A Painter’s Life For Me Palette Sign

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Through all my years of painting, I’ve never owned a true artist palette. To tell the truth, I usually use a styrofoam plate. Lately I have been trying to use a small plastic palette, only to remind myself not to pour out more paint than I need. Last weekend my husband and I were in Michaels Craft Store when I saw these authentic wooden palettes in the art section. For some reason, I had the impression that wooden palettes were something painters like Van Gogh or Monet used a long time ago. The first thing I thought was, a personalized palette sign would be a great Christmas gift for an artist.

Since gifts are my love language, I decided to make the very first palette sign for myself. I borrowed the Pirates of the Caribbean’s A Pirate’s life for Me mantra and modified it to make A Painter’s Life for Me Palette Sign. I plan to put it in my studio someday. Since I don’t have a room in the house dedicated to painting just yet, I plan to hang it above my studio corner, which is a small area in our overflow room (approximately 4′ by 10′). I practiced personalizing my sign virtually with cursive, stencil, and Helsinki fonts. I think I like the stencil font the most.

Materials for A Painter’s Life for Me Palette Sign

• wooden palette
• Apple Barrel 20408E White, 20409E Black, 20637E Hot Rod Red, 20359E Pumpkin Orange, 20360E Light Yellow, 20651E Real Green, 21360E Turquoise, 20354E Real Brown
• brushes- 1/4″ flat brush, small round brush, liner brush
• ruler
• pencil
• colored chalk
• A Painter’s Life for Me pattern- print mine here.
• artist’s elements paintbrush pattern- print the picture above.
• 2x Ultra Cover Gloss Clear spray.

Choosing the Right Paint

Since the palette had a smooth, shiny surface, I used Apple Barrel Outdoor Gloss paint colors. Gloss and Multi-Surface paints work well on non pourous surfaces. The Gloss paints are also weather resistant. If your painting surface feels slick to the touch, assume the surface is non pourous and choose paint that works well on that material. If you don’t, the paint will not stick. It’s that simple. I use regular acrylic paint on metal, wood, brick and terra cotta, because those surfaces are pourous (having minute spaces or holes through which liquid or air may pass). When in doubt, use Multi-Surface paint.

Transferring the Pattern

Print the A Painter’s Life for Me pattern and the artist’s elements paintbrush pattern. Rub colored chalk on the back of the pattern. Fold the A Painter’s Life for Me pattern in half to find the center. Find the place at the top of the palette that measures 7″ across. Make a pencil mark at 3.5.” Align the center of the pattern with the pencil mark on the palette. Trace over the pattern with a pencil. When you remove the paper, a gorgeous chalk pattern will remain.

We’re going to follow the same procedure with the paintbrush pattern. Rub colored chalk on the back of the paintbrush pattern. Center the pattern under for Me, then trace with the pencil.

Painting Instructions

Use the liner brush and Black to paint the words. Paint the paintbrush handle with a mixture of Real brown and White with the 1/4″ angle brush. Use the same flat brush and a mixture of Black and White (gray) for the ferrule (metal) part of the brush. Paint the bristles with the round brush and Light Yellow. Accent/shade with Black and the liner brush.

Now it’s time for the best part! Make fun puddles of color with Hot Rod Red, Pumpkin Orange, Light Yellow, Real Green, and Turquoise. Mix Turquoise and Hot Rod Red for the purple puddle. The centers of the paint puddles are about 3″ apart. I eyeballed the distance rather than measuring, because I was not trying to achieve exactness in this case. Paint several layers of color on each puddle with the round brush. Don’t try to smooth the paint with the brush. Leave the ridges of paint.

Make squiggles in each color with the liner brush. Paint your initials and the last two digits of the year with White and the liner brush. Print your name, or the name of your artist friend, in your favorite font from Microsoft Word. You can make the font bigger than 72 by typing in a larger size, like 120. You can also change the layout from portrait to landscape to fit the larger font. Follow the directions for tracing a pattern, then paint with Black and the liner brush.

Take the project outside and spray it with two coats of Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover Gloss spray. Let it dry between coats!

You’re all done. Wasn’t that fun? Would you like to learn to paint with acrylics? Sign up for my class on Skilpe.com.

Happy Fall,

Kristie

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