How to pick a travel palette - plein air, urban sketching & watercolour palettes review - art haul 

I never get tired of looking at and thinking about watercolor palettes. 🎨 Such a fun video and definitely makes me look forward to my next trip this week and choosing which palette to bring!

Great reviews. I always spray my metal palette with white Rust-Oleum to prevent rusting. This works great & doesn't affect the mixing area.

17:21 Many think the Van Gogh palette is wasting space but actually there is a logical reason for leaving that big gap between the pans. When you use a big brush you can safely pick up a color from one pan without polluting the color with another one.

Wow they’re definitely quite a lot of great flexibility of choices for a travel palette! I love the uniqueness of the 40 colors plastic palette & the luxury brass palette. This is definitely a wonderful informational video for beginners to figure out which option of traveling palette 🎨 they might want to use or try.

You presented a great selection of types of travel palettes. I have the Roman Szmal Urban set and really like it. I too added some extra paints to my set. I also have some small Meeden palettes to create my own selection of colours. One thing that I will do is look at what colours various expensive palettes use (e.g. A Gallo mini palettes, etc.) and then use other brands such as Roman Szmal in the same colours to create a copy of the mini palettes. It just saves a lot of money. Thanks for the video and have a great week.

Loved the video Sketches love seeing what people use for plein air. I have so many different palettes and love everyone.

The portable painter looks very sufficient and effective, so that would be my favourite. Thank you for sharing this! Keep creating 💛💜💙

Ooh just stopped for a break and you've uploaded! I love your videos ❤... About rust, I've got loads of metal palettes, my oldest I've had 35 years! Not a hint of rust...you just need to open the palette when you get home and let it dry out before closing it up. It's shutting them wet and leaving them that way that usually causes the rust problems. Mind you my older palettes probably were better made as well, so well see with time if the more modern ones are more prone to it.

I use a small metal box palette but I love how cute and functional the micro portable painter looks. Very informative video!

Always learn especially when I watch some more than once! I’m looking for the Roman Sznal 12 Travel palette! Thanks always, Karen Dirmish learner

Almost all of my favorites you have, especially Portable painter - I just used it today! There are two others that I really love: Art toolkit’s pocket and narrow Schmincke metal palette. I also like QOR’s mini for its mixing wells. I just recently did my first video showing them all and I plan to talk about each one by one when I figure out how to make better sound 😅

Great video! My favorite is the micro-mini, which I have and enjoy very much. Have a blessed day! ♥️💐

I have so many of the same palettes… I ❤❤❤ travel palettes (reviews and using them). I tend to use that type of palette for painting at home as well as on the go. The portable painter palettes are awesome, they might be my fave. I haven’t filled my brass palette yet, so can’t comment on using that one, but it’s my favourite “luxury” item. In addition to the ones you shared, I really love using my art toolkit palettes. They are just so tiny to slip into a bag and I love using the folio size at home. I do prefer extra mixing space though and you need a spot for your own water, so those are the drawbacks.

Your content is so good on all the levels. Extra excellent that your voice is so nice to listen to as well. Like… asmr tier. 💫 I’ve always wanted the opulent Frazer Price Palette, but my micro portable painter was much kinder to my wallet and is fantastically functional.

My favorite of these (I own a few of the same ones) is the Winsor and Newton professional palette, but I swapped the white and black for convenience colors from tubes.

I also have a palette from Studio of MM and I love it!! Glad to see in mentioned here ❤

The micro palette looks promising. I currently have W&N that works well for me.

Feast to eyes to keep seeing your videos and very informative

I absolutely adore the frazier price palette. I love that i can take literally everything i need except my sketchbook with me insideit. I put in 12 half pans of Khannah's honey hues (bare necessities kit) and in the third row, i rolled up a piece of white cotton towel and left enough room to stick a travel brush inside. Its worked beautifully and i dont need anything else except a sketchbook. Highly recommend as an all-in-one which is a really rare find

I have the micro portable painter, which oddly is a bit fiddly for me to really want to use :D I found that I'd either want something really slimline to easily put into a pocket or one I could put together and then upack onto a desk but the vast majority of palettes don't fit these requirements (though I have recently found ones which are perfect for me). I had been eyeing up the Frazer Price brass palette but, again, it's neither slimline nor one I can really unpack for use on a desk. The Etchr one and Studio of MM palettes are almost perfect, I just want an option to move half pans around (as while I do buy tubes, I much prefer working in pans at the moment and buying tubes to fill half pans is more economical). The ones I have found to work for me are on opposite ends of the pricing scale. I had an old metal tin of Daler Rowney Aquafine watercolours (cost: £10) which was the perfect slimline fit I wanted, but only held 10 colours (there's a newer version, plastic with 12 colours, but that's not the one I'm talking about). I realised that I could remove the plastic insert which held the watercolours, mixing area, and travel brush and instead fill up the space with my watercolour pans. It's just tall enough to fit standard half pans in with no issue, has enough space for me to squeeze 30 half pans in, the lid makes a nice large mixing area, and is just a bit smaller than my hand. Having so many pans in close proximity means I do need to be careful when picking up colours, but it's handy enough for small paintings that I don't worry about that. I do also have the larger tin which looks like it could hold 42 half pans but the small one is perfect for now The other one is the Holbein watercolour box (cost: £275 when not on sale 😨) which is my "unpack and place on the desk" option. Nice shiny plastic box that is a monster for fingerprints, a fancy porcelain mixing tray and travel brush, and two trays of watercolours. All the trays are made out of wood with nice dividers for each row, and the half pans in the set all come with magnets to keep them affixed in the tray (there's a strip of magnetic tape on the bottom of the trays for them). Expensive but the care and quality of the design and construction definitely shows in the price, and I'm eager to try it all out

I. have the portable painter. Wonderful palette for urban sketching. I love the water troughs (?). I have a small palette similar to the first you showed. I started with a Cotman palette, such a thing is great for beginners. I think it would be hard to decide which colors and so on.

The frazer price palette is my absolute favourite palette, and if i'm taking more than the 'bare basics', this is the palette I bring. I love the fact I can pretty much bring everything i need in that one small box. I leave the middle row of the paint section empty and can fit two brushes there, either tintoretto or rosemary and co both fit, and then it has the water already with it in that little container. My one gripe about it was the water pot, which i honestly do not like. My dad owns a 3D printer however, so i got around it by designing and printing two stacking pots that fit over the lid of the water container and can hang on the side of box. When it's all put together, i can even fit a small rag and easer in the water pot as well.

It’s a good thing Roman Szmal paints are only available through Jackson’s (for me)! Otherwise I’d be collecting them too!💜💜💜

The Winsor and Newton Sketcher’s Pocket Box is a classic and, hands down, my favorite. Though it only carries 12 colors, it feels so good in the hand and I actually enjoy using the 3 mixing wells even though they are plastic.

really want to try the painter's palette. Currently I am using one from Art Took Kit on my mini easel (which really deserves applause!), which is awesome, but I would like something that I can easily sit with. I also have the Cotman field box, but find it cumbersome to hold while I paint. I haven't tried it on my mini easel because of the whole magnet issue.

They are all so cute!

A beautiful overview of plein air pallets! Thank you!

I love your swatch chart 😊

I bought a cheap set f paints in a plastic palette from a big box store, gave the paints in it to a friend to use with her child, and filled it with a select warm/cool colors. It’s light, has a mixing area and clips nicely on my small clipboard. Works great but definitely lacks the “oooo and ahhhh” factor of some of these. The brass palettes are just so lovely!

Roman Szmal is the best. I just love this combo of colors.

thank you so much for having a in depth vid with links for the stuff

I love travel palettes!

A wonderful video, thank you. I liked the pros and cons of all the palettes. I’m going to buy one soon for my birthday - I think the Roman Szmal, because it’s metal and the colour choice. Thanks again 😊

Great review. I have the small metal one and a Winsor Newton curated palette. I have to get those circle magnets!

nice overview! Love the metal tins (YAY RS Urban Sketchers palette) and the portable painters palette! I've tried the portable palette micro but choosing only 6 colors is frustrating so the option to get those split pans to increase to 8 colors in the micro would make it perfect!

That's quite an impressive collection of color pallets to chose from. Thank you for the reviews, pretty hair lady 😊😊

So many travel palettes! Love them all. 🎉🎉🎉

Wow so much choices. Thank you for the video. I started with Van Gogh and W&N pallete but I have used them only at home not travelled yet due to health reasons. Since your recommendations on Roman Szmal colours I went ahead and bought few colours and have fallen in love with them. Definitely would have to get one of these pallettes wherever I travel to take thos colours with me and next time when there is sale of Roman Szmal I have made notes to get more colours. Watching videos have really inspired me to paint with watercolours. Thank you

One benefit of Watercolor is you can take so much in a small space! But, not me… I have to take EVERYTHING! Indecision is my middle name. Taking the kitchen sink, in my case IS essential! I need to be able to have a serious water supply at all times!😂😂😂

Hi Sketches! Thank you for covering such a wide selection of portable palettes. This is indeed a very useful video!

Hmm have you concidered art tool kit palette? Or simply it's too small for your needs? 🤔

All these palettes look so nice and I don't even like to travel 😅 the micro palette looks so cute I really want to try it in the future 🥰

great video!! do you find that you have enough mixing space in the portable painter micro?

I really want to try the palettes from art tool kit, however I don’t have that many tubes of watercolor yet so it’s probably gonna take awhile before I decide to order one. Anyways, they seem like they have the most light and compact palettes on the market.

I love the brass palette, and the portable painter.

Ooohh! So shiny!

A mix between the portable painter and the small metal palettes is my choice at the moment. Though I'm always looking for new clever palettes (I have my eyes on the ones from art toolkit for example)... 😊

i just got the winsor newton palette, i removed the paints though and replaced them with my professional ones. helpful hint, the middle row lifts up if you push the little tab at the end away from you it lifts, also if you don't mind trimming the sponge you could fit an extra half pan on either side of it! 😮

Thanks for this. My twonfavourites would be the portable painter and the W&N. I only wish they sold the W&N empty as, like you, I find their choice of colours not so exciting. Thanks for this goodniberview. I am so jealous of that beautiful brass palette. Looks wonderful -have you used it yet? I'd love to see hiwnit performs while painting olein air and tonread what yiu think about it.

Out of these, my favourite is the plain metal tin BUT out of my favourite travel palettes, my bijou box is at the top along with the QOR travel set and an old TooFaced mini chocolate bar palette, I converted into a travel watercolour palette. It's SO cute, but doesn't hold a lot of paint and the mixing space is limited (it's biggest drawbacks).

I have two of the longer metal Kremer palettes, great brand, however, they are heavy and they rusted. I ended up seeing a 4 inch x 3.5 inch plastic first aid kit for $1.38 and used blue tac to adhere 12 half pans. They fit perfectly. I then used an abrasive on the inside of the lid, so the paint wouldn't bead. I really like them, and have one for watercolor and one for gouache. I'm culling colors and really enjoy using a limited palette and mixing colors, so am thinking about that micro palette. Or an Art Toolkit palette. Have you ever tried one of those?

so nice ❤️😍

I always feel my hackles go up when a ready-made palette comes with white and or black. Absolutely wasted space for me. It seems like Schmincke is finally seeing past their Ivory Back obsession and instead adding some version of Payne's Grey. I know people have mixed feelings when it comes to Qor, but I think their original urban sketching palette ("mini" set of 12 half pans) has a really interesting color selection that includes nickel azo yellow, an orange, violet, green, and Payne's grey.

It was interesting to see your travel palettes. BTW I can’t figure out what ‘USK’ in the title means? 😅 EDIT I don’t have a favorite 😂. My favorite from my own collection is usually the one I just bought! The last palette I purchased wasn’t for travel, it’s a hinged two sided plastic palette that I can fill with paint and has large mixing wells.

so many palettes to choose from, my hands getting too shaky t use most of them tho without them ending up flying threw the air 😝

My problem is not picking a travel palette but how to set up and paint. I am very weak and pretty much disabled. How do i manage the paper , brush wash, watercolor. I need to see different ways when there is not a picnic table but just maybe my wheel chair. I dont have alot of help .

What colors have u added to ur roman szmal pallette ?🙏🏻

From Florida, USA.

I make some palettes on my own, but I'm not done, and I don't find the right size. Some are too little, and some are too big. And I don't know how many colours I want. Someday, I find the right one 😅 I have to much watercolours 😅

First!