Painting with a Knife Rather than a Brush

How to Get Paint onto a Painting Knife

As you use both sides of a butter knife to spread butter on bread, so you use both sides of a painting knife to spread paint on a canvas.

Image: © 2008 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc

If you're able to get butter or jam onto a slice of bread, then you already know what to do to get paint onto a painting knife, there's no magic trick. It's just scrape the knife across the surface of the paint so it gathers up some paint, or dip it into the paint and flip out a bit.

See Mark Making with a Painting Knife for more on the results you can produce with a painting knife.

• The Difference Between a Painting Knife and a Palette Knife
• Painting Knife Shapes
• What Makes a Good Painting Knife?
• How to Get Paint onto a Painting Knife
• How to Hold a Painting Knife
• How to Clean a Painting Knife