The making of a new palette
 

Beth and Debra: Thanks to both of you for your information and comments. I've not yet ordered my palette and will probably drive you all up the wall with this revelation: I'm going to ask my son to make me one! He has all the tools, and years ago made a beautiful classical guitar for his physics project. His subject was acoustics so he placed the sound holes in places that produced the desired result. That said, I would like to ask for some patterns and plans for balanced palettes. Anyone willing to wade in on this? It will be interesting to see what my son develops based on some of the tried and true designs. Perhaps I'll be able to play it!
Stay tuned.
Jean-Marie

I'm just going to second what Beth said - I just got my palette from Max yesterday. It is light as feather and feels great. Im not used to using a dark surface to mix, but I will adjust.

kim: Can you tell me why you chose the one from Max over the Boynton palette? I don't believe the Boynton is not as dark as the mahogony one that Max makes. But I'm not really certain of that. Have you compared the two?
Jean-Marie

Probably because I'm such a swell guy ;)
I've mixed paint on dark and light wood palettes but I usually just use scraps of gesso panel which are bright white, not for any particular aid to color matching, but because there's always a bunch of them around. The point I'm trying to make is that the color of the surface that I'm mixing on has very little effect on value accuracy, if I really need to make 100% sure of the value I use a gray-scale. Color and value matching is pretty easy once you grasp the rudiments of color theory, confidence also plays a major role. Trust your eyes!

Jean-Marie, I can confirm that Max is indeed a swell guy!

The Boynton palette is only balanced because of an extra piece of wood that is added on the down side which makes it much heavier. If you are so concerned about the mid value you can ask someone like Max to NOT finished the wood and you can paint it and do your own shellac, although it will Gray with use. Carl has a palette posted somewhere here that is a technological wonder with mid 5 Gray and a scale on the side.
Go into your kitchen and pick up a medium size sauce pan perhaps with a lid, then in your other hand pick up a 4 oz tube of paint and there you can see the difference. If my memory serves me Max's are more economical and I consider a piece of art in itself.