What is a Wet Palette?
A wet palette is a multi layered, self-hydrating surface on which to pour and mix acrylic paints, allowing you to paint over longer or even multiple sessions without your paints drying up.
The palette is usually a plastic airtight container within which a flat layer of foam, covering the entire surface area of the container’s base, holds water. On top of that sits a thin hydration sheet allowing for tiny amounts of moisture to escape the layer of foam and rising to the top of the palette where you place your paints. Through this process, your paints remain wet for long periods of time without drying up.
Our studio painter, and let’s be honest the entire team just loves the product, uses the Everlasting Wet Palette from RedGrass Games and it’s the palette we will be featuring in today’s guide. The palettes come in different sizes and you will get additional foam pads and hydration sheets so you don’t need to worry about running out any time soon.
One of our absolute favorite features however is that the foam pads are made from mould resistant materials to avoid the buildup of unpleasant odors and mould when stored!
Why do I need a wet palette?
Ultimately, you do not. However, it is one of the tools that will allow you to practice and develop painting techniques that the limiting working time of a conventional palette does not. Painting very thin layers of specific color mixes, glazing and wet blending over an extended period of time all become much easier when the paints themselves do not dry up.
Imagine having that gorgeous mix that you randomly achieved and keep it for as long as you paint without having to recreate it! It is also a great solution when painting in a very dry climate in which it would otherwise be very difficult and waste a large amount of paint to it drying up.
How to prepare your wet palette:
Start by placing the foam pad on the inside of the plastic tray. You will notice at first glance the foam seems small for the tray, however as it hydrates and soaks in water it will take up most of the space. When pouring water on the foam pad for the first time make sure to let the foam saturate with water, you want to use as much water as necessary for the foam to soak completely.
Once the foam is soaked go ahead and place a hydration sheet on it, after a few seconds it will start soaking in water and its sides will start folding inwards. Give it a few moments and then add some extra water whilst gently ironing out any creases with your fingers. Lastly, make sure to remove any air bubbles trapped below the sheet by gently pushing them with your finger to the edges of the palette.
Once you’ve done all that, you are ready to paint! Put your favorite paints on the paper sheet and let your wet palette work its magic!
Our thoughts on the product:
The entire team started using the product when we were first introduced to it by our studio painter. We reached out to the wonderful folks over at RedGrass and they sent us enough products for us to use and to giveaway to many of you, since then we never went back painting with a regular palette.
For many of us it was a great tool to start working on techniques we never thought we could attempt, try out bold color schemes without having to recreate a specific color mix and just became a very handy tool that kept our painting stations clean an easy to tidy up.
Having use the palettes for over a year now, the foam pads never developed mould or odors and only required freshing up the water every few days. A great product and a huge thank you to RedGrass for introducing us to it!
