Friends, do yourself a favor and get a multitool with a locking blade. The leatherman wave is an obvious choice. The Swiss Army knife is great for light duty and well skilled users, but the blade can fold back on the user with terrible results.
Thanks for doing the removing. Now I will do the same ,but just remove the horizontal so that I have 5 wells on the smaller well mixing side. That was the ONLY thing I didn't like about this pallet but was afraid to do. So...thanks again.
I think this is a terrific idea. I might try it. I also did a modification. I added 6 micro-areas for colors, I don't really use that tiny brush. I used hot glue to add little separations along the lines of the other colors. It works for me to try out some colors or add something that I might use once in awhile (turquoise for instance).
Very interesting, great job and glad you didn’t wreck it. When I was a kid my dad always said, dont take it apart unless you are sure you can put it back together. That didn’t always stop me. I have modified some old palettes but nothing like this. I didn’t register my portable palette so its good to know they are looking at different things. I have always wished it was a little bigger. Enjoyed the video.
Essie Tangle Thanks, Essie! Yeah, there was a chance that I could have ruined this. Ha, ha. Oh, well, it worked out. The more I think about it, I probably joined Portable Painter's mailing list, at some point. So, it probably wasn't that I registered. I'd be surprised if they did have owners register. Ha, ha. I am looking forward to seeing what they might come out with in the future.
Very cool. That division was something that kept me from buying one of those portable painters. I like the 3 open Wells a lot more. I’m also not crazy about the way it stands on the wells but I like the idea you mentioned in a previous video about just banding the two together on the side.
Jared Loves to Draw That kind of bothered me, as well, but it's actually not too bad to hold in your hand with both wells filled... and then there's the resting on your knee thing. On a table, though, it does seem kind of strange to have your palette up on a pedestal. 😂
I did my first urban sketching and it rested and balanced brilliantly on my foot sitting cross legged painting a church. Really impressed with it. Just need to get my Art to the same standard.
“This is for adults who can do it without injuring themselves” ....=>.>= ::looks at the scar on her arm from when she stabbed herself with her utility knife while trying to open up the packaging from a shower caddy:: ::remembers the ER trip and how much blood there was:: ::has never fully regained the strength in that arm because cutting through muscle is not a pro tip:: .............hmmmmmm.......guess I’ll just not, then. =>.
Meow Meow Kapow OUCH!!! That's terrible!! One of my best friends is a graphics instructor and was showing his class how to use an exacto knife safely. Like you, his efforts landed him in the emergency room with muscle and tendon damage, as well.
Brian Ashmore Studio honestly, as terrifying as it was... it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t been working for a super crappy company at the time that forced me to work hand-cutting 100+ displays with an x-acto knife while I was supposed to be letting it heal. Like....literally the next day. So that really did the opposite of help. But the good news is we got a fun story out of it! The shower caddy was in the shape of a whale, so my former roommate called it the Killer Whale for the rest of our time in that apartment. =>.
Eileen Goldenberg Ha, ha! Exactly... different strokes for different folks. Glad it works well for you. Maybe the newer ones will have even more mixing wells.
This looks a great idea, I hardly ever use the smaller wells. I just wondered if taking the small wells palette off and replacing it with the larger wells from another portable painter would be an option, if they can be taken off without breaking the palette.
My black palette wasnt closing either, if you take some needle nose pliers and gently pull out the bottom lip of the pallette it will give the top the real estate to be able to catch on to the bottom. I had to do that with the thumb hold as well. You only need about a millimeter pulled out. The thumb flap was pushed in a bit at the top lip.
That's funny. I never treated that side as 6 wells. Rather I understood them as sort of three wells with a partition -- using the ridge between the smaller and outer spaces to pull excess water off my paint-loaded brush. Consequently I use that side more than the three large wells on the other side. It works fantastically. But I guess if you really need six huge wells, guess this would work for you.
Buy a plastic box of screws at Harbor Freight & empty it. Mine has 8 wells & snap closure. I fit 16 full pans. The inside of the lid has 8 wells for mixing. To the outside of the lid, paste a color swatch, that has been painted on white w/c paper, of the colors in the box. The bottom of the paper will show through and will act as a white background when you mix colors.
I think I'll try this... if I can ever get another one. I think just removing one of the '+' and then remove so that there are 2 'full pan' mixing areas, 4 large areas and 2 medium areas would be useful. We'll see. Hope that made sense :p Love your demo videos btw!!! KEEP EM COMING!!!! i learn from them :)
I want to do this one. Did another mod but it's messier. I. added a couple minor paints (ones I want to try out), by taking out the "brush holder" area (I carry one of those zipper type ziplock bags--all the other stuff goes in there. That brush is very small anyway,) I used a bit of hot glue to form the "palettes", Does work but works better for really bright colors. It's hard to tell just what they are.
I filled the four smaller wells with paint on mine so that I could have 16 colors instead of just 12. Works just fine when the paints don't fall out, which they do on occasion (but I use a little water on the bottom of the block of paint to get them stick again).
Late comment - but I was wondering if there's a problem with the whole thing tipping over when you try to swish around paint in the palette / lid ? If I was using it on the table I'd probably not attach the water buckets and just stand them beside the palette.
Not that I’ve noticed. The weight of the water in the cups seems to keep everything pretty stationary. With that being said, I’m sure mixing with a lot of pressure could cause things to tip. I haven’t noticed any tipping issues under normal use, though.
Virtually every review I've read of the Portable Painter complains about those small wells. You'd think they would have changed it by now. They've now come out with a mini PP that holds only 4 colors.
Hi Karen! I've changed my palette a bit since I made this one. I try to take the basic primaries in both warm and cool versions (lemon yellow/cad yellow, carmine/vermillion, Cerulean blue/Ultramarine). I also try to take warm and cool greens (Phthalo green/sap green) for foliage and some decent earth tones (yellow ochre, burnt sienna, sepia). Hope that helps!
Very McGiveresque Brian and ultra cool! I think "Bar Keepers Friend" would work also if folks happen to already have that around the house. So I'm guessing you would skip using an angle grinder to sand it down?? ;)
Draw Paint Repeat Hey Steve! I hadn't heard of Bar Keepers Friend but after checking it out, I think that would probably do the same job. 👍I love the angle grinder idea! Ha, ha! Sounds like a Red Greene solution...
pesto12601 This took four. 😂 Actually, you might be right. I was considering using the dremel but then decided that it might be easy to accidently dig gouges into the plastic. With the knife, I felt like I could be very precise and also get very sharp, squared corners. However, I think using a polishing wheel on a dremel would be a much better idea for buffing with a compound than rubbing with a cloth.👍
I hope they make a larger portable painter for 15 or more colors. And bigger wells!
Thanks for another great video!
Friends, do yourself a favor and get a multitool with a locking blade. The leatherman wave is an obvious choice. The Swiss Army knife is great for light duty and well skilled users, but the blade can fold back on the user with terrible results.
I will do exactly that!!! tiny wells are so useless, and this is just perfect!! thank yu so much
Thanks for doing the removing. Now I will do the same ,but just remove the horizontal so that I have 5 wells on the smaller well mixing side. That was the ONLY thing I didn't like about this pallet but was afraid to do. So...thanks again.
Hi Marjorie! Great, I'm glad it helped.
I think this is a terrific idea. I might try it. I also did a modification. I added 6 micro-areas for colors, I don't really use that tiny brush. I used hot glue to add little separations along the lines of the other colors. It works for me to try out some colors or add something that I might use once in awhile (turquoise for instance).
Very interesting, great job and glad you didn’t wreck it. When I was a kid my dad always said, dont take it apart unless you are sure you can put it back together. That didn’t always stop me. I have modified some old palettes but nothing like this. I didn’t register my portable palette so its good to know they are looking at different things. I have always wished it was a little bigger. Enjoyed the video.
Essie Tangle Thanks, Essie! Yeah, there was a chance that I could have ruined this. Ha, ha. Oh, well, it worked out. The more I think about it, I probably joined Portable Painter's mailing list, at some point. So, it probably wasn't that I registered. I'd be surprised if they did have owners register. Ha, ha. I am looking forward to seeing what they might come out with in the future.
Very cool. That division was something that kept me from buying one of those portable painters. I like the 3 open Wells a lot more. I’m also not crazy about the way it stands on the wells but I like the idea you mentioned in a previous video about just banding the two together on the side.
Jared Loves to Draw That kind of bothered me, as well, but it's actually not too bad to hold in your hand with both wells filled... and then there's the resting on your knee thing. On a table, though, it does seem kind of strange to have your palette up on a pedestal. 😂
I did my first urban sketching and it rested and balanced brilliantly on my foot sitting cross legged painting a church. Really impressed with it. Just need to get my Art to the same standard.
Whew! So glad I like those smaller wells. :)
Thanks I am going to put the fix on mine, thanks for the tip. I don’t have the strength in my hands anymore so will use my Dremel tool.
“This is for adults who can do it without injuring themselves” ....=>.>= ::looks at the scar on her arm from when she stabbed herself with her utility knife while trying to open up the packaging from a shower caddy:: ::remembers the ER trip and how much blood there was:: ::has never fully regained the strength in that arm because cutting through muscle is not a pro tip:: .............hmmmmmm.......guess I’ll just not, then. =>.
Meow Meow Kapow OUCH!!! That's terrible!! One of my best friends is a graphics instructor and was showing his class how to use an exacto knife safely. Like you, his efforts landed him in the emergency room with muscle and tendon damage, as well.
Brian Ashmore Studio honestly, as terrifying as it was... it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t been working for a super crappy company at the time that forced me to work hand-cutting 100+ displays with an x-acto knife while I was supposed to be letting it heal. Like....literally the next day. So that really did the opposite of help.
But the good news is we got a fun story out of it! The shower caddy was in the shape of a whale, so my former roommate called it the Killer Whale for the rest of our time in that apartment. =>.
Very cool idea! Love it.
Elga Benedicta Thanks!
Cool change on that gal! Thanks..I like the tiny Wells I use them for dots of a few more colors. I would like one that had 18-20 wells..
Eileen Goldenberg Ha, ha! Exactly... different strokes for different folks. Glad it works well for you. Maybe the newer ones will have even more mixing wells.
Im more impressed by that case you made from improvisation
This looks a great idea, I hardly ever use the smaller wells. I just wondered if taking the small wells palette off and replacing it with the larger wells from another portable painter would be an option, if they can be taken off without breaking the palette.
My black palette wasnt closing either, if you take some needle nose pliers and gently pull out the bottom lip of the pallette it will give the top the real estate to be able to catch on to the bottom. I had to do that with the thumb hold as well. You only need about a millimeter pulled out. The thumb flap was pushed in a bit at the top lip.
That's funny. I never treated that side as 6 wells. Rather I understood them as sort of three wells with a partition -- using the ridge between the smaller and outer spaces to pull excess water off my paint-loaded brush. Consequently I use that side more than the three large wells on the other side. It works fantastically. But I guess if you really need six huge wells, guess this would work for you.
Estrafalario I've never thought of it that way but I can see how that would work well. Thanks!
Buy a plastic box of screws at Harbor Freight & empty it. Mine has 8 wells & snap closure. I fit 16 full pans. The inside of the lid has 8 wells for mixing. To the outside of the lid, paste a color swatch, that has been painted on white w/c paper, of the colors in the box. The bottom of the paper will show through and will act as a white background when you mix colors.
I think I'll try this... if I can ever get another one. I think just removing one of the '+' and then remove so that there are 2 'full pan' mixing areas, 4 large areas and 2 medium areas would be useful. We'll see. Hope that made sense :p Love your demo videos btw!!! KEEP EM COMING!!!! i learn from them :)
Richard Williams Thanks! Yes, you could make the wells into whatever is most useful for you. More demos coming! Thanks for watching!
i love that you just change it if you dont like it :D such a rebel
Lore Carpentier Ha, ha! Yep, that's me. 😂
Great idea. May try it on mine.
Bruce Osborne Thanks for watching! It does help a lot if you like more mixing space.
Great idea.
I want to do this one. Did another mod but it's messier. I. added a couple minor paints (ones I want to try out), by taking out the "brush holder" area (I carry one of those zipper type ziplock bags--all the other stuff goes in there. That brush is very small anyway,) I used a bit of hot glue to form the "palettes", Does work but works better for really bright colors. It's hard to tell just what they are.
The little wells could be used as pans. But for outdoor sketching -which is the purpose of the palette- it might get really messy when closing it.
Nymphalia True! Not a bad idea, actually. Lots of palettes close with up with paint wells on both sides of the hinge.
I filled the four smaller wells with paint on mine so that I could have 16 colors instead of just 12. Works just fine when the paints don't fall out, which they do on occasion (but I use a little water on the bottom of the block of paint to get them stick again).
Late comment - but I was wondering if there's a problem with the whole thing tipping over when you try to swish around paint in the palette / lid ? If I was using it on the table I'd probably not attach the water buckets and just stand them beside the palette.
Not that I’ve noticed. The weight of the water in the cups seems to keep everything pretty stationary. With that being said, I’m sure mixing with a lot of pressure could cause things to tip. I haven’t noticed any tipping issues under normal use, though.
This is great!
Virtually every review I've read of the Portable Painter complains about those small wells. You'd think they would have changed it by now.
They've now come out with a mini PP that holds only 4 colors.
I saw that. Kinda neat.
What are your favorite colors to take along. Just bought this travel palette and looking forward to plein air WC moments.
Hi Karen! I've changed my palette a bit since I made this one. I try to take the basic primaries in both warm and cool versions (lemon yellow/cad yellow, carmine/vermillion, Cerulean blue/Ultramarine). I also try to take warm and cool greens (Phthalo green/sap green) for foliage and some decent earth tones (yellow ochre, burnt sienna, sepia). Hope that helps!
Like this hack! Very clever. Those partitions are super annoying.
Rebecca Page Agreed! Thanks for watching!
Very McGiveresque Brian and ultra cool! I think "Bar Keepers Friend" would work also if folks happen to already have that around the house. So I'm guessing you would skip using an angle grinder to sand it down?? ;)
Draw Paint Repeat Hey Steve! I hadn't heard of Bar Keepers Friend but after checking it out, I think that would probably do the same job. 👍I love the angle grinder idea! Ha, ha! Sounds like a Red Greene solution...
One word... DREMEL. 5 mins tops!
pesto12601 This took four. 😂 Actually, you might be right. I was considering using the dremel but then decided that it might be easy to accidently dig gouges into the plastic. With the knife, I felt like I could be very precise and also get very sharp, squared corners. However, I think using a polishing wheel on a dremel would be a much better idea for buffing with a compound than rubbing with a cloth.👍
Yes.. dremel has so many tiny tools... I'm sure there is one that can grind down the plastic gently enough not to make issues. Next time! ;-)
I will definitely look closer at my dremel attachments next time I do something like this.
Nice trick
Coldpaint Thanks!
Great idea.