If you use gouache in your nature journals or field sketchbooks, here’s a great tip: use the clear Perspex Palette to mix your paint, placing the palette over a piece of paper identical to the pages in your journal (secure with masking tape or a couple of mini office clips).

So if you use grey paper (above) or tan paper (below), you are mixing your colors over exactly the right shade and won’t have an “oops” of mixing incorrectly.

Another tip: turn the palette so the magnet is at the bottom end of the paper.