The Best Palette Knives for Painterly Experimentation

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Essential to any oil or acrylic painter’s practice is a great palette or painting knife. With such tools, artists can combine colors, pastes, and other materials in the process of creating their works. These knives can also be used to apply paint to canvas, with different sizes and shapes producing different effects. Even watercolorists can use them to scratch back into a work. Note that a painting knife—often with a curved neck or handle to keep the artist’s hands free from the painted surface—is technically a different tool and may be best suited for applying pigment to canvas, but painting and palette knives can be and are used interchangeably. The blades’ tips can be blunt or sharp, allowing for a wide range of strokes, textures, and gradations. A good set of palette knives can open up a whole new world of formal experimentation for any painter, regardless of their medium.

Essential to any oil or acrylic painter’s practice is a great palette or painting knife. With such tools, artists can combine colors, pastes, and other materials in the process of creating their works. These knives can also be used to apply paint to canvas, with different sizes and shapes producing different effects. Even watercolorists can use them to scratch back into a work. Note that a painting knife—often with a curved neck or handle to keep the artist’s hands free from the painted surface—is technically a different tool and may be best suited for applying pigment to canvas, but painting and palette knives can be and are used interchangeably. The blades’ tips can be blunt or sharp, allowing for a wide range of strokes, textures, and gradations. A good set of palette knives can open up a whole new world of formal experimentation for any painter, regardless of their medium.