Friday 24 February 2012

Acrylics - Cleaning your palette

When painting with acrylics I use large white wall tiles as my palette, that way I get to see the colours clearly, and can also mix easily and see the shades needed.  The problem comes when they are covered  in paint and they need to be cleaned up.   I know,  you just use soap and water - and yes I accept that, BUT you do get large blobs of dried colour heading down the drain (not a good idea) plus the paint (having been softened with warm water) then spreads ALL OVER THE PLACE....

 Even then you do get some paint that refuses to budge, as this photograph shows...




My solution is to cover the tile with Cling film.  Easily accessible, and easy to put over the tile...


 

Plus you still see your colours clearly, BUT the added advantage is that you just lift off the cling film, roll it up and chuck it away!





Now, how easy is that!


Plus I have updated my 
On the Easel : Work in Progress
Step 4 The Sea
Check out the Link under the Header photo




 




18 comments:

Judy said...

Thanks for the tip! Great idea! For when I decide to start with acrylics....

Anonymous said...

this exactly what I do!! Works a charm!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for that super tip!

Jane said...

I haven't yet come around to using acrylics, but I heard that it is nasty stuff to clean, so thank you very much for the tip , I will bear that in mind! xx

John (JWJarts) said...

Great tip!!!

robin cox walsh said...

Brilliant!

Pat said...

Great tip - but wondering if a dishwasher would clean the tile? :)

ann @ studiohyde said...

Thanks Everyone - glad this may be a useful tip...

Pat: I had thought about the dishwasher, but was worried that as I use wall tiles they may not cope...good thought though, cheers:)

Shammickite said...

What a brilliant idea!
I've been absent from blogdom for a wile, D-I-L's mum broke her leg so I've been doing lots of childminding while she went to help her mum, taking the baby twins with her. I love the fact that William found the ginger beer bottle. Clever dog for cleaning up. And naughty badger for littering.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Glad you like the idea Shammickite. Sorry to hear about your DIL's mum, hope things are mending well.....ann.

bohemiannie! art said...

I love that you're mindful about paint going down the drain. I 'clean up' by smearing it off the palette with either fabric or paper which then makes the beginning of a new background. By the time my paint tools are ready for the sink...there's literally nothing but soap and water.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Nice to know someone else is mindful of cleaning up Annie. Like that you use your materials again.

suzanne cabrera said...

Great tip Ann! You've successfully provided one of those 'why didn't I think of that?' moments! Thanks for thinking of it for all of us!

ann @ studiohyde said...

Nice to know it's useful, cheers!

Lynn Cohen said...

Clever lady! I was going to suggest dunking the tile in a bucket of warm water that could then be poured outdoors.

CHRIS MURRAY said...

have you ever tried the palette pads? Maybe they don't work well with acrylics. I'm a messy painter and forget to scrape my palette a lot so the palettes have been a timesaver. However, when plein air painting, I use a glass palette.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Thanks Lynn:)

ann @ studiohyde said...

Hi Chris, yes I've some palette pads, but as they add to the cost I tend to keep them for oils. It's nice to know what others use, like the sound of the glass palette as that would be easy to clean.