Brand Ambassador for the Portable Painter palette

I’m very proud to have just become a Brand Ambassador for the Portable Painter palettes, along with Sarah Burns.

This means that we are now working in partnership with Steve Padden who designed and developed these amazing watercolour/gouache palettes. So I will be creating more videos about this product, and I’m also working with Steve on my sketchboard idea which enables you to support the palettes on your sketchbook when out and about. We are also hoping to generate a personalised discount coupon in the coming year just for you!

So, please go and check out the Portable Painter website and see for yourself the clever design of these palettes.

#PortablePainterpalette #watercolourpalette #gouachepalette #sarahburns #brandambassador

New pochade box – going back to basics

Over the last few years I have made and re-made a number of easels and boxes for painting en plein air. And I’ve always tried to move away from the concept of the pochade box, where the easel is also the carrier for your paints, brushes and painting panels. This adds extra weight to the easel and makes the whole thing a bit more cumbersome. I’ve always preferred to carry the easel and palette separately from the rest of the kit. My feeling was that this makes everything easier to pack and also the easel itself is lighter on the tripod.

All this is true. However many people still use a traditional pochade box, so I thought I really should revisit this concept and try and make my own lightweight version, that would:

1. hold my palette and paints and brushes

2. carry two wet painted panels (that’s enough for one day’s painting)

3. have a holder for the brushes when in use

4. be quick to set up

5. easy to carry

6. have a removable palette for easy cleaning

7. allow me to paint right up to the edges of my panels without obstruction

8. hold up to three different sizes of panels

Not much to ask!

(I just need to clarify why I am having to design my own pochade box from scratch instead of buying a ready made one. It’s simply because there is nothing on the market that meets all these requirements. At least nothing I have yet come across or could afford! Maybe I’m just being a bit too fussy…).

Anyway, that’s what I did.

So here it is…

It takes panels that are 8″ X 8″, 8″ X 10″ and 8″ X 12″, and these slot in between two sets of small screws that don’t cover any of the panel and allow for painting right up to the edge. Two 1/8th inch (3mm) painting panels fit neatly back to back between these sets of screws.

Screw holders for panels

Backstop

Palette

The lid stays open by resting against a backstop ( a piece of wooden dowel).

I modified the slide out palette with a few holes to hold brushes, and a wooden dowel rim at the back edge to stop paint going into the slider grooves.

Everything was varnished in an oak colour to make it look antique and expensive! Actually it only cost me a few euros as I had bits and pieces of wood lying around from other projects as well as hinges, clasps etc..

How did it perform?

Very well, even though I say so myself. Even on a day which was a bit windy, it stood up well, and did everything I wanted it to 🙂

Here comes the sun. 8″ X 8″ oil on board

The advantage I now have is that I can go out painting and carry home two wet panels without hassle. And everything is contained within one lightweight box, carried by a shoulder strap. I could yet be a convert to the good-old-fashioned pochade box!

The materials I used were 3mm (1/8″) MDF board for the top, base and palette, various pieces of pine dowel for the sides (5cm, 3cm, 2cm by 1cm, and some 5mm X 5mm), as well as brass hinges, some clasps and the varnish. I spray painted the palette in mid-grey car enamel paint.

I am sure I will continue to use my other easels as well, because each one serves a different purpose (some are more lightweight and fit into a suitcase or backpack, some hold larger boards for painting, etc..). But this pochade is a handy addition to the set. You can never have too many!

Do you have a favourite easel or pochade box? Let us know here…

#Easels #enpleinair #pochadebox #pochadepaintings

How to get more colours in your palette

Do you never have enough space for new colours on your sketching palette? This is a common problem, so let me show you one neat solution. This is a natty way of getting more paints onto your watercolour palette.

I find I am using the Portable Painter palette more and more when I go out sketching as I find it really good. In fact I use two versions of it – the Classic, and the Micro.

Portable Painter Classic

Portable Painter Micro

Whilst these are compact and easy to use, there is one slight drawback, especially with the Micro version, and that is the limited number of paints you can use. This is bound to happen when you are dealing with a small palette. I even wrote a blog post about how I finally decided on the six colours for the Micro palette.

The Classic palette holds 12 colours which is more like it. With 12 you can paint pretty much anything. However there are times when another colour or two would come in just handy.

This is where the Portable Painter Extension Pans come in. I’ve made a short video about these that you might be interested in, and it also covers how I use my Sketch Board with these palettes when I go out sketching.

Please take a look if you are interested in either of these two palettes.

The Portable Painter palettes are available from this website PortablePainter.com.

I hope this post is of interest. Please let me know in the comments and give a thumbs up! Thanks for reading! Oh, and let us know what sketching kit you use…

#PortablePainterpalette #enpleinair #learningtopaint #watercolortips #watercolourpainting