DOODLEWASH REVIEW: Homemade Travel Palettes

The post reviews homemade travel palettes and shows several ways to build a portable watercolor setup from tins, empty pans, brushes, and simple adhesives. It also mentions a few ready-made alternatives and related sketching tools.

Reading notes

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• Shows ideas for making a travel palette with empty tins, such as Altoids, tea tins, card tins, and other reused packaging.
• Says that people use empty watercolor trays, Fimo or Sculpey clay, empty chewing gum packaging, inverted Legos, and bottle caps as spaces for paint.
• Reports that the card tin with the lion holds several full pans and a Da Vinci travel brush, and that other travel brushes also fit over the pans.
• States that Celestial Seasonings tins hold fourteen half pans or seven full pans.
• States that the small Altoids tin holds fourteen half pans, seven full pans, or a combination of the two, as well as travel brushes and a piece of sponge.
• Says that the inside of some tins can be spray painted to prevent rust and improve color representation.
• Lists materials used in the setup, such as Goo Gone, enamel spray paint, rubber cement, Sharpie pen, and empty watercolor half pans.
• Says that rubber cement is a removable, inexpensive, and easy-to-use adhesive, and that other options include magnets, double-sided tape, and Loctite adhesive putty.
• Explains that the black Sharpie is used to write the brand and paint name on the sides of the pans, and that the author labels all of their pans.
• Points to the Metal Travel Palettes post for anyone who wants to know where to buy empty watercolor half or full pans.
• Cites Marion Younan’s account that a homemade mint tin can fall off tables, because these tins are lightweight.
• Shows examples of palettes made by Yukari Bromfield and says that she used Sculpey to make the inside of an Altoids tin.
• States that, if the person does not want to make their own palette, they can buy a similar one at The Pocket Painter on Etsy.
• Shows a set with a Niji Waterbrush and Hobonichi Techo and says that the notebook uses Tomoe River paper, described as very good paper for writing and painting.
• Says that the author will be out drawing for two weeks and wishes the reader to enjoy their own sketching.