Keeping acrylics fresh once they are placed on the palette is key to any successful painting style. DecoArt Traditions acrylics are no exception. Every acrylic artist has his or her favorite method for doing this.

I have found what works for me is using the ‘Masterson brand’ of wet palette and palette paper. I enjoy using a large palette with a good lid that seals well. The large surface area gives me loads of room to blend and mix. I switched from painting with oils to using only Traditions; my style of painting has not changed. It is important for my looser style of painting to have access to paint that is well hydrated and creamy at all times. My favorite method of mixing is ‘brush mixing’ – as I enjoy re-using the subtle blends of colors that form on my palette as I work between hues. The Masterson wet palette affords me the opportunity to preserve these colors while I paint, as well as being able to reuse my palette for several paintings. I only add more paint as I need it. If I blended on dry palette paper, many of these wonderful color mixes would be lost as they dried.

The wet palette must stay well hydrated at all times. When I lay my dry hand on the sponge below the paper, it should actually feel wet, not swampy. A light spritz with clean water will add moisture to the surface, however it is always better to keep the paint hydrated from below. If the paper begins to curl at any time, you need to cover the palette; this will allow the paint and the paper to absorb moisture again from the wet sponges. You could also add more moisture to the sponge if needed. If your paint gets over hydrated it will become runny. Leave the palette open for a while, and some of the excess moisture will evaporate.

It is important not to blow dry over your palette and to cover the palette lightly when not in use. A copper penny placed under the sponge helps to keep the growth of bacteria at bay. Using these tips I am able to maintain an ongoing palette for several days and even weeks at a time.

This is a simple technique and one of my favorite methods for mixing and blending color: one uses the bristles of the brush to pick up two colors at the same time and blend them together on your blending palette. Think of it as mixing tiny patches of color rather than mixing one large puddle of paint with the palette knife.

Follow this procedure when you need to use just a little color at a time to adjust an area of an object or the painting. Brush mixing does not refer to using your brush as a tool to stir large amounts of paint together into one color. Students often misunderstand this term, “brush mix” and end up ruining a perfectly good brush this way. Brush mixing is a gentle manipulation of two or more colors, blending them into the brush to create a third hue.

I prefer to brush mix almost all my colors. That is to say instead of having huge puddles of pre-mixed colors on the palette, I like to have fresh paint sitting on my wet palette. I pick up a little at a time, selecting the particular hue to control the value and intensity of the color on my brush. I might load my brush with two or three colors and then blend on my palette before moving back to the painting. This can give your work a more “painterly appearance’ as opposed to a stiffer look. It is easier for me to correct one single brush blend than a whole puddle of one mixture that has gone wrong!

If you are new to color theory, brush mixing can teach you quite a lot as you make mini discoveries about each color that you create.