Varnishes are sometimes used as siccatives, and to mix with colors
which are liable to affect other colors, or to lack consistency.
Usually, however, they are not needed.

CHAPTER VII

PALETTES

The most important qualities in a palette are that it should be large
enough, and that it should balance well on the thumb. Whether it is
round or square is a slight matter. The oval palette is usually best
for the studio because the corners are seldom of use, and add weight.
But for sketching, the square palette fits the box best.

[Illustration: =Oval Palette.=]

Get a palette much larger than you think you want. When you get it on
your thumb the mixing-surface is much less than there seemed to be
before it was set, for all the actual surface is between the row of
colors and the thumb. If the palette is polished it is not essentially
better; it is easier to keep clean, as far as looks go, but of no
greater real service. If the choice is between a larger unpolished and
a smaller polished one, the price being the consideration, get the
larger one.

Get a light wood in preference to a dark wood for a choice of color,
but not if there is better grain or lighter weight in the darker
palette. It is an assistance in painting not to have to compare the
tint you are mixing with too dark a surface, for the color looks
lighter than it is; so the light wood will help you to judge justly of
the color while the palette is new. When it has been worked on a while
it will come to have a sympathetic color anyway.

This bears on the cleanliness of your palette. It is a mistake to
consider that cleanliness demands that the palette should be cleaned
to the wood and polished after every painting. On the contrary, if a
little of the paint is rubbed out over the palette every time it is
cleaned, after a few weeks there will come a fine smooth polish of
paint, which will have a delicate light gray color, which is a most
friendly mixing surface.

=Adapting.=--When you get a new palette, before you use it take a
little trouble to carve out the thumb-hole to fit your thumb. Make it
large enough to go over the ball of the thumb, and set easily on the
top of the hand. When the hole is too small the thumb gets numb after
working a little while, which this will obviate.

=Cleanliness.=--The cleanliness of a palette consists in its being
always in such a condition that you can h