Almost All my Watercolour Palette Boxes (2018) 

My favourite part of this video is the fact that every single palette looks like it's seen heavy use. You don't collect just to collect, you actually enjoy your paints.

Teoh, lets just face it, artists like us have what I call "a palette addiction" 😆😆

This is an important video for every beginner to watch. YEARS ago i taught oil painting .I had fallen in love with watercolor in highschool but got away from it for more than 50 years.i decided to go to watercolor just for me...not to sell my work, not to teach. I started watching swatching videos and began to buy....everything...now I have more watercolor than i will use if i live to be 200. It is overwhelming and i find myself swatching and cataloging all of the beautiful colors. Finding the strong points of each brand, the pigment numbers and how they perform, how they move on paper....BUT GUESS WHAT.!!??. I am not actually painting ...so I hope everyone listens to you.....keep it simple and paint....

"i bought this because it's very cute" haha same

I have a lot of watercolor palettes. When I see an appealing design, I cannot resist! Some of the paints are still untouched, but they last a long time and I will use them eventually. -- Confessions of an art supply addict:-)

Well, we don't really have more than one or two palettes out of "need", do we? We get them because we can't resist them. I'm hoping this manic craving will diminish over time, since I'm relatively new to this, but until then, I gave up feeling guilty about it. I love all my palettes, excessive as they are, and I' working hard to make them all useful.

I realized that I use only 1 palette at a time so I change couple of the colors every month or so from my stash and meanwhile I try to use up the "ugly" colors that came with predetermined sets. I started to use the useless light green colors as "yellow to mix greens" and it works! Also, I've made a decision to not to buy a new color unless I finish 3 and I now paint more than I look for paint :D

So fun to see your collection Teoh! Thanks so much for sharing them with us :)

I use a hot glue gun to put a bead of glue down to subdivide larger mixing areas so I can have a few more...I also did the same with a homemade ALTOIDS paintbox...it works!

Tks Teoh !! I love see your watercolor supplies. So many !!!! I think I'm a "sentimental" person. I have other boxes but I always go back to my first and dear one. The older it gets ... the more I like it.

Watched this video and bought another box set....

Secretly, Teoh is saving all of them for Tiffany so that he can save money :P

I don’t have an addiction but I do have several different palettes, all tins I have made up myself using tube paints. My best is a selection of Daniel smith, I have another set specifically for my floral paintings, containing much brighter colours, DS with a few W and N, and then I have a small tin for sketching and planning.

Some people spend a lot of money on furniture or shoes or clothing, and there are some who indulge in art supplies for creativity. There's nothing wrong with having 10 watercolour palettes ;-) I have only 2 but I hope to make a 3rd soon.

This is something I've thought a lot about lately. I think the things that were important to me is if the paints suited the kind of work I do and how compelled I felt to use them on a regular basis. Something that I'd wish I'd known (but obviously couldn't have known until trying it all out) is that I wouldn't like using 1/2 pans even if their smaller size means better portability. If you work on a smaller scale and use brushes under a size 5, I think it works but I tend to use larger brushes and it's much more difficult. Thanks for the informative vid! Also, I love that I can hear the birds in your videos. My parents live in Woodlands and I miss hearing them in the morning.

Thanks for sharing your palettes! Interesting enough, in my case i get bored with just one palette...i always have 3 open palettes at the same time. I like to have many choices, and each brand/color does its own magic. I love getting to know different brands/colors and experiment what colors can work together. Just sharing my experience, we all have a preference according to our personalities. I love your channel!!

Thank you for sharing your experience and beautiful collection. Your boxes all look well loved. I bought a half pan set and a full pan set to experiment with. One for travel and one studio. I found I like the full pans inside a small box. Which forced me to use limited colors which helped understand color theory better.

I love the video and tips! For me, at the same time I want so many boxes... I don't feel confortable to have things that I'm not using. I liked your organization!

Teoh like you I have lots of palettes. Just because I like them. I have the long WN metal box which I've had for many years. Others including Schminke, and a few Cotmans from when I started. I am now thinking to have specific palettes for certain subjects, like a landscape palette and a portrait palette etc . I have a couple of large table palettes, but never use them. Thats what happens when your addicted to collecting them. Lol.

Breathtaking collection. Thank you for letting us peek ^.^ Tip for stained palettes, whether metal or plastic is simple plastic eraser (not kneaded one and not rubber one!) works like miracle... :)

I went from the W&N Cotman box to a W&N artist 12 pan. Then I decided I needed the 36-color Kuretake Gansai Tambi... now i have a bunch of random empty palettes filled with Holbein and Daniel Smith paints to add to my collection. Watercolor is such a money hole, but I love it!

Thank you for your great advise and all the experience you are willing to share. Loved hearing the birds in the back ground.

I need to control myself not to get addicted to these boxes. I have about 9 boxes and already have difficulty choosing one.

I have almost all of the same boxes, plus some homemade (Altoids tins, and fishing tackle box palettes)... Like you I can't resist a new paint box, I do try to keep the weight down, so on some of the metal boxes I remove the pan tray and blue tack the pans to the box bottom, and on a couple of them I removed that floppy useless flap, making those metal boxes quite light and easy to carry. Great video, thanks for sharing your palette stash.

Thanks for sharing your collection, I began my collection three months ago and it’s really so cool. I love watercolor boxes!

Now I dont feel so bad about my watercolor box collection! Thank you Teoh!

I truly appreciate your opinion and experience about watercolor palettes. Right now I have 6 palettes. I will stop buying more until I am done with them. I suppose you can't help to buy palettes once you start watercoloring.

Thanks, Teoh, it was nice to see all your palettes. That W&N Deluxe pocket box looks interesting and I like the 6 mixing wells and the space to carry a brush or waterbrush.

Thanks for sharing a peek into your paint boxes and the advice gained from your experience. Fun and extremely useful video!

This is a very individual choice for each artist. Thanks for the great video!

For all those of you with too many palettes you can send them my way.........

Yep - think I’m addicted to paint & boxes - soooo hard to resist 🥴 thank you for sharing 🙏

I have my 12 pan student Winsor and Newton. I want to save it bc it was my first one given to me by my mom (paints are either half full or about empty). My $5 Artist Loft pallete also a keep sake bc it got me into the medium. It's a watercolor gouche hybrid with a bit of a chalky feel. Great colors but I no longer use it. My $1 18 pallete with my Holbein gouche the 5 15ml set and Raw Umber, and Lavender. My $15 (is $30 I had a hobby lobby coupon for half off) master touch 48 color metal pallete just to test it out and travel with so I don't worry about my DS and W&N getting lost while I travel. My custom 48 color metal pallete with W&N (11) DS (15) watercolor and Holbein gouche (7) so not even full. My large for home only 65 metal pallete with DS (15), Mission (34) and W&N (11) paints. Unmovable paints till I finish said colors. + White Holbein gouche for when needed. Total:6. LOL and I think that's alot. 2 unused bc keepsakes. Silly but that's me. 1 for travel. 1 (custom 48) for going around the house, city or parks to paint. The gouche for gouche. And my big baby for home. (With the Mission Gold was on sale for $87 when I bought the 15ml set on amazon so $2.56 a tube. I had saved for it when it was $108 so $3.17 a tube but saw the sale and bought bc I had enough money.)

Pallette addiction🙌🏻 We just "need"them🤪

So true. It is easy to be overwhelmed with so many choices.

I love them! I’ve bought the large kit and the small kit. I’ve also bought extra palettes ( large and small) because they are great for putting together kits using other supply containers. I’ve made little kits as gifts for friends and family with these palettes and other tools by reusing large mint containers, velveteen bags, cigarette boxes, coin purses, etc. I really, really love the Rosemary brushes that Art Toolkit sells and have bought many brushes from them. Great company and great products! Thanks for your review. You made some good suggestions.

Thanks for sharing your collection, makes me feel more normal, haha! I have a two main boxes - one for home use, and one for when I'm out and about, but sometimes I like to pick up one of my other boxes at random before I head out, and let the paint dictate the painting.

Collecting palettes and painting are separate hobbies. Both hobbies are fulfilling and fun.

Amazing video , i love your palette collection .... now i want more myself

Very helpful. Hope you are enjoying your time with your family 💙

"Try to use them up before buying more" Well it's too late! I've already flooded my room with paints :(

I enjoyed the video. I hope you are enjoying this special time with your family. Blessings.

Thank you for sharing Teoh. I know it can be daunting to have such a vast collection and to share with others but I personally cherish all of my sets and they mean a lot to me. Each and every one of them “spark joy” when I hold them and it is a part of the artist journey. Yes it may seem like a waste but life is about our passions and of course balance. Take care

The nice metal heavyweight box from Winsor Newton is no longer available from them but the same box is available in the U.K. by Loxley from Ken Bromley. they do the 16 half pan and the 12 Whole pan version. Really well made.

I no longer feel guilty about all the watercolor pallets i own 😂😂😂

I got that Schmincke box - but the version with the ceramic insert. The mixing palette does'nt flop down like your one. I noticed in another review about the 100th limited edition and like you, she did'nt like the floppy palette too. However, I noticed in another review about the one like mine, another lady was complaining about the palette NOT being able to flop down as she wanted to use it on a table. I seems the 100th has the floppy palette and the ceramic insert one has the lifted palette ( like the lid )

I'm new to watercolor painting I started in August last year so I'm about 6 months in and loving it. I bought the little 12 pan Winsor and Newton sketchers set to start with (it's a slightly different box from your one in the video) and as those paints started to run down I bought a generic metal box and empty pans from Amazon and started to buy a few tubes as I needed them. It didn't take long for me to realize that I didn't like the metal box even though I could fit 20 half pans in it compared to the 12 in the plastic box. The box just seemed less sturdy to hold in your hand as you worked. In the end I bought a second sketchers set and put in the empty pans. My first box holds my main/favorite colors and the 2nd box holds paints and colors I want to try out. Like Daniel Smiths buff titanium and Goethite for sand and rock colors and green apatite genuine for the texture for trees. Next on my list to try is maybe Daniel Smiths pearlescent shimmer or something similar to add just that little sparkle to waves. It works out cheaper per half pan to buy the 15ml Daniel Smith professional tubes than it does to buy the Cotman half pans so over time my palette is changing brands. I'm loving your channel here. I've also started doing some of your courses on Skillshare. I'm nearly finished my second course there.

This was very helpful because I'm still trying to figure out what I'm buying. I'm now leaning toward Daniel Smith.

Thank you for your show and tell, especially for clarifying that as a beginner I don’t need all these palettes, and the pro and cons of each design . . .

Thank you for sharing! I loved watching your collection :>

oh nice!! I have been collecting as well but have only 6 box sets two of which are prima confections. I am creating my own palettes using metal pencil tins and can fit 44 half pans inside. One for my favourite colours and another one for my Daniel smith tubes. Im also making a box to be used as a mixing palette with 6 groups of primaries and a few neutrals. This one will be the one I take outdoors.

I only have 4 pallettes so far, planning on buying 2 more (both offerings from portable painter) I use a metal 3 well pallette as my go to set, keep my rarely used colours in a 2 well metal pallette and use my 2 winsor and newtons to store empty pans and just use their mixing wells when im painting at my desk. Every pallette gets a turn that way 😅 Once I finally settle on my perfect pallette, I'll refill the spares and find someone to give them away to and hopefully create another art supply addict

Great video, lots of good information, wish I knew about the rust from the tins, I just ordered some paint in tins Thank you 😊

I couldn't afford to buy the palette I wanted so I made one out of things I already had a metal tampon box, metal button covers, blutac and I cut down brush and use together with an old plastic bottle and a metal jar lid. I had been gifted 12 Winsor & Newton Artists colour tubes to try, so I filled the palette with them. Then made a little sketchbook to match. See photo in Kits and My Attempts on Pinterest. Maybe one day I will get the Painters Palette!!!

I really enjoyed this. I got a sensible, well spaced-out palette with lots of wells and I really like it, but I still find myself craving those dinky little travel palettes, especially now I see some of them have clip-on water holders! ;-)

I feel like this is one of those videos I could never ever do, not because of shame for the fact that I have so many palettes, but because I legitimately would not be able to find them all. =>..

Love this video. I feel better about need for more paint now 😂😉. I have quite a collection of paints of different mediums. Only just got into watercolours properly and fished out my very old winsor cottman field set. Just like yours and thoroughly lovely size to use. I have to say compared to a friends new set of the same I think the Windsor and Newton colours are not as good as they once where and now not produced in the U.K. 😢 I do like white night and treated myself to some Japanese paints which are lovely to use. I love my plain very cheep plasic pallet that I squirt pigment from tubes into the best. They just sit in the spertures and recobstitute as i want and then i just top il agsin from the tube snd yhd oallett was pennys. Learnt from other mediums lol. I still want a little sminke set though 😂😉 I inherited mummys paint sets so I am going to use them too.

Collecting art materials over the years is such a visceral experience. Especially when Your cleaning up and you see just how big your collection is hahaha. Only wish schmincke is available in my local art store

Palette goals!i have different palettes, ithink it depends on the type of effects you like because some set/brands behave differently from others, or make a palette for specific types of paintings such as a set for portraits, a set for landscapes, a set for botanicals etc. i think its fun to explore other palettes rather than sticking to one.i do have a go to "main" palette but sometimes i use a different one.

Teoh thank you so much for your awesome review Ive used a few metal and plastic I like plastic because it doesn't rust

And I Thought I was The only one who collectes watercolor boxes

I'm another with too many palettes. Some I've bought and some have been gifts (my family and friends know my love of paint. As most of my work is small the paint lasts A G E S... I try to rotate my use of supplies so that they all get used. At the moment I'm using W&N Artist watercolours and White Nights. Before this Gansai Tambi. And then will probably dust off my Daler Rowney Aquafine as haven't used them in a few months. Then it's back to the beginning. Sometimes the subject or location dictates the palette., for example if I'm travelling or if I need mainly transparent hues. However I'd be happy with one set if that's all I could have. One is better than none at all.

Thanks for the informative video. Cheap Joes makes some outstanding travel boxes also.

If you have a problem with the second palette on a metal tin drooping, cut out a piece of plastic from a food container so it has a 90 degree angle and is the same with as the opening by the hinge. Insert in the opening from the underside and secure it with some tape and cut off surplus plastic on the top side. If you have found the right thickness of plastic the palette will stay horizontal. By the way black mixed with yellow gives some interesting greens.

Great informative video!! As a complete newbie, I have three different Prima watercolor palettes (for all the different colors), and I think that's all I will ever need. I hope you, your wife, and baby girl are doing well and getting some good sleep. :)

I also like the cotman boxes. I think they're nicer than the windsor and newton boxes XD The 12 pan one is my favorite travel box.

Love looking at your palettes! You can use a magic eraser sponge to get rid of stains :)

"When I look at a box design it's really beautiful I just cannot help it, I have to just buy it." YESSS!!! (...gone to login to amazon, buying another watercolor set 😎)

Very nice sets I just started watercolors

Thank you! Great video and advice. Honestly, I have been thinking about getting a metal palette set of 24 half pan Van Gogh (it is available at a very good price at my local store), but was wondering would not be heavy to carry it along with me. Besides, I already have a plastic palette from Van Gogh set of 15 half pans and White NIghts set of 36 full pans. Since I wasn't sure about a metal palette and which one to get, I made a DIY small math set metal case and metal palette from my pencil set of 12 tin box it came with, so I removed pencils, and put my full pans, it can fit 36 full pans and still very compact, size of a small sketchbook. So far happy with it, also inside it is white, so I put some resin to create a mixing area. After watching this video, I realized I made the right decision not to rush to buy and created something of my own first to try it out. It might look odd but I am satisfied and happy with it.

Thanks Teoh!

I love the old style Daler Rowney box! I now stock it with professional W&N. I like it because it takes two brushes easily. If I'm going away for longer I'll take a bigger box.

I think the heavyweight watercolor palettes (winsor and newton designs) are going to be my favorite palettes so far, including the bijou box ofc...

I usually made my own watercolors, but I am also an addict 😅 always experimenting and looking for new colors. Hi from Argentina!!

Me too. Lots boxes 🤭

I have a Prang watercolors and 2 plastics containers glued to a paper clip (for water)

I currently have the W&N Cotman sketcher box as well, bought it during the holidays. I thought it was perfect to take along with me out of the house.

So glad you showed these. I bought a palette (brand new, 24 half pans) for $3 USD a month and a half ago from a thrift store but I did not know what brand it was as it only indicated symbols/letters I was not familiar with (foreign to me). Now watching this I see they are St. Petersburg (same symbols/letters but no St. Petersburg in English anywhere outside or in the palette, even has a swatch sheet of the colors inside). Thanks for speaking about each palette, this was very informative.

Some of us have more sense than money. Unlike some of the other people commenting here.. Nice video!

I have quite a few watercolour sets too. I still have the first one I bought back in 1979 - a plastic Daler Rowney one but more like a chillds one because the paint is set into moulded plastic recesses. I did art at school but they never told us anything about art materials or the tools. The first real artist's quality box I bought was a small Rowney heavy metal box like the one you have, except only 12 half pans mounted sideways and a secioned off bit at one end - probably for a tube of Chinese white. I loved that little box but lost it when I worked abroad. I notice all your watercolour boxes are around the same size but mine go from tiny to massive big Majello - they make some really beautifull palettes . You should try their " bulletproof " palette. It's a quality plastic and absolutly no beading from the first mix. It's HUGE though.

I have many of the same ones. The Rowney came as part of a plein air kit complete with a sketchbook, tiny brush, water bottle and other plein air supplies that fit in a small zippered shoulder bag. I put some tape so that the palette doesn't lock shut. I only use pan colors and never had trouble activating them except for a French Ultramarine in a 24 half pan Rowney box.. I also have the small Cotman palette and include it in that shoulder bag when I go out painting. I don't mind black in a kit, because I can mix is with yellow for a great green shade, but white is the most useless color for me. I'd paint in gouache if I wanted to use white :D

Awesome vid

"QoR" by Golden please in addition to these. LOVELY sweet box. VERY new-ish. LOVE all your presentations!!! SO wonderful. I share with all my design students.

Schmincke reads with the e from the final too! I know you are South East Asian but try it!

That was my first palette as well, the Daler Rowney one. And my second was the same as yours Teoh, the Winsor and Newton. I love my big 28 well plastic palette, but have a sentimental soft spot for my first palettes.

I have quite a few different palettes too, accumulated by my search for the perfect travel palette...kinda like purses...you never have just one. :) I also have the portable palette and to be honest, that one comes pretty close to perfect for me. If I had this one first, I probably would not have bought some of the others.

I have only been using watercolours for a few months and I already seem to have a few palettes. Two I made myself from mint tins that are a similar size to the Altoids Smalls tins and fit 6 half pans. But my favourite is a new bijou box I bought from an Australian supplier. It fits 12 half pans and is so wonderfully portable. I find that have only the two mixing Wells is not really a problem.

I know right, I love the cheaper plastic palette rather than metal one because im scared of rust!

Thanks for a lot of good information on water color pans brands. I perfer the metal ones.

It is so funny how much your boxes rust! I have zero rust and mold issues, and like you, with so any boxes, some are untouched for more than an year. I am sure this is due to the region's weather - Singapore versus Colorado! But frankly, I would rather have the rust/mold issue on watercolor boxes than the dry skin issues we have here, lol! We go thru a lot of skin lotion and drink a lot of water 😁

Honestly it's just like beauty gurus and makeup palettes!

The first palette I also bought was the Daler Downey as well! Exactly the same box! I'm thinking about moving my metallic paints into it when all the paint is used.

I think I just became a watercolor palette junkie

Wow Teoh I’m so excited thank you so much for answering my question!! This really helped and the feedback you gave was great advice. Again, thank you so much!!

Nice to see your collection! I'd love to see you review more Kremer pigment paints in the future. They are amazing! I might have an addiction going on - with four Kremer boxes and 14 full pans in each. :D

If you still have this old Daler Rowney box - I'd like to buy it! I find the catch easy and I love the two rails for brushes. ;)

older video I know but I'd love to find the box for the ganai paint. I love those paints and would love to travel with them in a convenient box like that.

Without having actually done any watercoloring I knew I’d have palette/color fever from my prior gel/ink/color pen experience. As a prevention, when I decided on a watercolor setup I deliberately chose expensive paint and palette (schmincke 12 tube paint and a portable painter travel palette). I also spent more money to get a couple of good brushes and 24 Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils. I mean, spending big money on artist quality supply I have no excuse to buy 72 pan palette or 20 brush bundle made in Chines right? If I end up not liking watercoloring, I won’t have a whole box full of cheap paints palette and brushes.

It seems like pallets all fall short in one way or another. I'm using the little w&n cotman box for my new Daniel smith paints, but on the lookout for something that'll hold more than 12 full pans. Great video!!

Watercolour stains can be removed with toothpaste off of plastic palettes You just put some toothpaste on an old toothbrush then use it to scrub off the stains It works wonders! Awesome video as always best wishes for your small girl Tiffany 💞💞💞💞