Saturday 28 January 2012

My way (#8).....



Over the years I seem to have developed some very definite ways of doing things and usually it's for a very good reason, so I thought I'd share. 


I'm a very amateur artist and like to paint in acrylics mainly because they travel well to my art group which meets fortnightly and also because they are great for covering up mistakes and changing my mind and painting over! However I'm quite mean with the expensive paints and also can't bring myself to pay out even more for the art-shop stay wet palettes! So I always use those flat(ish) plastic boxes that our Chinese takeaway comes in and first I line it with two layers of kitchen paper which I have made quite damp then top that with a layer of grease-proof paper. My paint gets squirted round the edge and the mixing is done in the middle (I rarely water down my acrylics so nothing is too runny, but if you need to you can use the lid then wash it up). At the end of the session I snap the lid on and make sure it is stored in my bag flat, or all the colours run to one end of course. Two weeks later I'll arrive at my art group, open the lid and be amazed yet again that the paints are mostly as wet as I left them!!!

Of course having these free, throw away boxes means that I can have more than one project on the go and more than one palette always ready. So easy to clean, just lift out the lining paper and throw away and start again, plus when they get really yucky there's no guilt in throwing the whole thing away.


What's your way?
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2 comments:

Hannah said...

What a great idea for keeping the paint fresh and not wasting it. You can usually get similar results with a good covering of plastic wrap and use a glass or ceramic bowl that will wash.

MumB / @mumbosh said...

They're good ideas too, thanks.