How I fill watercolor pans (DIY)

This video is one of the more popular videos on my Youtube channel from the last 30 days so I should share it here too.

The text below is the transcript of the video.

Filling your own plastic pans with watercolour tubes saves you more money than buying the pans with watercolour cakes. Each half pan has a capacity of 2ml so a 5ml tube can actually fill it 2 times. And if you get the Mission Gold small tubes, those are 7ml. Of course, if you get the big 15ml tubes, those can last you for quite a long time.

There are some things to note when filling the pans.

Make sure you have your pans nearby before opening the tube. Sometimes when the tubes have been stored for too long, gas may build up in the tube, and when you open the cap, the paint starts gushing out. You will want to have your pan nearby so that the gushing paint has somewhere to go instantly. It will still be messy, but less messy.

When tube paints dry, they may shrink. So to fill your pans completely without any gaps caused by the shrinkage, you'll need to fill the pans several times. Three is a good number. For the first time, fill up one third of your pan, you may want to use a toothpick or tap the pan to make the paint fill the bottom of the pan. Wait for the paint to dry and shrink, then add the second layer, filling all the gaps. Repeat for the third time. This will greatly reduce the amount of shrinkage that happens as compared to filling the tube once because the whole thing will shrink and create gaps all around the inner walls of the pan.

Not all paints reactivate well with water. One example is Daniel Smith's Viridian which is difficult to dissolve when it's dry. For such paint, it's best to use them from the tube and not squeeze them into pans.

Dry your pans for a day or two. After filling the pans, I would put them back into the box, close the box but not tightly so that I leave a gap, and put it out into the sun. This will heat up the box and the gap allows the moisture to escape. Since Singapore is quite sunny, it usually takes one day to dry the paint. Before you put your watercolour box into your bag, make sure the paint have dried completely if not they may flow out and contaminate other colours.

Dry your pans in the oven if you dare. Liz Steel has done just that and it works. Just make sure your oven is not too hot until it can melt the plastic pans. Perhaps you can use a hair dryer too, but don't blow too close and blow the wet paint out.

Jane Blundell has also written two insightful articles on filling pans. You can read them here and here.

You can also read all the other comments on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7S35GPaBfw