I use a small paint palette when pouring or mixing paint. I've tried a paper palette and a wet palette, but looking or something easy to clean when finished.
What do you all use?
Upside down coat d'arms paint pot.
Once dry, flick off.
Or an old saucer.
I don't use a palette but a white saucer sounds good to me.
I have a small 'flower' style paint palette. It has about 8 separate sections to I can use a different one for each colour, so I minimise any cross contamination issues if a colour isn't quite dry when I reuse that well.
It is a kind of plastic that acrylic paint doesn't really adhere to, so every few months I peal off the now solid block formed of many layers of paint. This comes off very easily, and can then be fun to cut in half to see all the layers of paint :)
I've never tried a wet palette - suspect with the UK ambient temperatures it's not that vital, as paint rarely dries before I am done with it.
I have a couple of plastic palettes about the size of a small side plate with a larger central well and ten small hemispherical pits around the edge.
As fred says, the paint doesn't adhere to the plastic and can be peeled off as a layer of mixed colours.
I'll also echo fred's view on ambient temperatures and wet palettes here in the UK. More specifically Scotland, in my case.
Old plastic bottle lids from milk, fruit juice etc. Again, once the dried paint has built up I just scrape it off.
QuoteOld plastic bottle lids from milk, fruit juice etc. Again, once the dried paint has built up I just scrape it off.
Oh, I like that idea. Used to use an old ceramic tile, but I'll give this a go next time I get the paints out.
I use a 6 section straight plastic palette, but also a wet palette from Army Painter. I use the wet palette if I'm going to be doing something over 2 days, makes touch ups easier.
I have heard of using poppers fidget toys. They can be "popped" to make the cleaning easier. Not tried it myself.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MQrOOzsYL._AC_SX679_.jpg)
This one £6.99 on Amazon
Most of the time for small amounts of paint I use an white ceramic tile. When I need to clean it I scape it with a Stanley mini scraper that holds a razor blade.(see below).
I use a very small plastic palate for mixing larger quantities, but find they never really clean properly getting stained
I fill my plastic pallet with Dettol and leave overnight.
I then slaver PVA glue into it. When dried the PVA gives a coat which is easy to pull off.
Ice cube tray.
Had a plastic pallette for 15 or more years
I use a white ceramic tile, when paint covers too much I remove with a small stanley scraper that takes a single edged razor.
Never found s plastic pallette that comes completely clean
Quote from: Orcs on 07 March 2026, 06:23:26 PMI use a white ceramic tile, when paint covers too much I remove with a small stanley scraper that takes a single edged razor.
Never found s plastic pallette that comes completely clean
I found if you pout near boiling water over a plastic palette you can pick the paint from it after it cools a little bit
As mentioned above (several months ago) I find I can just peel the old paint off my small plastic palette
I can flex and soak a multi-dimple plastic job for a year or so. Then a replacement costs as much as a cup of coffee.
Plastic paint mixing palette from an art shop with six circular sections.
Edward
QuotePlastic paint mixing palette from an art shop with six circular sections.
Edward
Same sort of thing here, a little oval plastic platter with six or eight dimples.
Some paint chips out.
Sime dries on hard, and doesn't interfere with future use.
Good for 10+ years, cost around £2.00.
Some of this may be related to scale.
Working in 10mm requires less of that fancy Dallimore three tone or wet blending.
I work in fairly small quantities of paint - the only 35ml pot that ever ran out was black.
My main consumable expense is Brushes.
Mine is superglue!
Jar lids.
I used to use an old CD. For many years it was a free Netscape CD, but now I use a dimpled plastic palette. As already remarked, the layers of dried paint will peel off leaving a clean palette.
I have found two advantages of the palette.
The first is that it is more efficient in paint as when you thin the paint it is contained in the dimple and not spread around the plate/tile/CD.
The other technique I use is to half fill one of the dimples with water. I find this much quicker to thin the paint with your brush while getting the right consistency.
QuoteThe other technique I use is to half fill one of the dimples with water. I find this much quicker to thin the paint with your brush while getting the right consistency.
Genius! Why have I never thought of this. As dipping the brush into a cup of water - often gets too much water.
Thank you for posting this.