Painting with a Pallete Knife

[tish]

Until now I have only used a pallete knife to mix with. I am mainly self taught and have for the first time used the pallete knife to apply the paint. I'm not sure this is for me, as I feel I have no control. But maybe I should persevere? I do like the way the paint is so thick that it stands out. Now I have a little problem. I would like to add a figure to this painting but I don't know if I can manage this with the knife. Should I go back to the brush? Any advice, thoughts, comments would be appreciated

[amanda]

Tish,
From my experience with pallete knives, you should be able to use it for anything in the painting with practice, it really depends on what end result and style you are aiming for. To paint a figure, I suppose it depends on the size of the figure in your painting. If it is quite small, detail will not be important, but mainly shape. For this I would simply choose the colours I wanted and carefully place the paint with the knife on the canvas. By this, you may need to use a small amount of paint on the end of the knife so as not to over compensate. Anyway, this is my personal experience. Hope it's helpful.

[paintfool]

Hi Tish. There's nothing at all wrong with using you knife AND brushes. The combination can be really nice....Cheryl

[basia2]

Hi Tish,
I use from some time just palette knife but before I combined paint brush and knife, mostly when I wanted the thick layer of paint. Now I put very thin layers of paint but I have in my collection 2 pictures - still life and flowers wery detailed done by artist who worked just with palette knife and impasso. So looks like you can do everything with it just needs a little practice and ..patience?
Its many ways to hold a knife try the way which suits you, maybe this is a clue...basia

[tish]

Thank you Amanda, Cheryl and Basia. Since I began this thread I have practised a bit more with the pallete knife and realised that the reason I felt so awkward was that the pallete knife I was using was too big. I began using a smaller one and found that I could easily add that figure! You were right , it just needs practice and I intend to do more of that!
tish

[This message has been edited by tish (edited April 24, 2000).]