How to Save Dried Paint with Jeannie McGuire

Your paints need to be ready to work. As a watercolorist, that means working with moist pigments from the start.

But what happens if you wake up one day and they have all dried out?

Jeannie McGuire (Ep.88) says don't worry. A dried out palette doesn’t mean you’re about to toss $50 worth of paint. Here’s how you save them.

Unlike their watermedia cousins, acrylics, watercolor pigments can be reconstituted with water.

Put it to Practice

If your palette has gone dry, get it back to working order with just a few easy steps:

First, spray each well with water.

Next, cover your paints and wait a few hours.

Finally, once the paint has again softened, stir each pigment back until it's the creamy yogurt consistency.

This is a good first step even if it's been quite some time since you've worked in the palette.

Just know that sometimes colors are just too dried out. If you haven’t painted with this palette for months and months, it’s possible they’ll never quite get back to where you need them.

If that’s the case, instead of working with crusty piles of paint (which won’t give you strong color), clean out your palette and lay in fresh paints.

Your paintings will thank you.