MEEDEN Ceramic Watercolor Paint Palette (14-Well) Review

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Paint with me - Only Yesterday | Ghibli Scenery

Posted Oct 17, 2026 on my YouTube channel.

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I have a habit of mixing all the colors of a painting before I start, so this 14-well MEEDEN Ceramic Watercolor Paint Palette really suits me—and in use, the ceramic tray is very sturdy and does not stain. When I sit down with my 48-color HIMI Twin Cup Jelly Gouache set, I like to lay out every sky wash, sunlit highlight, midtone green and deep shadow in separate wells before my brush touches the page. Here is how that pre-mixing workflow looks in my photo and Studio Ghibli fan-art paint-along Short above, and how this palette fits into my beginner gouache guide and beginner watercolor guide.

Why a 14-well layout suits pre-mixing a whole painting

As I note in the beginner tips in my gouache guide, matching a custom gouache mix later in a session is difficult, and running out of a color halfway across a sky or meadow leaves a visible join. Because my habit is to mix all the colors of a painting before I start painting, I need a palette with enough separated wells to hold an entire scene’s color family at once without the mixes running together.

The 14-well layout on this rectangular MEEDEN tray divides the surface into two well sizes that match how a landscape is built:

• Two larger square central wells in the upper-middle row, where I can mix generous puddles of the colors a scene uses across wide areas.
• Twelve smaller rectangular wells arranged in three rows of four (four along the top edge and two rows of four across the lower half), which keep graded steps of blues, greens, earth tones and darks neatly separated.

In my photo above (and at 0:13 in my Short), I am holding the palette in one hand right after pre-mixing all 14 wells for a summer landscape:

1. Top row (4 rectangular wells): three gradations of sky blue to pale turquoise from left to right, plus a soft pale yellow-cream at the far right.
2. Upper-middle row (2 large square wells): a bright yellow-green meadow mix on the left and a warm cream-yellow sky/sunlight mix on the right.
3. Lower-middle row (4 rectangular wells): four distinct foliage values stepping from olive-ochre and fresh leaf green to rich mid-green and deep forest green.
4. Bottom row (4 rectangular wells): warm yellow-ochre for the dirt path on the far left, two slate and steel-blue distant shadow mixes in the middle, and a near-black shadow mix on the far right.

Having all 14 mixes ready side by side against the white ceramic dividers means that once I start painting, I can move straight from sky washes to distant hills, sunlit grass and dark foreground details without stopping to remix.

Very sturdy build and a ceramic surface that does not stain

Alongside the 14-well layout, two practical qualities stand out to me in regular use: this palette is very sturdy, and it does not stain.

Even after holding dark, heavily pigmented gouache mixes like the deep forest greens, slate blues and near-black in the bottom wells of my photo, the white ceramic surface does not hold onto color tinting. At 0:05–0:06 in my Short above, where the empty MEEDEN 14-well palette sits on my desk right in front of my mint brush washer while I pour water, you can see all 14 wells looking bright white and clean before I start mixing the next painting’s colors.

Pre-mixing and painting an Only Yesterday Ghibli fan-art scene in my Short

In my painting Short above (Paint with me - Only Yesterday | Ghibli Scenery), I filmed a gouache paint-along of a fan-art landscape scene inspired by Studio Ghibli’s Only Yesterday across a two-page sketchbook spread:

1. Desk setup and clean palette (0:03–0:10): with my open 48-color HIMI Twin Cup Jelly Gouache box on the desk (0:03–0:04), I pour water into my mint brush washer right behind the clean, empty white 14-well MEEDEN ceramic palette (0:05–0:06), then flip past earlier two-page gouache fan-art spreads in my sketchbook to a fresh blank spread (0:07–0:10).
2. Pre-mixing all 14 wells before painting (0:11–0:13): using a green-handled round brush, I stir the bright yellow-green mix in the left large square well (0:11), mix the deep forest green in the fourth rectangular well of the lower-middle row (0:12), and hold up the completed 14-well palette with every well filled for the painting (0:13).
3. Sky wash and distant wooded hills (0:14–0:21): with a wide flat brush, I lay a turquoise-blue to warm pale yellow gradient across the upper sky (0:14–0:16), then switch to a round brush to block in the dark green wooded ridge and distant blue-grey clouds while the pre-mixed 14-well ceramic palette sits beside the sketchbook and brush washer (0:17–0:21).
4. Sunlit meadows, dirt path and foreground grass (0:22–0:52): pulling from the pre-mixed greens, yellows, ochre and dark shadow wells on the tray (0:32–0:35), I build up the bright yellow-green fields (0:22–0:25), treetop silhouettes (0:26–0:31), layered bush clusters (0:36–0:41), the winding ochre dirt path (0:42–0:44), and fine dark foreground grass blades and white wildflowers (0:45–0:52).
5. Finished two-page spread (0:53–0:58): I unclip the binder clips (0:53) and hold up the finished Only Yesterday fan-art landscape spread before closing the sketchbook, with the used 14-well ceramic palette resting on the desk behind (0:54–0:58).

The finished spread and my other Ghibli scenes are on my Ghibli gouache painting page.

Dimensions, weight and material (maker specs)

According to MEEDEN’s product listing (model PLT-4020, 14-Well variant), this rectangular artist mixing tray is made from white eco-friendly ceramic (porcelain) with a smooth, glossy surface designed so water-based paint spreads smoothly instead of beading into droplets.

The maker lists tray dimensions of 7.6 × 4 in and an item weight of 0.43 kg (about 0.95 lb). The listing recommends the palette for watercolor, gouache, acrylic, oil and tempera painting (as well as art classes and craft projects), and states that the glazed porcelain surface cleans with water and a tissue or by hand washing with water and mild soap and airing dry.

Who it suits and where it fits in your kit

Choose the 14-well MEEDEN Ceramic Watercolor Paint Palette if—like me—you like to mix all the colors of a painting before you start, or if you want a very sturdy, stain-free white ceramic tray with both large square wells for main washes and 12 smaller rectangular wells for color steps. It pairs naturally with my 48-color HIMI Twin Cup Jelly Gouache set and HIMI Gouache Wetting Spray, as well as the tube sets in my beginner gouache guide and beginner watercolor guide. Choosing between ceramic and plastic? See ceramic vs plastic watercolor palettes.

If you are setting up the rest of a desktop painting station from MEEDEN, see my hands-on MEEDEN Ceramic Paint Brush Wash Bowl review (a two-compartment ceramic bowl—one compartment to rinse brushes, the other to take water for mixing paint—that does not get stained by paint during use like plastic brush wash bowls) and my MEEDEN H-Frame Tabletop Easel review.

As a Christmas gift

A ceramic watercolor palette is an easy Christmas gift for a painter because it works with the paint they already have: MEEDEN’s listing names watercolor, gouache, acrylic, oil and tempera. It suits:

• Watercolor and gouache painters still mixing on a plastic tray that tints, or on a dinner plate.
• Painters who pre-mix, as I do: 14 wells hold a whole painting’s colors at once.
• Beginners unwrapping a first watercolor set or gouache set this Christmas.

Pair it with the MEEDEN Ceramic Paint Brush Wash Bowl for a matching white ceramic desk set, the MEEDEN H-Frame Tabletop Easel for a bigger present, or a pad of 100% cotton watercolor paper. At 7.6 × 4 in per the listing, it is also one of my stocking stuffers for artists; for a December countdown from the same brand, see the MEEDEN advent calendar 2026. More ideas by medium and budget are in my gifts for artists guide.

• MEEDEN ARTUp to 12% OFF with my code: HOONGANA

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MEEDEN Ceramic Watercolor Paint Palette, 14 Wells

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