Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Studio Tip for October


In this economy I'm always thinking about ways to save, so recently I started saving my "grays".

At the end of a painting session, there's always paint on the palette. But my leftover paints were never of sufficient quantity to warrant mixing them into grays and filling empty tubes. I worried about ending up with lots of tubes that would be filled with small quantities of mystery colors.

But I also hated throwing away perfectly good paint, or worse, trying to use it in the next painting when the colors weren't appropriate.
My solution is this:
  • I mix together the remaining paint on the palette and add a few drops of clove oil. Clove oil retards the drying of paint, and smells great. You can also use linseed oil, walnut oil - whatever you prefer. Just don't put in too much oil.
  • I then scoop this blob of paint into a plastic food container with a snap on lid. I recently noticed that you can find very small containers in the grocery store. Or you can recycle what you have on hand. Just wash thoroughly first and keep the lids/lips clean.
Now when I begin a painting session I can easily add these grays to my palette. I can pick and choose warmer or cooler mixtures just by looking into the containers.

3 comments:

K. Henderson Fine Art said...

Great tip. And may I suggest that you put a piece of Wax paper in the bottom of the container. Just lift out the paper when you use the paint and the container stays clean for the next use.

kitsgirl said...

This is a really great tip and I do use wax paper but it is for a temp palette so I just put wax paper over it to start all over or throw it out. But I love my grays and sometimes I have wanted to save them but never thought it thru thanks for thinking for me.

renatabarillipainter said...

Thi is a very usefull idea.
well done. I'll try