Mini Pal-ettes: About Watercolors

Mini Pal-ette at: palettes.shadowscapes.com
Kickstarter for the Mini Pal-ettes goes from May 25 to June 8th. $25 for just the Color Wheel, or $45.00 for a pair set of Color Wheel and Mixing Palette, along with carrying tin.
Patreon: / stephanielaw
Website & Art: www.shadowscapes.com

[@MinaRoy]

Love love love this! Often times, I feel like experimenting with different colors or brands and am left feeling stuck for not finishing those massive pre-prepped paint palettes. With the palette holes being smaller, I can play with my color selections more. That and I love grabbing/mixing paints on ceramic.

[@StephanieLaw]

The brush moves just so much more smoothly over ceramic when mixing! :)

[@MinaRoy]

It really does! It's amazing how natural it feels to use ceramics for watercolors and gouache. I started experimenting with the idea after seeing older Japanese artists like Oga Kazuo use it.

[@terryernest6264]

Steph ha! ... I hoard art materials just like you ...just in case I get the creative urge... I think I'll add to my hoard with those neat water holding brushes ...and your neat palette solution ... ! ...I bought some very cheap children paint ...mixed it to make all sorts of shaded, but after each palette colour dried it had almost evaporated to nothing ... 😊

[@StephanieLaw]

haha yeah, they're unfortunately mostly binder and not a whole lot of substance. I get my water brushes from jetpens

[@MaryPrasadArt]

I love mini palettes and yours looks awesome! I do have a few comments to add to your video in general, for the sake of completeness. :-) You can order pans separately, as well as metal tins to put them in, so you can customize. For some brands it makes sense to buy a pre-made palette, then customize if desired, because it can be less expensive, e.g. Yarka St. Petersburg/White Nights - you can find full pan palettes for a really reasonable price; they are good professional watercolors (although not my favorite). Some watercolors in tubes are not meant to be dried in pans, e.g. Winsor & Newton - they will crack and fall out of the pan; to solve the problem you need to mix in a humectant such as vegetable glycerin or honey. According to W&N, pan watercolors need something to stop mold growth so they do not recommend using tubes to fill pans. I haven't had a problem doing so, although I always let them dry out before putting away. People who live in the tropics (high humidity) have had mold issues. One person puts his paints in the sun to dry in order to deter mold. Some tube paints, such as M Graham, have a lot of humectant and may not dry in the pan. I have still used them in pans but I don't fill the pans as much and keep them level in storage. It might help to add powdered gum arabic when filling pans with paints such as these, although I have not tried it. One of these days I plan to do a video or two on mini palettes on my channel... just need to find time!

[@Jennifer-wr9si]

I love your mini palette. Any hope for a version 2 with fewer/bigger wells to accommodate bigger brushes (eg round 6/8)?

[@StephanieLaw]

In fact, yes, I am working on one that has 19 wells that are approximately the size of half-pans, but same outer size as this one. We're hoping to release it at the end of the year

[@Jennifer-wr9si]

Stephanie Law awesome! I look forward to it :)

[@maryannknox7158]

I just ordered my mini watercolor pallet finely for my Birthday gift 🎁 to myself

[@StephanieLaw]

yay! :D

[@suzyg7716]

I have one of your mini palette sets which I love and have signed up for several more through the Kickstarter campaign. Have you considered making the mixing palettes available to be individually purchased? I also like the rectangular palette with 4 mixing areas that I have seen in your videos and would be interested in purchasing that. Is it something you developed or is it commercially available? I have not seen it anywhere. Obviously, I collect too many supplies and have too many projects going on at the same time. I love your work and your videos. Thank you!

[@StephanieLaw]

That was also one of my designs. I was offering those still with my original method of 2D printed clay, but unfortunately the 3D printing company I was using has abruptly (last week) discontinued doing any ceramics. I do have these plastic rectangular ones still that you can find at my shapeways shop: www.shapeways.com/shops/shadowscapes The advantage of the plastic is that they are lighter, can be made thinner (so that two mixer palettes can actually fit into the tin along with the paint wells) and have more control over the shape refinement.

[@suzyg7716]

Thank you, Stephanie!

[@StephanieLaw]

Oh, also if you want the mixers individually purchased, just send me a message on kickstarter. I can always do that as an add-on for you.

[@KatheeRN]

Oops, I found how to order the palette...ty for this

[@StephanieLaw]

Okay, glad you found it. :)

[@KatheeRN]

How can I order the mini pal-ette... the complete set?

[@StephanieLaw]

They're available again now! etchrlab.com/products/mini-palette