On a knife’s edge

Part 1 Tim Fisher begins a six-part series on painting with knives by demonstrating how to handle the tools and produce a small skyscape using oils

Part 1 Tim Fisher introduces a new six-part series, looking at how to paint with knives. This month, he uses oils to demonstrate handling and mark making then paints a small skyscape step by step

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

First mark making with knives

How to paint small skyscapes

Follow a step-by-step process

Without doubt, palette knives offer a whole new dimension to painting. Although starting out as a tool for mixing paint on the artist’s palette, it was soon discovered that knives were a very useful device for applying paint quickly to large areas of the canvas, to make new and interesting marks. Over the years the painting knife has evolved from a straight-handled knife shape to a cranked handle with a multitude of head shape choices that allow for numerous techniques to be tried.

If you are new to knife painting and are keen to try it out, I suggest you begin with small simple landscapes that contain big skies and use just a couple of knife shapes. The two most commonly used forms that I own are the angled blade RGM 109, which has a non-stick coating and the tear-drop shaped RGM 4 (left). The length of the blade on the right is approximately 2¼in.

When I first started working with knives, it was very tempting to try to make them do everything that a brush can do, rather than exploiting their own unique abilities. If you wish to do accurate representational work with knives, it is probably advisable to work quite large. I do enjoy creating smaller landscapes with them, however, using the loose technique that the knives offer.

Choose your materials

Oil paints are probably the best choice when first working with knives. This slow-drying medium is more accommodating, gives you more time to consider marks being made and allows for adjustments or alterations. Paint can be scraped off easily then fresh paint overlaid. I would suggest starting with the following range of Daler-Rowney Graduate oil colours: primary yellow, primary red, sap green, ultramarine blue and ivory black, plus DalerRowney Georgian cadmium yellow deep hue and Rowney alkyd white. Adding the alkyd white helps to speed up the drying process, which can be quite slow when applying paint thickly with a knife.

I favour canvas-covered boards or textured paper, which is designed to take oil paint, as both are good, flat and solid surfaces to work on.

Before starting a painting, it’s worth exploring some of the marks that the knife will make (see illustrations, left and above). A flat palette is ideal for placing and mixing the colours. Have some kitchen roll or cloth handy to wipe the knife clean.

Skyscape

Cumulus clouds that appear to heap or pile up make good subjects to paint with knives. It must be remembered that these cauliflower-like shapes have solidity and will have bright sides and shadow sides, which can also cast shadows onto the ground. Certain times of the year can bring unsettled weather and an opportunity to study these cloud forms and their behaviour.

Cumulus over the Wreake Valley (below) was painted on a small board measuring 8x10in. with a slightly orange-tinted ground of an acrylic wash. The blue part of the sky on the right gradates from ultramarine to a paler blue by adding more white. White paint was added directly onto the tinted ground to create the cloud forms using curved strokes, with the RGM 4 used to create the edges of the clouds.

I then mixed a number of greys, gradually making them lighter using ultramarine, white, red and black. These were added into the cloud forms to create the shadow sides. The landscape was then added, beginning with the distant hill, which starts as green-grey and transitions to a pale green then ochre on the right. A tree

line was painted in the middle ground using green mixed with black. Under this, green mixed with white was added using horizontal strokes of the RGM 4.

Another larger tree and hedgerow were added then the foreground was completed with a mix of sap green and black. Finally, the church tower was scraped out with a sharp pen knife to reveal the orange ground beneath.

Finishing touches

When the painting is complete, even with an accelerated drying medium such as alkyd white, it will still take a long time for the painting to dry, possibly as long as six months, although it should be touch dry in a warm room after a few weeks.

It probably isn’t necessary to varnish the painting to even out the colours, as applying paint with a knife without using thinners gives the work a more even finish. A good alternative would be to frame the work behind glass, if extra protection is needed.

One of the additional benefits of not using thinners with oil paints is that a lot of the unpleasant odours can be avoided, whilst still enjoying the texture and feel of working with oil paints.

Place the knife onto the painting surface using the broad edge at a sharp angle and drag along, gradually closing the angle to create a flat even stroke.

The same technique can be carried out using the narrower edge for a finer stroke. Clean the blade with a cloth and apply another roll of paint and this time just touch the surface to create a strip of paint. Keep doing this and the strips should become finer until all the paint is used up.

Basic painting knives (above left) angled blade RGM 109 and (above right) the tear-drop shaped RGM 4

Start by flattening the paint onto the palette then scraping the blade of the knife through to create a roll of paint on the edge of the knife.

These basic strokes can also be created with the RGM 4. The tear-drop shape allows for a little more precision to create rounded shapes, such as the tops of trees or cloud edges.

Cumulus over the Wreake Valley, oil on board, 8x10in. (20.5x25.5cm)

Anvil Cloud over Kirby Bellars, oil on board, 8x12in. (20.5x30.5cm). Sometimes we witness interesting phenomena. An anvil cloud is a cumulonimbus cloud, with a flat anvil-like top caused by winds moving at a higher level. After capturing the subject with a mobile phone, I painted it in the studio using a slightly larger 8x12in. board. I mixed ultramarine blue with a touch of red and white for the upper part of the painting and gradually added more white nearer the horizon for a gradated sky. The main cloud was added with white and the RGM 4 over the pre-applied paint, followed by darker grey clouds, mixed from red, black and blue. The landscape was added in a similar manner to the previous paintings, although, for the foreground, I used yellow ochre into which I added burnt sienna then scratched out in a few places to indicate grasses. The distant church tower was scraped out with a sharp knife.