Travel palettes come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but it’s rare to find a palette this slim and lightweight that still feels genuinely practical. When I came across this one for under £10 from Etsy seller Woodwardswatercolour, curiosity got the better of me and I had to see if it could actually hold up in real use. To my surprise, it offered more than enough paint for a sketch as well as providing all the mixing space I needed. With a bit of experimentation, I even discovered some beautiful colour mixes, especially using Bloodstone Genuine from Daniel Smith. The only real challenge is finding a reliable way to anchor it while painting, but if I can solve that, this little palette could easily become a regular companion in my kit. So, how does it really perform in practice and is it worth adding to your travel setup? Let’s take a closer look.
There are 3 variants of palette on the Woodwardswatercolour Etsy shop (4-well, 8-well and 12-well versions) all 3D printed in white plastic. The 8-well palette that I chose measures 11.5cm x 7cm and costs £8.50. There is a £5 delivery charge to the Isle of Man, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t when I ordered mine as I was surprised to get the palette for under £10 including delivery. I certainly think it’s still worth the price at £13.50 as it’s a handy item but it does make you think a little harder before ordering it. I wouldn’t trust the palette in my handbag as the paint could escape and make a mess, but in a kit where it’s kept contained or in the glovebox of my car, I think it’ll be fine and will get used.
I really wanted to add some of my Michael Harding paints to the palette as they’re so highly pigmented that just a small amount will last a long time. I found this to be true but hadn’t realised that the overpowering nature of the Michael Harding paints meant that I ended up using loads of the less powerful paints when mixing (especially the manganese blue hue). My solution – order more Michael Harding paints to eventually replace the less powerful watercolours in this palette (obviously the only option and not at all an excuse to order more paints 😉).
I love bloodstone genuine from Daniel Smith and definitely won’t be swapping this one out. It gives a lovely dark granulation a bit like PBk11 (often known as mars black or iron oxide black) but is a lovely deep brown purple-grey colour rather than the stark black of PBk11. I found it gives some lovely mixes, not unlike the some of the colours in the Daniel Smith Lunar range and other similar ranges that contain PBk11.
I’m not sure about the rather dull Schmincke Horadam raw umber and may well swap this out for a more interesting paint in the future. It was really handy for the sand colours in the painting below however, and it did provide a nice contrast to the vibrancy of some of the other colours. I have a tube of Michael Harding warm white paint on the way and think this may well get added to this palette in place of the raw umber, but time will tell.
I painted this beach scene from a photo that I’ve recently taken on Blue Point beach. The Winsor and Newton manganese blue hue worked really well for this painting and was much easier to handle than most paints made with phthalo pigments.
I really struggled initially when painting as I was trying out my new Derwent push-button waterbrush. This is the large round version of the brush and I found it ran out of water quickly and was much more difficult to use than the smaller round version that I’ve used happily for years. I had particular problems when using the Micheal Harding perylene crimson as it’s the most highly pigmented paint I’ve ever used and is so sticky that it’s hard to only pick up a tiny bit. I found the colour quickly migrated all the way up the brush and eventually made its way into the water reservoir meaning I had to wash out the brush and refill it before I could use it with another colour.
After a while battling the waterbrush, I gave up and switched to a Jackson’s Kolinex Synthetic round number 6 travel brush that I had handy. This was much easier to work with and as I’d already laid down the larger areas of colour, the small size of the number 6 was great for details.
I did find it a little fiddly to work with this palette though and need to play around with different ways to secure it while working. It’s so light that it kept moving around when I tried to get the paint out, so a bulldog clip, magnet or even blutack to fix it to a small drawing board or the sketchbook will need to be used.
As you can see from the photos above, I had a good amount of paint left once I’d finished and only the manganese blue hue had been used to the extent that you could see a little of the bottom of the pan. There was enough mixing space and more available in the lid if I’d needed it. The mixing areas are slightly textured and were surprisingly good to mix on for a plastic palette.
The photo of the lid also shows the marks that the paint made as I’d overfilled a couple of the pans and not been careful about flattening the paint or pushing it to the edges. I’m sure you could do a better job and avoid the marks on the lid if you took more care than me!
If I can work out a way of fixing this palette down while I work it’ll be a well used item, I’m sure. I’ve had my eye on one of the JustGoSketching drawing boards for a while, so maybe this is the excuse I need to buy one. I think this remarkably cheap palette is going to cost me a lot of money!
Until next time,
Emma
P.S. I currently have work being exhibited in the Hodgson Loom ‘Fruit Exhibition’ (plus some more work on display in their shop area) and have a piece in the ‘Spring Forward’ exhibition at the Erin Arts Centre. Both exhibitions look well worth a visit, so take a look if you’re in the Laxey or Port Erin areas in the coming weeks.
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