How can I start palette knife painting?

Hey! Great timing. I’ve been doing knife painting for about a year now so I feel qualified to give some tips.
Learn your color wheel. Mixing the color you want, and re-mixing it when you need more – this is the core skill.
Paint in oil on panel. It’s better than acrylic for mixing color, and, the longer drying time will help you. Panel is better than canvas for thick paint because it’s rigid.
Get a large glass sheet to mix your color so you always have enough. (And for easy clean-up). Put white paper under the sheet to see color. Make big piles so you don’t run out of color mixes. Save leftover color in folded tinfoil packets in the fridge.
Mix paint with more medium and more linseed oil as you build up. Dryer at first, wetter later on. Initially aim for broad strokes the consistency of peanut butter, later, for the details I aim for a grape jelly kind of mix.

Keep your knives clean. I wipe off color before (almost) every new stroke. I have a sheet of paper towel next to the palette for wiping the kinfe, and just stick fresh sheets on top. I end up with a wad of paper an inch thick after a few hours work.
Don’t buy top grade paint as you will use a LOT of it and it’s not worth the expense. Fine grind, superior pigment strength and light fastness are not important when you’re painting this thick. You are powering right past all those concerns. I buy white in 500ml tins, color in 200ml tubes. Van Gogh is a perfectly adequate brand.
I use cold wax medium and to make the paint go further and galkyd gel to make it ‘slicker’ (for that grape jelly detail stage). These both reduce drying time from weeks to days.

Use large enough knives. And have some variety in sizes and shapes. I have 4 main sizes. From a pointy needle to a small arrowhead to a few butter knife sized to an angled wedge like a putty knife (but of course not an actual putty knife – they’re too stiff).
I grab the biggest knife that fits the thing I’m painting. You want the option to make smooth strokes, not a lot of tiny choppy marks. (Some small marks are useful, but don’t get repetitive with mark sizes. It should not be pointillism IMO).
Don’t hesitate to scrape up paint off the panel and re-mix it. This is the power of knife work in oil. Moving the paint on the panel, even hours or days later.
Choose subjects with strong design and/or learn to simplify. Knife work isn’t suited to tiny details like blades of grass or twiggy tree branches.
Have fun!

Wanbasion Black Stainless Steel Knife Set, Sharp Kitchen Knife

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