Cutting-edge art: No more brushes, it's time to paint with knife!

Hyderabad: No more brushes, it's time for painting with a knife says the happening generation. It is easier to paint a 3D picture and an abstract painting with a knife than using a brush, says budding youngsters giving rise to a high demand for the palette knife painting which helps artists paint like never before.

As you wield the knife and apply paint strokes across the canvas giving shape to the serene composition, peace and positive energy radiates through self, it calm downs our senses and relaxes minds taking into peace, said K Prathyusha, a renowned fashion designer by profession and an artist by hobby, which turned her life into a professional artist as she started loving to do the abstract paintings by knife.

At least hundreds of students were trained under her and she also conducts workshops for students online.

Speaking about the benefits of palette knife painting, Prathyusha claims that it carries numerous mental health benefits, "If anyone is habituated to knife palette painting, they will have less chances of having stress as it promotes stress relief. As we try to paint our thoughts, it expands our creative and emotional growth.

Overall, it stimulates an optimistic attitude in a person and that's why we are trying to take the art to all age groups."

A youngster, aged 13 studying in Master Minds school talking about the structure of knife painting said, "To start the knife painting we don't really need any previous experience in art.

A little knowledge on painting along with some helpful hacks would make anyone ready to experiment on their own. Anything can become a beautiful art if we just concentrate on strokes we hit."

"Palette painting with a knife has both advantages and disadvantages, knives are in some ways clumsier than brushes, which forces the artist to focus more on overall composition and large regions of shape and colour, allowing fine details to be more readily dismissed.

A palette knife is also easier to clean than a brush and it makes it possible to lay one slab of colour over another wet colour without mixing the two. This can be difficult to accomplish with a brush," said Swathi Priya, an artist residing in Gachibowli.

However, Swathi adds that exceptionally and visually satisfying paintings that could not have been created without a palette knife.

How to do it?

Before you begin, first decide what you want to paint and choose your knives accordingly. Select your palette knife, here again, people usually forget that "palette knife" and "painting knife" are not the same, often words are used interchangeably, but they're quite different.

A palette knife is usually straight, has a rounded tip, and is designed for mixing paints on the palette. A painting knife has a pointed tip, is slightly bent like a trowel, and is perfectly suited for painting on canvas. Then while choosing colours, thick pigments such as oil paint and acrylic are best suited to the painting knife technique, but watercolour can also be used.

♦ Draw the outline of your abstract with pencil

♦ Hold the handle firmly with your thumb on top and use your wrist to change angles on the canvas to begin painting

♦ Use the long side of the blade to sweep pigment across your canvas, just as you would spread butter onto a slice of bread

♦ Press the blade into the thickly-painted surface to create texture

♦ Press the thin edge of the knife down to create fine lines

♦ Use just the tip of the blade to produce small dots

♦ Scratch into the paint using a pointed blade to reveal the layers underneath

What is Palette Knife Painting?

Palette knife painting is a term used to describe the impasto technique of applying paint to canvas using a painting knife. 19th-century master painter Vincent van Gogh is one who was known to use this method.

By applying thick daubs of oil paint on canvas, he was able to achieve the swirling, textural work he became famous for. Other past artists who used both painting knives and brushes include Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, and Henri Matisse.

Today, many contemporary artists continue to use painting knives in the same way to create expressive works that appear to come out from the canvas.