Have you tried the Peerless watercolor papers yet? No? You really should. You will LOVE them, even if you're a beginner, like me. They are basically sheets of watercolor coated papers. The paper is coated with highly concentrated watercolor pigment and they are really easy to use. What I have found is that they are so concentrated that a tiny bit goes a looooong way. And the colors! They are really spectacular. Very vibrant and not at all chalky/grainy like some of the cheap watercolor pan paints. I picked up the basic set of 15 and the bonus pack with 40 gorgeous colors for around 35.00.

If you have these watercolors, yay! Do you love them? Are you wondering what to do with all these sheets of pigmented paper?

I found that the best way to use and play with these paints is to cut them in smaller pieces, create color swatches so you know what color they are, and put them in a little book or binder.
I wanted to create a small, portable watercolor palette so that I could throw it in my backpack/sloth bag if i wanted to paint on the go. I found a small 3-ring binder that is 5.5x8.5" and is the perfect size. I picked up some plastic page inserts and a project was born!

Here’s how I made my Peerless Watercolor Palette book.

You will need the following:

Peerless Watercolor Palette Tutorial- supplies

    •   Peerless watercolor papers (I have the complete edition of 15 and the bonus pack of 40)
   •   watercolor paper (I used two 9x12 sheets from a Canson pack) (not shown)
   •   small 3 ring binder. I used an office max brand, but you can use anything you'd like. I wanted to keep it small and portable.
   •    Clear Page Protectors if your binder didn't come with any
   •   watercolor brush
   •   cup of water
   •   Micron Pen (or any waterproof pen of your choice)
   •   removable adhesive like tombow (not pictured)

1. Cut your watercolor paper into 55 1.5 x 2" strips. I chose this size because I was able to fit two colors swatches across and 5 down on my page protector.

2. Cut your Peerless watercolor papers to about 1 inch x 2 inches. They should be just small enough to fit on your watercolor paper pieces. Leave yourself enough room to write down the name of the color and create a little color swatch.

3. Adhere the watercolor strips to your watercolor paper. Write out the name of the color on the top of the paper.

4. Now comes the fun part. Once you finish adhering all the Peerless papers to your little watercolor paper, take your water and your watercolor brush and create a little color swatch to help you quickly and visually identify the color

5. Arrange them all in an order that makes sense to you. I tried to keep all the color families together. Red/Pinks on one page, yellows and oranges, greens, blues, purples, and browns all on separate pages. Again, arrange however you want!

Peerless Watercolor Swatches for Palette Book

5. Add a little removable adhesive to the back of your watercolor swatches and then place them on the front of the plastic insert.

6. Add the inserts into your binder! I like to add an extra insert page in between the sheets. I do this for two reasons- one-- if my papers happen to be wet or damp, it's okay-- Nothing except the plastic will get wet. You can also use these plastic sheets as a mixing palette. Cool, right?

There you have it! your own, super simple Peerless Watercolor Palette book.

So, how do you store your Peerless Watercolors? Have you made a book like this? Or something cooler? I'd love to see! Let me know in the comments section below!

Peerless Watercolor Palette Tutorial