Mark Making Tools and Artist Reference- Using Palette Knife and Paintbrush

Besides using found objects, I decided to make use of the palette knife to create textures on my prints.

The palette knife has a smooth straight wide base to create the textures above. These angular and harsh pattern required more action, and this links with themes of anger.

The palette knife also has a thin width when viewed from its side.

I made use of this thin side of the palette knife to achieve more expressive lines.

I tried creating squiggly lines going in different directions to show feelings of anxiety and unease.

The lines above are made as closely as possible to see the effect of closely compact thin lines and what feeling it evokes.

The lines above are made up of thick lines from the smooth wide base of the palette knife and thin lines from the thin side of the palette knife. I combined both techniques to see the contrast between them.

I realised that the lines I’ve made so far using this technique did not really create positive feelings. Therefore, I attempted to make the lines look more spiral-y to reenact the “jumping for joy” action as seen above. I felt that it was successful as the light movements of the spiral lines seem more vibrant and less stringent.

Next, I used a paintbrush and the artist I got inspired from was Chua Ek Kay.

==> Chua Ek Kay

His works involve traditional Chinese painting techniques. Since only black ink was used, he diluted some of the ink to achieve different values of black. This process to create different gradations of ink tone is called “black within black”.

Therefore, I tried to emulate his painting as seen below.

I tried to use different values of black to create the different strokes. I also noticed that there is a sense of rhythm in every different brushstroke, creating a relaxed and calm feeling.