How to Paint Sunsets With Palette Knives

Palette Knife Painting of Clouds Using Oils & Impasto Medium

Jul 14, 2009

Learning how to paint skies involves experimenting with various oil painting techniques, and also different implements and oil mediums.

Dawn and dusk are the ideal subject matter for artists to build on confidence by exploring how colour and tone alter between zenith and horizon. Such variations are at their most pronounced during these times and can easily be portrayed.

Oil Painting Demonstration on How to Use Impasto Medium

To suggest the feeling of texture to the colour, an alky-based gel known as impasto medium was used for the painting. This agent adds body to the paint without affecting its tinting strength in order to prevent the cost involved of using too much oil paint. This medium was simply added to the paint in a ratio of not more than fifty-fifty. The brown appearance of the gel will not affect the colour it is mixed with (fig 1).

Oil Painting Materials

All About Palette Knives

Palette knives are available in various shapes and sizes from those with a rounded tip to those with a sharp point. The type used for applying the paint onto the painting surface, and which have been used in this demonstration, have a crooked handle to prevent paint getting onto the knuckles. Those that do not have a crooked handle are known as “mixing knives” and are used for mixing the paint on the palette.

Oil Painting Technique on Painting Skies

The painting surface had been prepared with a thin wash of burnt umber acrylic paint in order to help set the tones. This would have been more difficult when painting straight onto a white surface. Such a preparation is known as an imprimitura and was allowed to dry.

With a small palette knife, cadmium yellow, burnt sienna and white was mixed with impasto medium and applied to the brightest areas near the horizon.

With the medium palette knife, white was mixed with pthalo blue, a little viridian and impasto medium and pasted onto the sky just above this area. The two areas of colour were carefully drawn together by introducing a little white to prevent a dark streak of colour forming (fig 2).

With the broad side of the knife, more of the pale blue-green paint was scraped onto the sky leading to the zenith. With the small palette knife, the reddish colours of the horizon were streaked on top. This brings out the sharp contrasts in colour and tone.

How to Paint Clouds at the Zenith

With the medium palette knife, ultramarine and burnt sienna was mixed with impasto medium and pasted onto the sky near the zenith. Darker streaks of colour were introduced towards the top of the painting. A little permanent rose, white and impasto medium were dabbed on top of this dark area of sky by using the small palette knife (fig 3). This suggests the sunlight skidding over the rumpled cloud bases.

With the large palette knife, the silhouette of the rural skyline was suggested by dabbing burnt umber and ultramarine onto the foreground. This immediately sets off the bright colours of the horizon (fig 4).

Oil Painting Sunsets

Sunsets provide the ideal opportunity to explore stark contrasts in colour and tone, particularly in different cloud formations and skylines. Impasto medium can be used to inject abstract-like expression into the painting and the use of palette knives provide the opportunity to suggest texture to the sky, as well as other weather conditions. These elements will often result in the rendering of dramatic sunsets.

The copyright of the article How to Paint Sunsets With Palette Knives in Landscape Painting is owned by Rachel Wills. Permission to republish How to Paint Sunsets With Palette Knives in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.