

LOL, that was good!

[@corpopunk]

I also paint every day :) thank you for encouragement

[@lisavento7474]

can't i just throw the palette into the freezer because I'm working on something all week...? Do i really have to scrap down and remix the next day? what? i hate wasting paint.

[@nata9527]

love your magic tip!

[@fereshmahta6113]

as water and oil do not mix, you can immerse in the water. you can immerse in oil too!

[@flra00788]

How long does water mixables stay wet on a palette when you live in a tropical country? Where it’s warm to hot year round? I have a sta wet palette tray that I use for acrylic painting. Can i use them? I mean they are air tight, right?

[@fereshmahta6113]

mixing color to make a wheel color is fun!" go to get the painting"!

[@jamescgibson]

I am a self taught artist who really does not paint every day, so i got tired of my paint drying out. I don't want put it in the fridge...I made a palette in a box form with a lid and a seal, Works Great !! Check out the video ! My first and only 😂 so far.

[@chriscallen6897]

From experience, I’ve noticed that my paint drys quicker in the summer when it’s warm.

[@ChristieWilkes]

They sell air tight pallet containers; put the pallet into the air tight container . Put it in the freezer.

[@craigsmith1948]

I thought I would try condiment cups.

[@dalenejansevanrensburg8932]

I cling wrap my paints and store it in the freezer. It keeps for ages

[@neu-ter]

Thank you so much!!!

[@adriaanvanpijkeren9770]

Jars never seem to work for me, still dries in there

[@frankburns1953]

Try adding a few drops of linseed oil to the jar.

[@arturgajewskiphotog]

Also, you don't need to squeeze half of the tube when you start painting. Squeeze more as you need ;)

[@MetaMessiah]

Good video to help starving artists save money and conserve their supplies 👍

[@paintcoach]

faTV Fan Art I always said the term starving artist came about not bc artists don’t make money but bc supplies are so expensive!

[@MetaMessiah]

Paint Coach 🤣 so true!

[@imaxinebrown694]

Thanks

[@anitasmith7764]

It’s expensive trying to learn to remix a specific color though. I’m very new to painting period so I save everything 😂😂😂😂. Once I’m better at mixing maybe I’ll stop

[@nadabhutia3465]

Hay, my oil tin paint is expired. It's not spreading. It's became like flour bough. It's acrylic solvent base metallic paint. Company smagat. Thanks man.

[@Alfreda66]

Lol! Great last tip😊👍🏼! Been aiming to do just that.

[@evandegenfelder4554]

I paint every day too, but sometimes I mistakenly put out too much of one or two colors and they can get a skin on them before I can use them up :-/

[@MrKongatthegates]

another tip is just dont get too precious with paint. If you cant afford to oil paint, dont. Most art supplies in most mediums are very cheap. If you buy 10 dollar tubes, and you squeeze out 5% of the tube, thats 50 cents per color. If you use half of that, you wasted a whole 25 cents per color, so for 10 colors you "wasted" 2.50. What did your lunch cost today? most people spend 1 or 2 hundred bucks on oil paint supplies, then quit, lol. The paint ends up drying up, wasted IN THE TUBE, So be extravagant with that paint. It will help you paint better if you dont worry about cost. So my tip is do the math and dont think of painting like we think about eating all of our food at every meal. The more you paint, also, the more you will learn to waste less of it. Prepared canvasses are WAY more expensive, so if you want to save money, paint over your crappy paintings and reuse the canvasses

[@L.g000]

Wish I had the time to paint everyday

[@arturhakobyan6850]

The best way is to sinck your palette in a pad with water... That will keep your oil paints away from oxidation and polymerization...

[@stircrazyknight7091]

I normally just put plastic over my paint 🎨

[@martimajor4766]

What a rapper! MachineGun commentary. Truth be told! Yay

[@MYST3RYLC]

👍👍

[@allenvoss7977]

Paint every day baby

[@jamieelder7438]

Bro, alizarin crimson takes months to dry. I picked up a study I did in the winter and the crimson smeared.

[@fereshmahta6113]

cover with plastic put in the freezer!

[@martimajor4766]

WET… really? The answer is … AS LONG AS YOU PAINT EVERYDAY! Easy, RIGHT?

[@oty2012hy]

😜

[@philibuster6812]

Painting indoors during the winter up here in Alaska? Saran wrap and throw your palette outside in the snow (or on top of something)

[@sibbzteunissen3393]

A big bunch of do nots, this guy is not your friend

[@kheminlowe6195]

You have good things to say but for gods sake slow your speech down, very difficult to take in what you say.