PALETTE KNIFE AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR ARTISTS
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| PAINT A SWAMP WITH PALETTE KNIFE |
The brush has become synonymous with painting. But palette knife techniques that will enrich your paintings deserve some recognition as an equally versatile implement. It can be used as an addition to or even a replacement for brushes in the creation of strong, compelling paintings.
Made from thin steel
blades fixed onto wooden handles, palette knives come in an array of shapes and
sizes. While each shape has a slightly different function, there’s no need to
invest in many different knives. A two to a three-inch flexible blade in a
simple teardrop shape will allow you to create a wide variety of marks and
effects.
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| Pictures of different palette knives |
WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE WITH PALETTE KNIFE
Patches
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| How to apply patches on canvas with a palette knife |
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| How to lines with a palette knife |
Lines
If you load just the edge of the blade with paint and draw it across the canvas, you can make crisp, ruler-straight lines. This technique is helpful for depicting man-made elements in a painting, like a ships’ rigging, fence posts, and the straight edges of furniture or buildings. By modulating the pressure and angle of the knife stroke, you can turn these lines into fan shapes, zigzags, and sinuous curves.
Broken colour
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| How to create a broken colour effect with a palette knife |
By lightly loading your palette knife with
paint, then skimming it gently across the painting surface, you can create a
paint layer with small, window-like openings that allow what’s underneath to
show through. The size of these openings is dependent on both the pressure of
the stroke and the texture of your surface. If you’re working on coarse canvas,
you’ll get larger windows than on a fine-grained canvas or a smooth panel.
Texture
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| How to create texture with a palette knife |
You can use palette knives to create both the
illusion of texture and texture itself. Thinly applied strokes can replicate
patterns such as wood grain or grasses, while thickly loaded strokes create
marks that can be sculptural, protruding from the canvas surface. This extra
dimension can be appealing, emphasizing the lushness and physicality of the
paint itself.
Conversely, palette knives can be used to reduce texture. If an area has become too busy with textured brushstrokes of paint,
you can lay the blade directly onto the wet paint and gently massage it flat.
This will leave traces of the original colour and can be a way to mix colours
directly on the canvas.
Edge
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Hard-edge created with a palette knife
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Palette knives are
excellent tools for creating a broad array of edges, from crisp and defined to
blurry and ambiguous. Edges in a painting are the places where two
shapes or colours meet. They’re expressive places that can reveal what the artist wants to emphasize and the pace at which they want the viewer to examine
the work.
A hard edge stops the
viewer’s eye and draws attention to a particular area in the painting, while a
soft, ambiguous edge allows the eye to travel, unimpeded, from one shape to the
next. Some edges are varied, alternating between ambiguity and clarity many
times along their length and causing the viewer to change their focus and rate
of looking accordingly.
For a crisp edge, load
your palette knife with paint, then lay it flat onto the canvas and pause
before continuing the stroke away from the edge you’re trying to create. That
momentary stillness will deposit a greater volume of paint than a swift,
continuous stroke, emphasizing the edge.
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| Fresh colour applied with a palette knife on wet paint |
You can use a palette
knife to place clean colour notes onto a wet painting without disturbing the
lower layers. Load the knife with a generous dollop of paint and dab it gently
onto the surface of the painting. It will sit on top without mingling with the
wet paint below, making this an ideal tool for creating highlights and dark
accents.
Other uses of a palette knives
Mixing paint
Palette knives are indispensable for mixing
paint on your palette without wasting any pigment. Brushes collect paint in
their bristles, and when you dab them into a clean pile of colour, they may
deposit some of that paint and contaminate the pile. When mixing with a palette
knife, simply wipe the excess paint off the blade before dipping it into a new
colour. You’ll keep your paint piles clean and usable.
Scraping
A palette knife is also an excellent scraping
tool for your palette and your painting. You can clean your palette at the end
of a painting session by scraping the paint mixtures off with your knife and
then giving the surface a final wipe with a paper towel.
If a painting isn’t
working, scraping it down to the canvas with your knife will remove paint
volume, while leaving a ghost of the image staining the canvas. This faint
image can be used as a guide if you’re trying to tackle the painting again.
Palette knives can be used to create works of
great precision or casual roughness, and they can create some effects that a
brush cannot. They’re a worthwhile addition to any painter’s repertoire.
Thanks for reading.
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