Painting knife
A palette knife (also palette knife , colorimeter , or Malspachtel or spatula ) is a tool that in the painting is used.
The painting knife is used to mix colors on the palette or to remove too much paint from the canvas . Especially with the Impasto technique and the use of particularly pasty colors, it is also used instead of a brush to apply the color to the painting surface. Structures and plasticity can be created directly during application. This technique was used especially from 1870 by avant-garde artists such as Gustave Courbet . Occasionally it has also been proven in the late Rembrandt .
Painting knives usually consist of a wooden handle to which an elastic blade is attached with a brass ferrule . The blade is angled so that the leading hand can be held parallel to the canvas surface. It is made of stainless steel . Painting knives are offered with different spatula-shaped blades. The differences lie in the length of the blades and in the shape, which can be pointed or flat, symmetrical or asymmetrical. In the 19th century, the spatulas were also made of horn, boxwood or ivory.
Painting knives can also be made entirely of plastic .