How to Paint with a Palette Knife

Reach for a heavy body acrylic rather than a fluid one. It holds its shape on the blade, which is the whole point of knife work.

Liquitex Heavy Body and Golden both do the job. Fluid paint just slides off and you lose every bit of texture you were trying to build.

Knives come with a bent shank or straight out from the handle. The bend keeps your hand up out of the wet paint and gives more dexterity.

Metal heads on a solid wood handle are worth the small extra cost - a little weight in the hand makes the strokes more controlled.

Unlike a brush, a palette knife gets cleaned straight away and between every colour.

Wipe the blade down on paper towel or an old rag as you go. Skip this and the colours turn muddy within a few strokes.

Cut a small roll of paint off the edge of the pile so it sits along the blade.

Almost every technique that follows starts from this loaded edge, so it is worth getting a feel for how much paint to pick up.

Drag the loaded knife gently across the surface, letting the paint break rather than pressing it flat.

You get a thick, rustic, patchy texture with whatever is underneath showing through. Drag both vertically and horizontally and see which you prefer.

Load paint right along the edge, hold the knife perpendicular to the surface and pull.

You get a crisp straight line that is hard to achieve with a brush. Good for fence posts, door frames and the crests of distant waves.

You can also work in reverse and carve lines out of paint that is already down.

Use the tip to draw organic shapes like tree branches. Whatever colour sits underneath shows through the carved line, which is why a contrasting base layer pays off.

Switch to a smaller knife for tight work, load the very tip and press the paint down rather than dragging it.

Petals built this way stand right off the surface. It works for far more than flowers - thick bold strokes anywhere benefit from it.

Load two or more colours along the blade at once, then hold it at an angle and pull across the canvas.

Swoop back over the join to blend it. This is the fastest way to cover a whole canvas in a graded colour, which makes it ideal for skies.