Palette Knife: What Is It & THE MANY Uses in Painting

“The palette knife taught me to let loose and not to overthink things, go with the punches and accept occasional “happy accidents” can bring good changes into my life.” -Edna Pines

A palette knife is used to mix colors in acrylic or oil paints. However, many artists also use a palette knife to create textures and patterns they can’t achieve with a brush.

How Do Palette and Painting Knives Differ?

The terms “painting knife” and “palette knife” are frequently used interchangeably, but the two knives have different purposes. For example, an artist uses a palette knife to mix colors or clean their palette. Painting knives are designed to apply paint onto a surface. 

Palette Knife

A palette knife typically has a straight handle and a longer blade. It mimics the shape of a spatula with its rounded tip and is made of metal, plastic, or wood. 

Painting Knife

A painting knife is usually metal with a wooden handle. It has a bent handle to keep an artist’s knuckles from touching the paint during application. The edges of a painting knife are blunt and can come in different sizes and shapes, such as triangular, pear-shaped, or rectangular. 

Whether you use a palette knife or a painting knife, if you plan to paint with your tool, you want a comfortable handle, a long, straight edge, and a sturdy but flexible blade.

Palette Knife Uses in Painting

Using a palette knife helps you cover the surface faster, achieve thicker textures on the canvas, and create lines and other visual effects that are more difficult to achieve with a brush.

Color Patches

An artist can use a palette knife to apply clean color patches onto a blank or underpainted canvas. Since a palette knife doesn’t require diluted paint the way a brush does, the resulting color is more vibrant. In addition, if you apply the paint too thickly, it’s easy to remove with the blade of the knife while maintaining the color’s vibrancy.

Broken Color

Gently skimming a loaded palette knife over your canvas can create a broken color effect through small openings between the paint and the surface beneath it. This effect varies based on the surface’s texture and the pressure of your stroke. 

Clean Lines

A palette knife allows an artist to create crisp, clean lines when they load the blade’s edge with paint and apply it to the canvas. The knife can create broken or complete lines, but it does require reloading between strokes to maintain consistency.

Edges

Palette knives are the preferred choice for many artists when creating edges. You can create soft or hard edges using a palette knife. A softer, blended edge draws the eye from one color or shape into the next, while a hard, crisp edge creates an area of focus. Varied boundaries can change the way a viewer looks at a painting.

Texture

A palette knife can create texture or remove too much of it. Paint applied thickly with a palette knife results in a three-dimensional effect. Conversely, an artist can reduce texture in areas that have become overdone by using the palette knife blade to flatten the paint.