1. Hobbies & Games

Discuss in my forum

Art Glossary: Painting Knife

By , About.com Guide

Art Glossary Painting Knife

A painting knife can be used instead of a brush.

Image: © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc.
Definition:

A painting knife is a springy, shaped, metal spatula used for painting instead of a brush. The painting technique is a bit like putting butter on bread, and is especially useful for creating texture.

Painting knives comes in quite a variety of shapes and sizes. Different painting knives produce different effects, for example a short blade produces angular strokes while a long blade makes it easy to put down sweeps of color.

A painting knife is different to a palette knife, which is used for mixing paints, although many people use the same name for both.

See Also:

©2012 About.com. All rights reserved.

A part of The New York Times Company.