Micro Palette and 6 Colors I Chose to Put In

I could not fit 6 half-pans into the mini altoids tin, did you have to sand down some the edges on the half-pans?

I couldn’t get 6 pans to fit

Altoid must have changed the size of the tin. I cannot fit 6 half pans in mine. And the pans are slightly smaller than the ones you used.

I love mini palettes they are great for sure I use mine everyday I don't need no 12 color palette I enjoy using 6 I just skipped the lid painting and I mix my colors on my hand

I would love to see something painted with this palette.

Steve, you mix brands on your palette ~ I understand that Sennilier is made with honey ~ Would that matter if you wanted to mix it with other brands on a palette?

I've been buying most of my paint from wetpaint and they have the m grahm line and i love it. I'd also like to try their oil paint sometime. The quin rust is a one of a kind color for sure. I hope Daniel smith remakes your line again.

The m grahm rust is a favorite of mine

I wonder why M. Graham calls their indanthrone "Anthraquinone Blue." That seems confusing!
Also, aren't PBr colors some of the most classic mixing colors there are? The earth tones?

I see that you had a QOR tube in your drawer. I only bought one QOR, and it would not mix with my Daniel Smith paints. Have you found that, or did I just get a bad tube, perhaps?

I really love your channel. I have learned so much and love your sense of humour.

You can take the lid off a 2nd tin and pressure fit it onto the bottom of the 1st tin (not my idea). Bulldog clip the edges together when in use if you want. Doubles your mixing area!

I just got quin rust from Turner watercolors - it's a much more orange than the one you use here, and a beautiful color. Good for autum-y things.

Could Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold be ok as a substitute?

Can you do a video for mixing with these colours please...would be really useful...or a painting showing the use of them. thanks

I cant wait to throw this togeather. I'm a beginner with watercolor. And most artist grade sets just have to many colors that I dont find myself really mixing at all. And artist grade kits are a lil more money than I want to spend on bbn paints I dont know much about. But 6 tubes is doable, and I really like the warmth of these colors. And I'm taking your word that they will play well togeather mixing since you have way more experience than me. I might grab a few tubes of a more traditional primary colors as well. But for what I like to paint, urban landscape, I think these colors are perfect

This micro palette idea is awesome! Love it. Going to make them with my high school students in a few weeks. Just added packs of small Altoids to my Amazon cart. I really enjoy your videos.

These colors have inspired me. Cant wait to try them togeather. The blue is the only one I'm not to sure on. Why not a French ultramarine? I'm sure u have some reason you picked the blue u did, but ultramarine is such a staple mixing color or used strait up.

Just wondering 3 years later if you would change anything about this palette and if you used it very much? Thanks!

What a gorgeous pallet

Oh to raid your paint drawer! I do have so many paint questions and although im sure cute tiny pallettes are awesome for out and about.....but i have a more splurgeypants kind of question. If you were going to add to your mgraham selections or sennelier palette etc. and were going up to say 36 or even 48 pans, and were to just add colors you love even if not so much just for mixing (but also mixing) what would you pick? And what oh what (video suggestion/beg) are allllll the things in the paint drawer? Do you find mixing brands with lots of honey mixes ok with nonhoney paints?

You seen the guy on here who repurposes empty foil tablet trays? Great idea!

Hello 👋🏾 this was such a cute palette. I was just wondering what made you chose to split the red primary and not the yellow or blue? I would’ve guessed, since you paint a lot of landscapes, you would’ve gone with splitting the blue or yellow.

What did you spray the tin with to make it usable for mixing? It looks like some kind of porcelain coating but as far as I know no such thing exists.

What great fun!!! I so want to do this -- YAY!!!!! 😀

Have you made any videos of painting with this palette? Used your search bar and didn't see any, but thought I'd check with you. Thanks!

Interesting

I have a few mini-palettes of 3, 6 or 8 colour sets. I avoid tins with embossed lids so that I can use the inside of the lid for mixing and then clean it easily. Some souvenir soaps often come in small decorative tins that are ideal for this.
My mini-palletes are as follows:

Primary palette 1 (Karuteke paints): rose madder, lemon yellow & indigo.

Primary palette 2 (QoR paints): manganese blue, hansa yellow medium & quinacridone magenta.

Primary set 3 (St. Petersburg): ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow & cadmium red.

X6 half-pan secondaries plus: Payne's grey, raw umber, turquoise blue, permanent orange, yellowish green, violet rose.

X8 half-pan earth, neutral and orange/ yellows: burnt sienna, burnt umber, vandyke brown, Payne's grey, pyrrol orange, Naples yellow deep, new gamboge, Indian yellow


X8 half-pan red tones: carmine, alizarin crimson, quinacridone rose, opera pink, madder lake deep, quinacridone purple blue, quinacridone purple red, permanent red violet. (Not a very balanced set, but it is what I had left over from various previous sets).

X8 half-pan blues and greens:
Cerulean Blue, Phthalo Blue, French Ultramarine, Turquoise Blue, Dusk Yellow (it looks greenish to me!), Yellow Green, Hooker's Green, Deep Green.

Depending on what I'm painting, I'll take one of the primary palettes and one or two of the others. I also have larger palettes of custom mix 23, 24 and 29 paints.

You could say that I've gone a bit overboard, but that's what happens when one goes deep into the watercolour rabbit hole...

That is a very nice selection of colours but I wouldn't use the Moon Glow colour for a neutral tint alternative because it contains the PR177 that is a very cool red that when it is combined with the PB29 give s a purplish undertone to the Neutral Tint . You can get a completely neutral gray if you mix PR264 with PG7 in equal parts. That is my standard recipe of a chromatic dark for mixing a neutral tint alternative that doesn't contain black but it doesn't have yellow or purplish undertones. It is pure gray in its tints.

Whenever I think about these little palettes I always wonder about what brush and paper you plan on using it with that makes having such a small palette worth while? I did see one woman who made a tiny paper booklet to go with it, but I simply don't see the value in that. So, if you paper has to be at least, say, 4" x 4" (cut an Arches pad in thirds both length-wise and width-wise) why not just have a slightly bigger palette to match? This is all just me thinking out loud, but in the end, I really want to see you in the field, using this set up effectively. Maybe a good idea for another video? And what brush(es) would you use with it? I love your videos. Thanks for doing them! 😊

What type of spray paint did you use?

Ohh wow that’s awesome! I now have 4 more new colors besides Viridian & Moonglow to check out. Definitely did not think that would hold 6 half pans. Thanks for sharing this wonderful informational video with us.

good ol' PB60! :D fell in love with the 1st one i tried (da vinci), and how absolutely dark and rich this pigment can go, but recently got into m. graham paints again and picked one up. beautiful! (i always think of you as the m. graham guy. might not even be your top paint at this point, but noone talked about them as much as you. i love when artists have a preferred brand, or even colors, and articulate WHY. :) thanks for this channel. i always love coming back to it when i get on a watercolor kick, even rewatching older vids like this one. cheers!)

In terms of tiny palettes, I have discovered eyeshadow palettes for that purpose. They come with built-in pans, many have mirrors in the lid (I have not attempted to paint those white). And most of them are quite flat. My smallest one is about 3 mm high and holds 6 flat pans.
I either use my old used-up eyeshadow palettes or buy new cheap ones because I scrape out the crummy eyeshadow powders anyway. I look for good sized pans and for lids that fold all the way back to lie flat when open.
Are the practical? Wellllll…… the small mixing area is a minus. But they are soooo cute!

Four years after you posted this I watched it. Thank you for showing me how to get six half pans in a small altoids tin. Have you used this palette much?

I have most if not all of these paints (except Moonglow) so I’m curious to try painting with this palette. The only issue is Moonglow is fugitive (Kimberly Crick Art has an excellent video on this) which is a shame as it’s such a beautiful mix, so this would probably be a sketchbook only palette. I have neutral tint so I’ll just use that. Thanks for sharing, Steve!

Instead of painting the inside of my lids on boxes I've converted into palettes, I've discovered I can use white Gorilla Grip Peel and Stick Adhesive Removable Liner. I cut pieces to fit the inside of the lid (and up the sides) and change them out easily if they stain (I left my phthalos on the surface for a month and they all cleaned off with just a bit of Master's Brush Cleaner). I found a 4"x3"x1/2" vintage cigarette case (with the spring lid) and made a little palette from it (removing the little spring arm to hold cigarettes in place was the only challenge, but the spring open lid remains and is an added benefit). It holds 12 full and 4 half pans perfectly (or 9 full-sized and 3 half pans, a travel brush, and a pencil). I was determined to find a palette that fits under the band on my Rosemary & Co leather brush wallet and gave me the most # of pans! The 4"x3" mixing surface is a dream, too! BTW, you can easily add a stick-on loop to the bottom (the ones they sell for smartphones).

This 5-year-old video has shown me how to actually fit all the 6 pans I wanna use inside my favorite little tin box (it has a cat on it) so I don't have to compromise with another boring one.
Huge thanks for that one!
Now watching the rest of the video so I can doubt my color choices :D

I would have loved to see you use this palette en plein aire. ...also when i used to make little palettes, i always did an Alec Kudrow style color mixing guide to see what colors i was going to accomplish. The only problem i had
was either beach or city colors as I am not as familiar with either.

Brilliant, I couldn't see a configuration that worked!

Nice to use the magnetic strips

Great lil kit. I am going to do one for myself

I never would have thought to spray paint the tin to have a white mixing surface

This is so helpful. I’m new to watercolor. It has been very overwhelming trying to pick out professional grade colors as I can only afford a very limited supplies.

My favourite thing is create palettes...❤️

Beautiful selection... Not the typical ones! : )

My problem with Maimeri Blu - which I discovered today! - was that after letting two tubes sit unused for a year, it was impossible to get the tops off. Never had this problem with any other brand of paint. Had to throw the tubes away. Also, I compared M Graham prices to Winsor Newton prices at Jerry’s Artarama only - same hues, same size tubes - and, yep, same prices. It may be I don’t have a problem with WN drying up because I literally use them every single day. At least on Jerry’s the prices for WN are not any higher than the other top brands. Just an FYI.

I love the teeny tiny Altoids tin for a palette. That is just great!

I have a couple of very small WN Cotman travel palettes - as I use up the student grade paint in sketchbooks, I refill with professional grade.

I can’t quite fit them without one getting slightly warped. Are there different size half pans?