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Sometimes, when you have a decent sized collection of watercolour paints, it’s easy to forget which colours are which. It’s easy to make a watercolour swatch sheet that fits right in your portable watercolour palette which you can reference while you’re painting.
It’s also handy when you’re a beginner because you can be reminded of some of the characteristics of your paint. You can see how opaque or transparent a colour is, or see granulation.
See my watercolour swatch sheet on my YouTube channel.
How to create a watercolour swatch sheet for your palette
- Measure the length and width of the inside of your palette. Make sure your measurements are smaller than the inside of the lid to accommodate any curved corners that the 90 degree angles of a piece of paper wouldn’t fit within. Then trim your paper to this size. Test that it fits and the lid closes before you go to the work of swatching.
- Next up, create your grid. Count the number of pans high and wide. Then you can either eyeball or use a ruler to divide up the spaces. I estimated the width and height of each. Then drew the lines with a Micron waterproof pen and ruler, so that the lines would be straight.
- I then drew two more lines across each pan/swatch space. One was to divide each pan into ⅓ and ⅔, where I would write the name of each colour in the bottom third and the top ⅔ would be for my paint. I also drew a line dividing the paint area, which allows me to see whether the paint over top is opaque or transparent. If I were to make this again, I’d use a somewhat wider waterproof pen to do this than a thin Micron.
- Now you can start swatching your paint. I do this in a couple stages. I start with about a tea or coffee consistency and apply that to the square. Then I take a bit of stronger paint (with less water) and add it to about half of the square. That lets you see a couple of different values from the same paint.
- Sometimes, I would apply the paint to the swatch area and then remove some. That helps you see how staining the paint is.
Buy your own
Supplies from this post are available at many art stores or on Amazon:
US
Canada
