Mike Rooney shows how to use a painting knife

Mike Rooney demonstrates painting with a palette (or painting) knife

Mike Rooney gives a great lesson on painting with a painting (or palette) knife in the video Free Art Lesson – Mike Rooney – Palette Knives.

Notice how the painting is underpainted in magenta (effective under the greens he will be painting over it)? For this demonstration, he starts with the painting already blocked in, so that you see the abstract shapes of the landscape.

When you mix your paints for painting with a knife, you don't have to mix them completely. He points out that, when you apply them with a knife, the unmixed colors can create a kind of marbleized effect. You get the color straight from the palette – unlike the brush, which picks up color from your paint water.

Mike Rooney demonstrates painting with a palette (or painting) knife

Here he uses the knife to bring color into the negative spaces surrounding the trees. He sets the palette knife along the edge he wants to begin at, and moves the paint across the space to be painted. He recommends that you not paint all the way up to the edge of the other shape.

You can see more of Mike Rooney's work at www.mikerooneystudios.com and read his blog at http://mikerooneystudios.blogspot.com.