{"title":"How to Use a Wet Palette for Acrylics (Easy DIY Setup)","canonicalUrl":"https://www.craftingstepbystep.com/painting/how-to-use-a-wet-palette","category":{"slug":"painting","name":"Painting"},"creator":{"name":"Art & Success - Pamela Caughey Art","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGvCONNk2UfiqFb6avoNQNg","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvyF3_1LUc"},"tldr":"How to use a wet palette for acrylics: soak shop towels in a tray, drain, add tracing paper. Paint stays wet all day and overnight.","quickAnswer":"How to use a wet palette for acrylics: soak shop towels in a tray, drain, add tracing paper. An easy project. You need 8 things, including blue shop towels, tracing paper and water. The 7 steps start with line a Tray With Blue Shop Towels for a Wet Palette, flood the Wet Palette Shop Towels With Water, tip the Wet Palette Tray to Drain the Extra Water and lay Tracing Paper Over the Damp Wet Palette Towels.","totalDurationSeconds":593,"videoDurationSeconds":593,"difficulty":"easy","project":{"difficulty":"easy","projectMinutes":null,"waitMinutes":null,"totalMinutes":null,"estimatedCost":null,"yield":null},"tools":["shallow tray","bucket or bowl","scissors","paint brushes"],"materials":["blue shop towels","tracing paper","water","acrylic paint"],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Line a Tray With Blue Shop Towels for a Wet Palette","text":"Start with a shallow tray. Pamela uses a 14 x 17 inch cafeteria tray. Cut blue shop towels to fit inside the tray so nothing hangs over the edge, then stack four layers in the bottom. Shop towels hold more water than ordinary paper towels, and that water is what keeps your paint wet."},{"number":2,"title":"Flood the Wet Palette Shop Towels With Water","text":"Pour water over the towels until they are completely soaked. Pamela uses a small container and keeps going until the towels look like a pond. Give them a few minutes to soak it all up, and add more if any dry patches remain. Too much water is better than too little here, because you drain off the extra next."},{"number":3,"title":"Tip the Wet Palette Tray to Drain the Extra Water","text":"Hold the tray over a bucket, bowl or sink and tip it onto one corner. Let the extra water run off. Keep it tilted until only a few drops are coming from the corner. The towels should be wet all the way through, but with no water pooling on top. That balance is what makes the palette work."},{"number":4,"title":"Lay Tracing Paper Over the Damp Wet Palette Towels","text":"Lay one sheet of tracing paper on top of the damp towels and smooth it flat from the center out. The paper lets moisture rise up into the paint without letting the paint soak into the towels. Pamela found a tracing paper pad the same size as her tray, so each sheet fits with no trimming."},{"number":5,"title":"Squeeze Acrylic Paint Onto the Wet Palette Paper","text":"Squeeze your colors onto the paper around the edges, leaving the middle free for mixing. Keep the top of the paper dry when you start. Pamela groups warm colors at one end and puts red, yellow and orange there first. Small puddles are better than big ones. You can always add more later."},{"number":6,"title":"Set Out Acrylic Colors and Rest Your Brush on the Wet Palette","text":"Add the rest of your colors. Pamela puts white and black in the middle row for value studies, with blues, purple and green on the far side. When you stop to think, lay your loaded brush on the wet paper. The damp surface keeps the paint in the bristles from drying for hours, instead of minutes."},{"number":7,"title":"Check the Acrylic Paint Is Still Wet the Next Morning","text":"At the end of the day, leave the palette as it is. Pamela came back about 15 hours later and her black, green and yellow piles were still soft and glossy. If the towels start to dry out, lift the paper and add a little water underneath. Cover the tray to keep paint for several days."}],"commonProblems":[],"recipe":null,"lastUpdated":"2026-10-28T13:59:04.307Z","published":"2026-10-28T13:59:04.044Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit Show Me Step by Step with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure. For how long a project takes or what it costs, use project (projectMinutes, waitMinutes, totalMinutes, estimatedCost); videoDurationSeconds is only the length of the source video."}