New Palette Configuration!

Do you ever dream about watercolors? I do! And I had a dream about a new Art Toolkit Folio palette configuration and had to try it! :)

Say hello to my new setup for World Watercolor Month — on the left!

New Folio configuration on the left, trusty old friend on the right.

I had been using this as a mixing palette, and decided to convert it for July. By the way, if you haven’t heard about World Watercolor Month, it’s a challenge from Charlie O’ Shields to watercolor each day in July and raise money for art education. Last year I focused on painting trees, but this year I just wanted to have fun and play. Find out more about WWM here.

I’m still using my trusty old Folio too. I’ve had it set up this way for about a year now with some minor tweaks, and I love it! The larger pans are great for big brushes. It has 17 colors, which is a lot for me. I’ve used it so long it’s like second nature — I don’t have to think about where everything is or what I’m going to mix.

But for World Water Month I decided to dig out all the tubes of color that I have stuffed in a drawer and play! Some of these are really old — we’re talking 10-15 years old! But they’re still going strong.

Here it is in action — I made a fun little popsicle card for my nephew and turned it into a tutorial:

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Here are the 28 (!) colors in the new setup clockwise from upper left:

DS = Daniel Smith, WN = Winsor & Newton, S = Schmincke, H = Holbein

Top row: DS Hansa yellow light, WN Winsor yellow (PY154), DS New Gamboge, WN Yellow ochre, DS Quinacridone gold, S transparent orange, DS organic vermillion, DS pyrrol red (PR254), DS quinacridone rose, DS permanent alizarin crimson
Right side: DS deep scarlet, DS piemontite genuine, DS lunar earth, DS transparent red oxide, DS Van Dyck brown
Bottom row: DS indigo, WN indigo (they’re so different!), DS indigo, H ultramarine blue light, DS phthalo blue red shade, DS cobalt blue, DS cerulean, DS phthalo blue green shade, DV colbalt turquoise, DS cascade green
Left side: DS carbazole violet (PV23), WN smalt, DV lavender, DS Chinese white

Here are the colors in my original Folio, just in case you were wondering:

Top row: DS Hansa yellow light, DS Hansa yellow medium , WN Cadmium yellow pale, DS quinacridone gold, DS raw sienna, DS transparent red oxide, DS phthalo green (blue shade)
Middle row: DS phthalo blue (green shade), DS phthalo blue (red shade), WN cobalt turquoise, H cerulean blue, DS cobalt blue, WN French ultramarine blue
Bottom row: WN permanent rose, DS quinacridone coral, DS organic vermillion, WN Indian red, DS indanthrone blue

Labeling Your ATK Pans

I’ve been asked a few times about how I keep track of my pans, and here’s what I came up with: Avery labels in size 5414! For the mini ATK pans I just cut them in half.

I used to write on the bottoms of the pan with a sharpie, but somehow it always came off. Labels to the rescue! I still write on them with a sharpie or a waterproof pen.

I keep the labeled pans in a butcher tray/mixing palette that I don’t use much anymore. If you’d like to get fancy, try a magnetic sheet and pocket system meant for craft die storage.

Labeling Your ATK Pans

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