Hands-Free Watercolour Palette : Black

Perfect for travel and spur of the moment outdoor painting. As they say, "just add water", and paper! It really does contain everything you need for watercolour painting on the move, and is so small and compact that it fits anywhere, taking hardly any space up. I was initially put off by the price, thinking that it was a lot for what it was, but it's well made, not flimsy, feels as though it'll last and last, and hands down beats my cobbled together 'travel kit'. The paint pans (half pans, containing student quality Winsor & Newton paints, which I think still beat most other pain ranges out there) are secured underneath them with a blob of sticky 'glue' (like the stuff they use to attach new bank cards to the covering letter) and if you get something thin down the edge of the pan between the pan and the main body of the palette (I used a small pair of nail scissors) you can flick the individual pans out if you want to re-order the paint colours or swap them for other colours. Even with the gluey stuff removed, though they rattle around when moving, they don't actually come out. The makers seem to have thought of everything. It balances well on a variety of surfaces thanks to the twin water pots, which not only allow it to balance on many things, means that you can keep one of the pots for 'clean' water while using the other for rinsing your brushes. The water pots are actually the covers of the kit, which in use clip securely onto the paint palette section, the main body of the kit. There's even a travel sized brush included. Overall, perfect for travel. I doubt you'd be able to find a more compact complete travel painting set. It's well made, seems to be good quality, and despite my initial doubts I'd say is actually good value. Perfect as a treat for yourself or as a gift for the watercolour painter in your life.

This is a really handy palette for which you can buy extra pans to fit within the brush rest space at the long side of the palette. You can buy a kit of various size pans to fit in this space for extra colours. This palette can be used for watercolour and also for dry or semi moist gouache when you mix your gouache paints with watercolour medium, honey or vegetable glycerine. Spraying with diluted clove bud oil and water will not only keep paints moist, prevent cracking and will also preserve them from fungal attack, keeping them fresh for use for a long time. The palette is light weight, with a great design for water pots and palette mixing spaces. Great for working in a small studio area or outdoor plein air use. It is easy to slip into an art bag for travel painting.

I recently took this portable painter on holiday with me and it was great! It isn’t much larger than a mobile phone so I could carry it around easily with me. I was fortunate enough to be able to find somewhere to stand the portable painter like a wall or bench. I like that it is elevated and sturdy when assembled. I love the little water containers, just a perfect size and I can place my smaller length paint brushes in one holder and have water in the other. Or I can use both holders for water. I was able to swap out some of my Cotman's half pans and add my favourite colours to the palette. It is a bit tricky to remove the little pans that come with it, but once the pans are inserted into the spaces, they are held in securely. I use a piece of greaseproof paper after use, to stop the wet paint from messing up the lid. I really like the sleek clean design and feel of this little portable painter box. I did find the paint box difficult to assemble on one location where it was cold and windy, I was sightseeing and had a thick coat on, gloves, my bag over my shoulder, my little sketchbook, a bottle of water and then I had to fiddle on assembling the portable painter - by un-sliding the metal closure, sliding apart the water containers, while keeping the metal seal closure safe (not dropping it or letting it blow away) sliding it between the rubber band and one of the water holders, then sliding the water holders to attach them to the palette. If there was a way of not having a slide the closure on and off, but have it fixed in place rather than rely on a rubber band rubber band to keep it from getting lost, that would improve this portable painter tremendously. I have seen this portable painter box resting over an artists knee which I think is really useful if you don’t have a table or wall to rest the palette on. Some artists have customised a portable board that they slip into their sketchbooks to hold the palette in place while standing and painting. For travelling, I really like this paint palette box, though I think it is very expensive, considering there aren’t any paints in it, though it does come with one double ended travel paint brush and 12 empty half pans. I don’t find it the most convenient palette I have ever used for the reasons given above. It isn’t easy to hold, if you have to stand to paint, with nowhere to rest the palette box on - unlike having a little paint tin with you, that can practically sit on your sketch pad. I don’t tend to use this palette for plein-air when I’m at home, because unlike when I’m on holiday, I can carry more kit around with me. I personally prefer to use a wooden drawing board, with some magnetic clips and a metal paint palette, where I can lay all of my art equipment out like on a table top and sit on a foldaway chair. But, for convenience and when you can’t take all of the extra’s with you, this little palette is practically perfect.

This is not a cheap bit of equipment, but it takes up very little space and make it easy to carry on painting when you're away from home. I used this on 3 cruise holidays and managed to produce some quite decent watercolour paintings during days at sea.

Very practical

This is absolutely gorgeous and I have used it most days either out and about or sat in my garden. I had full size pans in another bigger palette so I cut them down to the size I needed for this little gem.

Fantastic item....just right for a holiday Nice to be able to add my own choice of colours Great quality

Ideal for fitting to a wooden base and tripod for field use. I have combined it with a plastic tray to give plenty of mixing area.