I'm participating in both Paint Alongs this month and so having another palette moved to the top of the list quickly. I went to my storage container, the holder of most of my stuff, to look. I remembered buying dry erase boards for a past project but wasn't sure I hadn't ditched them in one of my decluttering sessions. However, I found them!! Before I found those I found a corningware casserole that I could have used. I'm thinking all kinds of items have been pressed into service for a palette. 😁 Back to the dry erase boards - they are basically "letter" size but I cut a number of them in half for that project. I'm thinking it should be just the right size for a painting's worth of colors. And I just ordered some cheapie desktop file holders for both the palettes in the freezer and the paintings on my craft shelf. Which still needs reorganizing to reflect current projects.

@Michelle Cyr You mentioned we could buy more of the "canvases" we are using from you. Is there a link for that or we just order through you here?

It's the little things in life...

Artists, by nature, are conservative spenders. I tremendously value this! Each brand of paint has a unique formula that consists of basically 2 or 3 things. 🌟🌟🌟. PIGMENT 🪣🪣. CARRIER 👽. FILLER Those 👽👽👽 (fillers) can sabotage your painting in 30 seconds if you don't gain the knowledge. Dull color Mud Weird Texture And you might think that it's your technique that is the problem. _______________ So here's what we do. 1. Learn how to work with what you have already. 2. Don't panic and buy new. 3. Upgrade to better quality paint BUT ONLY WHEN your existing tube is gone. FOR CANADA STUDENTS - Here is a list from Michaels.ca Winsor Newton WINTON oil paints - these are the EXACT paints I teach with. These are student paints with a good quality. You can buy one tube at a time. Gamblin 1980 - these are a GREAT option - maybe even a little higher quality than WINTON. You can go for these when you want to really start selling your work. Gamsol - for cleaning brushes DO NOT BUY -Anything that says "Water Soluble" - they will not mix or behave the same way at all! -Anything that says "substitute" - this will leave waxy residue. Guessing with paint is expensive… and frustrating 😆 This is a 1:1 session. Make your Paints Predictable HERE.

I’m at Michael’s and they have a buy 3 get 1 free sale going on. My student grade paints didn’t include the black or reds that Michelle recommended and I’m eyeing the magenta but it says “water mixable oil colour” Is that okay? There’s no straight up oil paint…