New Colors for the Road

Hello friends,

I'm already on the road headed into California Gold Country for the week, but as part of my trip preparations I decided to revise my watercolor palette and downsize from the large one I've been using to a smaller one. 

First, I emptied the small box and gave it a good rinse.  There! All clean! 

I especially like this small Schmincke palette box.  I bought it filled with Schmincke pans but I've used them and now I fill empty pans with Daniel Smith tube paint.  And yes, I pulled out the metal base with the prongs that hold the pans, because I can fit more pans in without it.

Instead, I cut a piece of quilting or stenciling template plastic the size of the base.

That holds the pans and then I can pop them out easily too -- as here, where I pulled out the last configuration of pans in this palette box...

The palettes are stuck to the plastic with that blu-tack putty you can get at art supply stores.

But look how many half-pans I can fit inside:  21! 

I don't know a tidy way to fill the pans from the tubes.  I'm just messy at it, what can I say?  At least I didn't end up with any paint on my face.   And voila -- now to let this rest and dry for a bit.

I have a lot of my usual favorite colors but I'm trying a few new ones this time.  Here's what's in the palette (All Daniel Smith except for one WN):

Row 1: 
Lemon Yellow
Hansa Yellow medium
Perinone Orange
Pyrol Scarlet
Quinacradone Rose
French Ultramarine
Indanthrone Blue

Row 2:
Green Gold
Green Apatite Genuine
Jadeite
Perylene Green
Cobalt Turquoise (WN)
Carbazole Violet
Diane's Bistre (burnt sienna + french ultramarine)

Row 3:
Buff titanium
Quinacradone gold
Goetite
Burnt Sienna
Indian Red
Raw Umber
Lunar black

Lunar black is one of the new ones.  I usually don't include a black in my palette but I've read that this makes interesting mixes and granulates well. So I'm giving it a try.  Every time I fill a palette and start using it, I discover that there are colors I just rarely use.  Perinone orange might turn out to be one of those.  We'll see.