CHAPTER VII: PALETTES
The most important qualities in a palette are that it should be large
enough, and that it should balance well on the thumb. Whether it is
round or square is a slight matter. The oval palette is usually best for the
studio because the corners are seldom of use, and add weight. But for
sketching, square palette fits the box best.
Get a palette much larger than you think you want. When you get it on your thumb the
mixing-surface is much less than there seem to be before it was set, for all the actual
surface is between the row of colors and the thumb. If the palette is polished it is not
essentially better; it is easier to keep clean, as far as looks go, but no greater real service.
If the choice is between a larger unpolished and a smaller polish when, the price being
the consideration, get the larger one.
Get a light wood in preference to a dark wood for a choice of color, but not if there is
better grain or lighter weight in the darker palette. It is an assistance in painting not to
have to compare the tint you are mixing with too dark a surface, for the color looks
lighter than it is; so the light wood will help you to judge justly of the color while the
palette is new. When it has been worked on a while it will come to have a sympathetic
color anyway. This bears on the cleanliness of your palette. It is a mistake to consider
that cleanliness demands that the palette should be cleaned to the wood and polished
after every painting. On the contrary, if a little of the paint is rubbed out over the palette
every time it is clean, after a few weeks there will come a fine smooth polish of paint,
which will have a delicate light gray color, which is a most friendly mixing surface.
Adapting. - When you get a new palette, before you use it take a little trouble to carve
out the thumb-hole to fit your thumb. Make it large enough to go over the ball of the
thumb, and set easily on the top of the hand. When the whole is too small the thumb gets
numb after working a little while, which this will obviate.
your palette nicely, you will not only take up more time with your palette than you do
with your painting, but the fact that some left-over paint may be wasted will make you a
little stingy in putting on fresh paint, which is one of the worst habits a beginner can fall
into. You cannot paint well unless you have paint enough on your palette to use freely
when you need it. It is all well enough to put on more, but nothing is more vexing than to
have to squeeze out new paint at almost every brushful. You must have paint enough
when you begin, to work with, or you waste too much time with these details.
If you are painting every day, leave the good paint where it is at the end of your work,
and scrape off all the muddy or half-used piles, and clean carefully all the palate except
those places where the paint is still fresh and pure. Then, when you have to add more to
that, clean that place with the palette-knife before squeezing out the new color. In this