Palette suggestion

[Electra]

I found a great replacement for a traditional palette for acrylics, and perhaps even oils (although I'm not so sure oils would clean up as nicely).

I sit on a stool to paint, and I don't like having to hold a palette in one hand while I paint. When I purchased my art supplies, I bought a palette that had six little wells, and I hated it. It didn't give any room for mixing colors. I used it once and trashed it.

In a pinch, I used an old table that had been rattling around the house. At walmart you can buy these cheap little three-legged 28" round particle board tables with a glass top, and sometimes they come with a long skirt to go over them. They're very inexpensive. I took the skirt off the table and left the glass sitting on top of the particle board.

This serves as a perfect palette, at least for acrylics. Plenty of room to mix paint, just at the right height, and VERY easy to clean off -- simply let the paints dry for a couple hours, then run a bit of warm water over the surface and the paint peels off easily. Being glass, it also doesn't add to the already-fast drying time of acrylic paints like paper palettes do, and it comes clean EVERY time. You can put a piece of paper under it to achieve a white background.

I'm lazy sometimes and leave the paint on it overnight, and then flip it the next day and use the other side. LOL But anyway, those of you who are frustrated with your palette's size, try this one.



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Life is less about who you are, and more about who you choose to be.

[Gisela]

Electra,
What a terrific idea! I use a glass palette, so I know how well the glass works. The next time I get to a discount store, I'll be picking up one of those tables. I'll be using it for oils, though. I'm pretty partial to my Sta-Wet palette for acrylics.
Thanks for a great idea!
Gisela


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http://www.artistnation.com/members/paris/gisela

[robinsn]

I got tired of scraping oil off of my glass palette and tried something that worked pretty well. I coated my glass palette with white acrylic gesso before putting my oils on it. Next time I went to use it, I scraped off the acrylic nice and easy (and the oil with it).

But I got tired of scraping even that, so I changed to the old disposable palettes and I'm happy with them!

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-Randy
My Art Gallery

[kemshmi]

nice project Mellryn..tucking it into my notebook for class projects..how many sessions did you devote to this..guessing high school studens have 50 minutes in the room daily?

the idea of using gouache on glass came up in chat a few days ago..someone had read about it..I think that (without having actually tried this) the gouache would not be suitable..too thin and it will puddle with no control at all!! and even used thicker, would it crack and fall off the glass..??

acrylics seem like the way to go with this..
what about oils?

[Drew Davis]

There are paints marketed specifically for use on glass (e.g., Maimeri's "Idea" line, or the Createx "Multi-Surface" paint). I don't know how they differ from regular acrylics (or even if they are acrylics). For good adhesion, I suspect you're going to need to sand or etch (frost) the glass. Otherwise, acrylic will peel right off given a push. (A good thing in palettes, a bad thing in supports

Kiln-fired enamels seem to be used a lot, too.

[Mellryn]

Great idea Electra!

When I was in college, I spent some time experimenting with acrylics on unusual serfaces, have you thought about reverse-glass painting with your acrylics? Did you notice anything interesting when you fliped your pallet over?? I love reverse glass painting - it's a new challenge - you have to paint backwords - forground to background! The technique is as old as glass! I intend to return to this technique soon.

A good place to start if you are interested is purchase one of those deep plastic box frames (cheap), to keep the acrylic from sliding off the plastic - rub a little bit of steel wool or fine sandpaper on the surface you are painting to ruff it up, the paint will fill the scratches. When you are done you don't even have to worry about framing! just slide the box provided with the frame and wah..la ready to hang! (they are a little tricky to photograph though,you'll need to use a white sheet or glare retarder of some kind between your painting and the light source. With a little experimenting it can be done. )

You can also use an old piece of real glass, you can't rough it up to grip the paint but when the acrylic dries there are some interesting folds that happen. The only problem with real glass is breakage - I think I lost 2 paintings while I was moving - the truck hit a few bumps and bye bye painting.

I have done this project with a highschool seminar class - they loved it too.

[UpStateMike]

I've come across 2 products useful for glass painting. 1 is GOLDEN GAC 200, which is an acrylic medium you add to your paints for increased hardness and adhesion. The other is XIM's UMA (Urethane Modified Acrylic). It works well as a primer onto glass metal tile, etc. and is water based. They make a clear and a white.

[msue]

You need very good ventilation for this technique, but my Mom has painted on glass with nail polish. Works great. With all the wild colors available at the discount stores like MacFrugal you can create a palette of colors for about $5. Great way to use up those yucky colors that didn't look good on your nails.