What’s the Big Deal About Porcelain?
One supply every watercolorist must own is a watercolor palette. It’s a staple for anyone attempting to pursue this art form but do you really need to invest in a porcelain palette? Is it worth the price and all the hype? Well, before I share my thoughts – let’s first take a look at three advantages and disadvantages to using a porcelain palette.
3 Advantages to Using a Porcelain Porcelain Palette
- Larger Surface: Most porcelain palettes are very larger in the surface area than metal and plastic palettes. This is because they are meant to be used as a stationary supply the sits on your desk or work area. A great advantage of this larger surface space is mixing space. Most watercolor artists love to mix up their own colors rather than using color directly from the tube. By mixing colors on your palette, your paintings will have a more natural and less artificial look than using paint directly from the tube…
- Easy Clean-Up: Another advantage of using porcelain is the ease of clean up. Most plastic and even metal palettes will stain over time from your paint colors – but porcelain palettes rarely stain watercolor. So, if you desire to start from a sleek white surface – it’s pretty simple to wipe up your previous mixtures and start over.
- Pooling: The best advantage of using a porcelain palette is its ability to pool paint colors while mixing. This “pooling” allows you to gauge how much paint you have mixed up as well as what color hue and value you have created. This is perhaps the most crucial skill for watercolor mixing – since all three of these factors can affect your washes and even glazes within a painting.
3 Disadvantages to Using a Porcelain Porcelain Palette
- Portability: Now, let’s talk about some disadvantages, starting with portability. If you really want to travel with your palette – this supply isn’t the way to go. It’s far too bulky and just heavy to lug around in the outdoors. Like I said earlier – this palette is meant to stay in one location and used for stationary use.
- Paint Problems Another downside to using a porcelain palette is that most don’t come with a lid – meaning your paints are open to the elements. This means you will need to come up with a way to cover your paints or risk having hairs and dust particles contaminate your colors. Another issue you could run into is your paint cracking and even separating due to long periods of time without being used.
- Price: The last factor that is probably the biggest disadvantage to porcelain palettes is the price. Most of these guys cost quite a penny – which brings us to our first question
Is it really worth it?
In my opinion, YES – if you plan on painting at least weekly and really want to invest yourself in watercolor. This supply makes mixing colors and the painting process as a whole so much easier and more enjoyable.
That being said – if you are an occasional painter or an absolute beginner to watercolor, I don’t think it’s worth the investment. Instead, I recommend purchasing a small porcelain tasting dish or white ceramic plate and using it as a mixing surface with your cheap watercolor palette. This set up will give you the best of both worlds without busting your bank account. ?
So there are my thoughts! If you enjoyed this post – make sure to check out my vlog where I set up a porcelain palette and give my thoughts on my new watercolor paint palette. ? Link is below.
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