The color palette is the springboard for painters to create. It is difficult to determine the time when the color palette is produced, but as an essential tool for oil painting, it can represent the personality and work spirit of painters. Some painters use color palettes to make color drafts before coloring, to explore the structural relationship of large colors, and then transfer these colors to the screen in sufficient quantity.

There are many kinds of color palettes, including rectangle and ellipse. Most of the color palettes sold are rectangle, which may be because rectangle color palettes are easy to make and fit into oil painting boxes. The color palette is mostly made of wood, which is made of plywood or veneer. It is about 40cm long and 30cm wide. There is an oval hole for the thumb to stretch out on the side, and the edge is bent inward for holding. There is a wooden pad at the thumb hole, which is light and comfortable to lift. The wood color palette is similar to the color of linen, and the color transferred out is used for canvas without tone conversion. The more exquisite palette is made of pear wood, apple wood or walnut wood, which is not easy to deform, and the surface is smooth and easy to clean.

Not all painters use color palettes. The stippling painter Shura used tin covers instead of color palettes; Picasso flirted in the newspaper. In addition, using glass as the color palette has two advantages: first, to prevent the unused pigment from drying and scaling, the glass plate can be immersed in water for storage after use. The other is to replace the backing under the glass plate (white paper, gray paper or linen, etc.) according to the background color of the picture. However, the glass plate must be placed on a flat and stable support.