Palette Tour: Travel Palettes (Part 1: Discovery )

Why yes, I do name my watercolour palettes! And yes, my travel palettes are named after space shuttles.   In the next couple of palette tour posts I’ll give you a peak into my travel palettes.

Discovery Travel Palette:  A Bijou box from filled with an assortment of  “extra” paints

The first travel palette I’d like to introduce you to is Discovery.  My Discovery palette is a small, bijou-style box from Cornellison’s.

I’ve mentioned this palette box in my gift guide post a couple months ago.  I love this little palette because it is very small, yet can hold 12 half pans from any brand.

The “from any brand” feature is important.  Previously I was using the ubiquitous plastic Cotman watercolour palette,  which is functional, but can only hold Winsor Newton half pans, which are slightly smaller and have a different shape than others. As a result I couldn’t fit many of the pans I had from other brands.

This little palette box will fit and securely hold any brand of half pans, which are held in place using v-shaped metal inserts which anchor the pans in place.

Watercolour sketch of my Discovery Palette with current paint list

I have filled my Discovery palette with an assortment of “extra” paints that don’t have a home in my larger studio palettes (in all different kinds of half pans).

Some of the paints in this palette are unique paints I bought from handmade paintmakers just for fun.  Some are are beautiful paints that don’t have great lightfastness ratings so I prefer not to use them in my finished paintings, but are great for sketches.  Some are pigments that I have multiple versions/pans of from different brands. A few of these paints are relics from a Winsor Newton palette I bought years ago – pigments and mixes I never reached for and removed from my studio palette.

I won’t post links to the specific paints as this collection is expected to change frequently, and I do not have a particular attachment to many of these paints.

Urban Sketch of Belgian Nursery Cactus Festival – Created using only paints from my Discovery Palette.

Whereas in the studio I am often very focused on creating precise colour mixes, and depend heavily on extensive glazing of transparent pigments, I use my travel palettes as a way to explore and play with pigments and mixes that aren’t what I would usually reach for, and to quickly add colour to urban sketches and field studies.

In a sketchbook context, I love watching granulation and bleed effects happen on the page,  and I work in fewer, less precise layers to quickly capture larger scenes.

As a result, many paints which frustrate me in the studio actually work great in a travel palette.   I  find limited uses for heavily granulating Manganese Blue and Hematite, or sparkly amethyst in a studio context.  However, when I am sketching and less concerned with achieving a specific controlled look, I am delighted by green leaves and purple flowers with textured teal spots on them, or shadows that sparkle.

Using a constantly changing selection of paints, each with unique and surprising behaviours, also stretches me out of my comfort zone and helps me to grow as an artist.

The sketch on the left was created during an urban sketchers outing, using only colours included in my Discovery palette.  Without my comfortable favourite pigments to work with, I had to experiment to create varied and interesting greens using the materials at hand.

Of course, I can’t resist painting out colour charts and swatches whenever the opportunity arises.  The painted colour chart below containes the mixes of the 12 colours currently in my discovery palette.  I’m almost out of a couple of them, so a new chart will be needed soon!