In a nutshell: I am absolutely loving the Art Toolkit Pocket and Demi palettes. I’ve only had these for a month, but since I got my palettes in the mail, I have not wanted to use any other palette. I use the pocket mixing palette for fresh gouache and the demi palette with 12 mini pans for watercolour sketching outdoors, indoors, everywhere.

The Difference the Art Toolkit palettes have made for me:

Since getting these palettes, I have been painting, drawing and sketching a lot more - and in lots of different places. On the couch, in a hotel room, en plein air, everywhere. While I did paint wherever I could anyway, these palettes have made it much easier, and I don’t even think about it anymore. I just pick up my little kit or kits and go.

I have two pouches set up at the moment: one for gouache, and one for pen and ink and watercolour. I either just take one or both plus an A6 sketchbook. I could even put my Demi palette into my little coin purse for a really pared down kit.

Size of the Art Toolkits

The Art Toolkit page has the full dimensions of these which are:

Pocket Palette: ~92mm x 64mm x 7mm (3-5/8" x 2-1/4" x 1/4") when closed. Mine measures 94 mm x 61mm (at the widest part) x 7mm

Demi Palette: ~55mm x 45mm x 7mm (2-3/16" by 1-3/4" x 1/4") when closed. My Demi palette measures exactly the same as the listed measurements above.

Here are some images for context if it helps:

The Pocket Palette and Gouache

For gouache, the pocket palette has made the biggest difference. I love the pocket mixing palette (with some modifications), and now paint exclusively with fresh or just slightly dry gouache. I have my core set of gouache that fits in a small pouch which I can stick the pocket palette in, and I’m ready to go.

I resisted these palettes for so long, and I really wish I hadn’t now. It would have made my recent 3-month travels in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia so much easier painting wise.

So, how have I got my pocket palette and gouache set up at the moment?

I bought a pocket palette which came with three large wells, and I bought a few extra mini, standard and square (double) pans just to see what would work for me. I have set mine up with four standard pans, two large pans and one double pan (large square in the bottom left), and it works really well.

I use a lot of green and brown in my work just with the sorts of subjects I paint. At the moment, I’m also painting a lot of flowers so my current palette set up is: one square (double) pan for reds and pinks, one large pan for my mixing range of browns and one large pan for mixing my range of greens. The four standard pans I use for whatever other colours I might need, and sometimes for some overflow mixing space (often for more shades of green).

Two versions of my current gouache carry kit. Left: Gouache + Art Toolkit Pocket Palette + Mini Pocket Brush. Right: Gouache + Art Toolkit Pocket Palette + a Small Nalgene watertight cup + Escoda Pocket Brushes

Why has this worked for me when other gouache palettes haven’t?

I am honestly not 100% sure, but my immediate guess is that it is just smaller. I can take a couple of tubes or a bunch of tubes of gouache with me and this tiny palette and it works.

Other palettes have just been too big, too clunky, hard to mix on, some gouache goes mouldy, some gouache dries in them no matter what so I end up with a whole lot of dried gouache instead of fresh-ish gouache, some gouache crumbles and break, messing up my entire palette and most have just been too big and clunky to carry around. There’s been a lot of trial and error.

While gouache won’t stay wet in these palettes, because I only squeeze a small amount at a time, it works for me. I use up most of what I add to my palette in 1-2 sessions and because I’m using it a lot more regularly, it hasn’t gone completely brittle. I’ll write more about my experiences trying to find a way to take gouache outdoors that works for me in a separate post.

That said, a lot of artists have had great experiences with various airtight palettes so if they work for you, you don’t need to try this.

The Downside

There is always a trade-off, and the biggest one here is just the amount of mixing space. If you are used to much larger mixing spaces you might struggle with this. If you want to use a lot more colours/mix them separately, then you might either need a bigger palette, or to rejig this one with more pans.

That said, I love how customisable it is. If I want more space/colours, I can replace some of the larger pans with smaller ones. Down the track, if it becomes a problem I may consider carrying two mixing palettes (and it would still take up a lot less room than any of my other gouache palettes. For now though, this has worked really well.

My Demi Palette and Watercolour

For my Demi palette, I have 12 mini pans of Daniel Smith watercolour just because I wanted to try these Daniel Smith sets. The sets I have in the Demi pan are Daniel Smith’s essentials set and Daniel Smith’s Lesya Poplavskaya’s alternative portrait set.

My Demi palette sits in a small pouch that I always have with me now along with an A6 sketchbook. Other things that are often in that little pouch are pencils, brushes, waterbrushes, brush pens, fountain pens, ink pens, a water cup/collapsible water cup, a cut sock for wiping off excess water and clips for keeping pages open.

The Demi palette and a tiny waterbrush will even fit in my small coin purse/wallet. It is literally exactly what I needed for just throwing into my bag for days when space and weight is an issue. An a6 sketchbook plus this has reduced the space my art supplies take in my bags by more than half.

The Downside

The downside here is that given the pans are tiny, you will need to refill them fairly often. As you can see from the images below, I’ve already hit pan on three colours: Hansa Yellow Light (top left), Quinacridone Burnt Orange (top right) and Perylene Green (bottom right).

I have also had to forego a few of my favourite watercolours in this palette - with only 12 wells, there will be lots of trade-offs, but because I mainly use gouache now and I am only really using watercolour for quick sketches, it has been alright. We’ll see how it goes and whether I’ll miss other colours enough to get a larger palette for my watercolours down the track.

Why didn’t I get the Art Toolkit palettes sooner?

Honestly, why didn’t I get these sooner? It was the price. These were an investment given how small they are - the Pocket mixing palette cost me 62.60 AUD and the Demi palette cost me 46.35 AUD.

I was also worried they would just be way too small and for the longest time it was too expensive for me to justify trying them. But now that I have them, I cannot see myself choosing to take anything else out with me.

I bought mine at Art Materials Artist Supplies.

Might these be right for you?

The things to take into account if you’re considering this type of palette are:

1. Are you happy with your current set up?

2. How much space do you need for mixing?

3. How many colours do you need (or want)?

4. Do you use small brushes or bigger brushes?

5. How small or big do you usually paint?

6. Do you have a specific pouch or box you want these to fit into?

Getting it out of the way up front: if you’re happy with your current set up, you don’t need these palettes. If you’re painting as much as you want, and your kit isn’t a hindrance to that, these won’t do anything new for you. I was very happy with my basic outdoor sketching kit for over 3 years and it was only because my medium preferences have changed and how I use watercolour has changed that I was even looking at other solutions.

If you are considering these, and can work with small mixing spaces and/or you paint small (for context, my favourite brushes are size 4 and below unless I’m using them for a large mixing area), then you might find that these palettes suit your needs.

If however you paint larger, and use larger brushes even when outdoors, the mini wells might be too small. You may need the standard pans or larger and possibly at least the pocket palette or the larger folio palette Art Toolkit offers.

If you need or like to have a lot of colours in your watercolour kit, then the 12 colour mini well limit might be too small for you. Again, the bigger palettes might suit you better or a standard metal watercolour tin that are available in most art shops or online. A standard watercolour tin worked absolutely brilliantly for me for 3+ years and I generally can fit 20-21 different colours in it in half pans.

One of the standard metal boxes might also work for you as a gouache mixing palette if space isn’t as much of an issue for you (see the section on size above for how these compare to a standard watercolour metal box).

If you have a specific pouch you want these to fit into, then definitely check out the dimensions on the Art Toolkit website and above to see if these will work.

Final Thoughts

These palettes are working really well for me at the moment in all sorts of different contexts. We’ll see if there are any issues with them down the track, but for now, these are all I want to take with me anywhere. For gouache, it is all I use regardless of where I am painting.