Knives for abstract painting!

Hello !

In this article and video, I share with you my tips for choosing knives for abstract painting.

You often ask me: “But what’s with these knives! I can’t find them at my fine arts supplier!!!”

Don’t panic, it’s normal! Indeed, I’m far from using only academic materials for my abstract painting practice.

A quick aside: my tip for cleaning knives

Why am I talking to you about cleaning?

A few days ago, I realized that there were a good twenty knives on my work surface, unusable because they were full of dried paint.

So I decided to clean them all. To do this, I used a little trick that saved me a lot of time:

• Take a container (a basin, for example)
• Mix 50% warm water and 50% white vinegar
• Dip your knives in it and leave to stand for a good 3 hours.
• Then collect your knives and simply remove the paint with another knife.
• White vinegar attacks and softens dry paint. It’s really easy to remove!

I’m closing the parenthesis on knife cleaning!

 

Here are my knives for abstract painting

Academic knives

I also use knives dedicated to the practice of artistic painting such as :

• Drop-shaped painting knife
• Diamond-shaped painting knife
• Flat painting knife with bevelled tip
• Pallet knife for removing paint from pots

 

Non-academic knives

My favorite knives don’t come from the world of fine art, but from the tools used by tilers and painters.

Indeed, when I started out, I was quickly looking for equipment to apply paint on large formats, and classic knives didn’t meet my needs.

I recommend the following tools:

• Parquet glue knife (Tiler’s tool)
• Tile glue knife (Tiler’s tool)
• Carpet and linoleum glue knife (Tiler’s tool)
• Glue knife for linoleum and wall coverings (Tiler’s tool)
• Large knife (Painting)
• Paint scraper (Painting)

Why use non-academic knives?

Non-academic knives meet very specific needs. They enable you to achieve superb effects for your abstract creations.

Don’t stop there! Experiment and find YOUR material.

As I often say: “Experiment !!!!”. It’s the best way to progress in your art and, above all, to find your own style!

You should try to use everything you can think of to achieve results that are sometimes quite surprising.

What about you?

I can’t wait to see what equipment you use! Leave a comment at the bottom of this page!