Category: Paintings

When you think about painting, what crosses your mind is typically the creation of art using a brush. That’s to be expected, considering that it has become synonymous with the art form over the years.

Nevertheless, you may be quite aware of the fact that other implements can be used to create art pieces. What you probably thought you would never hear about was the use of any kind of knife to complete paintings.

It just so happens that pallet knives exist, and they are very versatile in the artistic world. Anyone who uses them may bring them on as a supplemental tool for their paintbrushes, while others opt to abandon the said brushes in favor of the knives instead.

What Is Palette Knife Painting?

The palette knife is primarily suited to applying paint to a canvas and mixing paint colors. You may also find that they’re well suited to adding texture to a painted surface. Just in case you were wondering where the name came from, it’s rooted within the artist’s palette, used for the mixing of acrylic and oil paints.

How Do You Paint with a Palette Knife?

Pallet knife painting can be achieved in a few ways. The first is via patches. As the name implies, the artist takes a blank canvas or a dry layer of paint and uses the palette knife to apply clean patches of color atop it.

The surface of the blade is conducive to a motion akin to smoothing frosting over a cake. Since you are not using a brush, there is no need to dilute your paint with medium, as you would be required to do if a brush were to be used.

Originally, if you do apply a layer of paint that’s too thick, it’s no inconvenience to use the edge of the knife to scrape some away. This technique allows you to dial things back without weakening the color statement.

Texture painting is next, and it allows you to either create a real texture or an illusion of one. The motion used helps to replicate known patterns such as wood grains. However, you could also choose to use thick strokes intentionally, allowing for textures to truly protrude from the surface.

The broken color technique also exists, which sees the artist apply paint to the palette knife and create layers that bear small window-like openings intentionally. The pressure of the stroke and the texture of the surface being used for painting come together to determine how large the openings are.

The final technique to be discussed is that of lines, and this sees you line the edge of the blade with pants, drying it across the canvas, creating incredibly crisp and straight lines. Whenever boundaries are needed to give form to an art, such as you would need to do when painting furniture or buildings, this is the technique that would be used.

What Is Painting with a Palette Knife Called?

Painting with a pallet knife is known as the impasto technique. It has historical origins which are explored a bit below.

What Is the Difference Between a Palette Knife and a Painting Knife?

Depending on where you go, you may become privy to conversations about either pallet knives or painting knives. Realistically, many use these terms interchangeably, but they are different things.

The physical characteristics of each are what you would use to visually identify the difference. With a pallet knife, you find that it has a rounded tip, happens to be straight, and is specifically designed to mix paints on a pallet.

A painting knife, on the other hand, has a slight bend that you typically expect from a trowel and is known for its pointy tip. Instead of having a composition suited to mixing paint, it has one that is meant for applying paint to the canvas. It is perfectly shaped to assist you in keeping your fingers safe and away from wet paint as you apply it.

Did Van Gogh Paint with a Palette Knife?

Earlier, the historical use of palette knife painting was briefly mentioned, and this is where the reference lies. In the 19th century, the legendary Vincent van Gogh was known for using this painting methodology.

In doing so, he would use thick daubs of oil paint applied to canvas. This led to outstanding texture work, swirling, etc. His creation of textured art, in particular, would go on to become one of the signature elements of his career.

Note that he was not the only artist of the past that used the technique. Others, including Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, and Paul Cezanne, also used pallet knives, alongside painting knives and brushes, allowing for a stellar creation of art pieces that would often appear to protrude from the canvas.

Other Painting Techniques – Calman Shemi

There is no doubt that the use of the palette knife is both masterful and impressive. Similarly, some contemporary artists and styles also push the boundaries of talent and implement somewhat unconventional techniques.

Calman Shemi is one example of such an artist, known for creating reflective tones atop a canvas. He implements several unique techniques, creating an unmistakable yet signature style. Reference his “Notes” artwork if you want an illustration of what that looks like.

He certainly speaks through his art, and seeing the finished products provides glimpses into his sources of inspiration.

Conclusion

A palette knife, while suited to mixing paints and applying them to a canvas, is quite versatile and can be used to create outstanding pieces using four distinct techniques. It’s not the same as a painting knife, which is more suited to applying paint to an art piece while protecting your fingers.

Art is beautiful, and painting is one of many people’s favorite activities. Even though there are numerous forms of art expression, using a brush to paint on a canvas can make you feel free and relaxed.

However, when you are a beginner, you might quickly notice that things are never as straightforward as they seem at first. Painting colors are an essential part of the process, and some might say that they’re the most crucial one. This article tells you what you need to know on the matter.

Painting Colors Definition

The painting process requires you to have different tools, and painting colors are one of them. These are basically the paints that you will use to create your art, and they can vary depending on a myriad of factors.

While some choose their painting colors based on the moods they want to evoke with their painting, others pick them solely based on the fact that they’re beginners and that they want to make sure they don’t mess up their work of art.

Regardless of the painting colors you choose, they are still immensely crucial. Therefore, picking the right ones is essential, and many artists consider it a skill to master in itself.

Which Colors Are Best for Painting?

Since choosing the perfect painting colors is so vital, you might wonder if there is a way to pick the best ones to create your art piece.

Overall, there are specific considerations you must keep in mind when you’re choosing other tools, so beginners might think that this applies to colors as well. You shouldn’t, for example, use an acrylic brush for watercolors, so this is a clear instance in which understanding a specific art-related technique can help you decide better.

If you think this also applies to painting colors, this is correct! It’s particularly true for acrylics because not choosing the right ones can make your paint look muddy. To avoid this, you have to know which colors to pick and how to combine them.

The best colors for your art piece are the ones that allow you to create the work you’re going for. However, you can’t do this unless you know how to pick the perfect ones, and to do that, you’ll need to know some of the specifics of painting and art itself.

Getting muddy colors is fairly common when you’re a beginner in working with acrylics, and if it happens to you, you might think that you did not pick the best painting colors. However, this is not necessarily true – it might just be that you did not mix them correctly.

To avoid getting muddy colors and guarantee that your work of art looks vibrant and full of life, what you want to do is study color theory and test the colors you’re using before actually dragging your brush through the canvas.

In other words, the best way to understand which colors go together when you mix them is to know the theory behind them and try them out if you can. If you, for instance, mix yellow, blue, and red together, you will probably get a brown muddy color because these three cancel each other out on the color wheel.

The specifics of color combinations can vary, and this is where testing comes in. You probably want your piece of art to look beautiful, alive, and vibrant, and this is only possible if you know the colors you should use when you’re painting.

Finally, although some people might believe that there are specific colors that are better than others, you should remember that it all depends on what you want to achieve when you’re done painting. Therefore, even though you should avoid muddy, lifeless colors, the perfect shade or tone might not exist until you mix different options and come up with your favorite.

Painting Colors for Canvas

As was mentioned before, working on a canvas can make everything change when you’re choosing colors because it means that you might get a muddy result if you don’t know how to mix them properly, especially when you’re relying on acrylics.

By now, you might have thought of the possibility of using warm colors while you’re painting. You might be thinking that if this is what you want, then how come muddy colors are disadvantageous?

The answer is very straightforward – muddy colors are not the same as warm, beautiful, brown colors. In the world of art and painting, a muddy color is what you get when you mix two wrong shades and as a result, you have a dull, brownish color that is clearly not pleasant to look at.

When you work on canvas, you have to make sure that you understand the colors you’re combining before you use them. It’s not only about mixing them but also about layering them correctly, so they won’t turn muddy while you’re painting.

About Calman Shemi

He is originally from Argentina and he is one of the most important artists you should know if you want examples of vibrant colors in different paintings.

Calman Shemi wants to guarantee that anyone who sees his work of art is not only impressed but also moved by its motion and vibrance. He paints and sculpts and has demonstrated excellent skills when it comes to using different techniques to amaze his public.

Conclusion

Painting colors are an essential part of being an artist. When you are a beginner, you might not know much about how to combine them, but as time goes on, the process becomes smoother and much more enjoyable.

There are many different ways to express yourself through visual art, and lacquer painting is one. Calman Shemi is an exceptional artist who has continued to create artwork that speaks to people worldwide. This may also be because he uses different mediums like lacquer painting, soft painting, and more. However, this post is going to be focusing on lacquer painting.

What Is Lacquer Painting?

Lacquer painting can be traced to Eastern Asia, where it started as painting with lacquer. However, it faded away into history until the 1930s, when it was revived again in Vietnam. Also, lacquer painting is known as a misnomer because bringing out the colors of the painting does not happen as the layers are not prepared until after the burning of the lacquer layers.

What Are the Characteristics of Lacquer Painting?

There are many characteristics of lacquer painting, but the most prominent one is the use of lacquer. Constantly adding lacquer onto the board and only going in afterward to polish and refine the colors is a skill and art form like no other. That is what has set lacquer painting apart from other mediums.

Also, that is why people are also mesmerized by the form of artwork.

How Does Lacquer Painting Work?

The traditional way to make a lacquer painting takes several months because there are several layers of lacquer. In Vietnam, the painting is first placed on a blackboard before chalk outlines are used. These outlines are then polished, and the first layer of lacquer is placed onto the board, followed by a silver leaf.

Afterward, several more lacquer layers are painted onto the board, and additional transparent layers of lacquer are used in-between. Some lacquer paintings can be found in China with over a hundred layers of lacquer.

Before applying the layers of lacquer, they are all polished and dyed. After everything is set, the artist polishes the different parts of the painting, so the preferred colors show. Charcoal powder, fine sandpaper, and human hair are all used to reach each layer so that the artist can correct it.

The Different National Styles

Lacquer painting has been around for centuries, so it is no surprise that there are many different styles worldwide. These are a few of the national styles of lacquer painting:

China

The use of lacquer painting can be traced back to the Shang dynasty in China. It was used as decoration and preservation of different wooden objects. However, by the Han dynasty, decorations became more complicated.

Japan

However, in Japan, lacquer painting was second to Maki-e on Japanese lacquerware, but it was still well received and was used throughout Japan to create beautiful pieces of artwork.

Korea

In Korea, najeon was used, which is another form of lacquer painting. Najeonchilgi is a certain king of Korean handicraft that people still use today.

Russia

Russia used lacquer painting before the revolution and was found to connect the production of icons to folk art. An example is the Fedoskino miniature, a miniature village of Fedoskino village. It was painted on paper-mâché and can be dated back to the late 18^th century.

Calman Shemi & Lacquer Painting

Calman Shemi is an Israeli, Argentinian-born artist. He was born in 1939 and attended the School of Sculpture and Ceramics located in Mendoza, where he studied with Libero Badii and Rudi Lehman. Shemi was a sculpturer who moved to Israel in his 20s in 1961 and joined Kibbutz Carmia. After spending 20 years there, he created many large projects of polyester and fiberglass, which can be found in many public buildings around the world.

However, he is best known for developing the soft painting medium. This is where you create artwork using many different colored fibers and layering them on top of one another to create a beautiful textile piece. Afterward, it is pressed with a needle machine, so the fibers then mesh with the fabric underneath it.

This makes it permanent and beautiful to look at. However, he is also known for his lacquer paintings. These are pieces he created using vibrant colors on metal or wood panels while using a gold or silver leaf. He did place many layers of lacquer onto his pieces and would later go in the polish his pieces, so the desired colors could pop through.

Conclusion

Lacquer painting is complicated to accomplish, but it leaves people breathless when it is done right. People need to layer on lacquer with different colors before going back into the painting and polishing the pieces in certain ways to get specific colors to shine through. This is a technique that many have mastered over the centuries, but it is continuously being forgotten about in modern art.

However, if more artists like Calman Shemi continue to learn and produce these art pieces, then there could be more in the future depicting other parts of history.

The term soft painting might confuse many people because of its different aspects. However, there are some interesting features of soft painting because it is still relatively new to the art world. It was founded by Calman Shemi and has created a lot of original art that people have been enjoying worldwide.

To find out more about soft painting, continue reading down below.

What Is Soft Painting?

Soft painting is a newer technique to have come out recently. It has brought a brand-new way to create original artwork. Soft paintings are made with the soft art technique by Arntova’s artists.

People who use the soft painting technique use synthetic acrylic fibers in many different shades. They also substitute water or oil-based colors for these synthetic acrylics. They then make shapes with these fibers that consist of felt and different colored string to paint these materials.

Artists put down their brushes and use a needle to hook the materials to the canvas, which is either burlap or synthetic felt. The artist is then left with the needle to paint their work using strings instead of a pencil.

How Do You Make a Painting Look Soft?

The trick to making a painting look soft is all in the needle. After the artist has created their artwork with the thick layers of fibers, a special punch is involved with 14,000 needles. These needles help to work the threads into the fabric underneath it, so it can no longer move or be changed. Also, the punching of the needles gives a new layer or shading and look onto it, which gives it a softer look.

Ultimately, the technique of using the fibers, the right colors, pressing needles, and additional transparencies allows for a unique look to any other form of artwork out there. That is how these paintings look soft. The artists need to be skilled and knowledgeable in all aspects to get this desired result.

About Calman Shemi

Calman Shemi was born in Argentina. He has become known for his soft paintings. His artwork is composed of textiles that have been organized in a collage with a needle technique. Over the years, Shemi has sewn every piece into a tapestry, which has now created beautiful works of art.

Shemi has been known to see the world differently and continues to describe it with his different art pieces. He has created work with a kaleidoscope of luminance and pigmentation through unique expressions. Today, his work inspires other artists to explore their artwork in different ways with his illustrations in soft painting.

He has said that he has gotten inspiration from his family, children on the street, books, and films. Also, he mentioned that his muse consists of millions of different influences that have meshed together to create something beautiful.

Shemi was born in 1939 and studied under Rudi Lehmann and Libero Badii at the School of Sculpture and Ceramics in Mendoza. He gives a lot of credit to Badii for teaching him the principles of sculptures and artwork. However, he also credits him for showing how humans and philosophy have connected over the years.

Years continued to pass him by as he learned different mediums to express himself. That is also where he discovered lacquer paintings and window paintings. All of his lacquer paintings have been made with vibrant colors on metal or wood panels, and he’s added some gold or silver leaf to them.

With this knowledge of how to create Soft Paintings, he has been able to create pieces of art that will be hung up around the globe for centuries. Today, his work can be found in Chicago at the Chicago Fashion Institute.

His most famous pieces of work are from the Spertus Museum of Judaica collection.

Conclusion

Soft painting is a beautiful way to create art without a paintbrush. Artists like Calman Shemi have mastered this medium and have created art pieces where you don’t know where one piece ends and the other begins.

It is always fascinating to see new mediums being brought into institutions worldwide, so people can continue to make unique artwork. Calman Shemi has shown how beautiful, mesmerizing, and breathtaking painting with just a needle and some fibers is. Take a look at Calman Shemi’s paintings collection and get inspired!