BERNARD JANSON - PALETTE KNIFE PAINTING

Oil on canvas; Painting knife technique.

A brief story of the painting knife and of its use.

What we call palette knife is a small trowel whose shape and blade are adapted for the artists painters in order to replace the brushes.

The first known uses date since the 17th century. But it is with the artists painters Constable and Courbet who used it in a systematic way, that the use of the painting knife has been popularized.

With the classical painting, the brushstrokes should not be visible, but it was the contrary with the impressionist painters, they made their brushstrokes visible. It is in the continuation of this way of painting of the impressionist painters that the use of the palette knife has spread. In fact, with the painting knife, we can clearly distinguish the work of the artist. The well visible relief and impasto give a particular style, and an original aesthetic to the artwork done this way.

Steps for painting a canvas with oil palette knife painting.

    first step; photos.
  • I only use my own photos. So, I never use pictures made by other people. I see no reason to use pictures made by other people.
  • When I am before a landscape I like et I think it can be painted, I take pictures of it. By doing so, I take into acount the distribution of shadows and lights and the distribution of foreground, medium shot and backgrounds.
  • As I am not sure to come back later before a choosen landscape to paint, I generally take pictures with several frames. This give the ability to choose later the best suited picture to paint the canvas.
  • For the subject displayed below, an ancient stone bridge, I have first taken a serie of photos of the illuminated bridge and then another serie of contra jours photos.
  • picture showing the sunny stone bridge it is a possibility for painting an artwork picture showing the old stone bridgr in back lights it is another possibility for paint an artwork
    second step; sketches.
  • I have drawn three sketches; one with the sunny bridge, another with the sunny bridge and a hicker, and finally one with the contra jour bridge.
  • pencil sketch showing the old sunny bridge

    Sketch with the old sunny bridge.

    pencil sketch showing the old sunny bridge with a hiker

    Sketch with the old sunny bridge and a hiker.

    pencil sketch showing the old contra jour bridge

    Sketch with the old bridge in contra jour.

    third step; painting the subject.
  • The beginning of the painting by the background

    I begin to paint by the background, and I simplify the shapes of vegetation to give more importance to the foreground that will be more detailed.

  • work in progress, we begin to see the old bridge

    Work in progress, we begin to see the old bridge.

    my colors are often different from the original colors.

    The creativity process continues. The result will be a personnal creation which will not be a faithful copy of nature.

  • Click here to see the finished canvas.

Here are some characteristics about my way of using the palette knife.

The exclusive use of palette knife is relatively recent and less widely than brush. The origins of palette knife probably back from the eighteenth century. At this time it was mainly used to mix colours on palettes. The impressionists painters began to use it together with the brushes. Learning to paint canvas with palette knife takes longer time than brush and is more difficult.

With this technique, oil paint becomes thick substance. The artist painter must have a more synthetic vision of its artwork, and he has to suggest what he paints rather than to show accuractly what he sees.

Parameters that are into play, in my view, for a good use of palette knives.

The different pressure of the knife on the canvas produces different and interesting textured effects. picture showing the result of the pressure of the palette knife on the canvas
With the inclination of the palette knife or also with the use of the tip of the blade we can obtain dots or fine lines. picture showing the effect of the inclination of the palette knife on the canvas
We can obtain thick or thin layers of colors depending on the speed of the gesture. here you can see a picture showing the speed of the gesture and his effect on the canvas
The flexibility of the knife blade allows the artist painter to use several gestural actions such as spreading, scumbling or swearing. the flexibility of the blade is important for the use of a painting knife

Wet-on-wet is my painting technique. This technique is also called by specialists ALLA PRIMA. So, when I begin a canvas I must finish it quickly.

I place a great value to the composition of my artworks.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PAINTING KNIFE AND PAINTING WITH A BRUSH.

The most significant difference is the effects of thickness we can get more easily with palette knives.

The second difference is the cleability of the palette knives. A simple wipe on the blades is enough to get them clean, while brushes are less easy to clean mainly with oil paint. So, with palette knifes the colours are always clean if due precautions are taken.

Another difference is the opportunity to mix the colours directly on the canvas, with that we can get surprising effects; see the picture above.

On the other hand the advantage of brush on palette knife is the easily to paint tiny details.

charcoal sketch before painting canvas

SKETCH WITH A VIEW TO PAINT A CANVAS.

preparatory drawing in view to paint a canvas

ANOTHER PREPARATORY DRAWING TOWARD THE REALIZATION OF AN ARTWORK.

my palette during a painting session

MY COLOURS PALETTE DURING PAINTING A CANVAS.

painting workshop with easel and palette colours

A PARTIAL VIEW OF MY PAINTING WORKSHOP.

my painting workshop with in foreground my palette colours

ANOTHER PARTIAL VIEW OF MY STUDIO.


WHAT TO PAINT WITH.

my palette knives for making a canvas

PALETTE KNIVES.

Specialy configured to artwork, it is preferable to use different sizes. I use palette knifes with rounded corners.

Those with sharp corners are inappropriate with my way of painting.

my palette during painting of a canvas

PALETTE.

I use a white thin wooden board. Size 80cm by 55cm.

For practical reasons, I strive to always put the same hues at the same place, warm hues on the left and cold hues on the right side of the board.

I use paper towels to clean the blades of the knives during my painting session

PAPER TOWELS.

I use a lot of paper towels, the cleanliness of the palette knife blades is for me a prime means to got nice colours.

With a palette knife that would not be clean, colours would be contamined, and the result will be muddy.

A GARBAGE BAG.

For getting rid of the soiled paper and empty paint tubes.

PAINT TUBES.

I use large tubes, 200 or 225 ml. Pictures below show some samples of my usual colours. They are mixed with a small amount of white.

a sample of painting knife colour yellow

yellow

colour orange during using of painting knife technique

Orange

painting knife colour red mixed with white

Red

technique painting knife colour purple

Purple

french ultramarine color is used to paint the skies and the see

French ultramarine