A fresh new guide to palette knife painting for today's painting enthusiasts, featuring step-by-step tutorials for a range of different subjects using a variety of different techniques. Learn how to paint using impasto and other thick paint techniques to create striking art for your home.

Author and artist, Melissa McKinnon, explains how to work with thick paint using brushes, palette knives and her fingers, to create painterly art that expresses your creativity. There is a detailed look at all the essential tools and materials, including instructions for how to add thickening mediums to paint. Melissa explains tips for working on different surfaces and how that might affect your work as well as giving detailed advice on colour theory and how to choose a palette that suits your style.

Melissa provides advice about how to use palette knives and brushes to get the most from working with thick paint sculpting and moulding large amounts of paint can seem intimidating but she explains how to control the paint to get the best results. There are also guided exercises in mark making and experimenting with different tools and materials so that you can explore everything that this medium has to offer and create truly original compositions you can be proud of.

The four key painting techniques used by the author including blending, creating texture, the direct paint method and impressionist brush painting techniques, are explained with step-by-step instructions and photography so that you can try each style. As well as the key painting techniques and tools and materials advice, Melissa explains how to prepare canvases for a new artwork depending on the subject matter and composition, for example, how to create a blended background for a seascape or a textured base for a more detailed study.

In addition to the key techniques there are step-by-step instructions and photography for 12 projects based on landscape, floral and abstract themes for you to try your hand at. Melissa has designed a series of paintings that will allow you to try out the techniques and colour theory you've learned and turn them into unique, expressive paintings of your own. These include some figurative landscapes as well as some more abstract paintings.

The collection of techniques and paintings in this book, encourages you to practice your own observation: what catches your breath as much as it catches your eye? What causes you to pause, lean in closer, or zoom in a little further? Using the instructions in this book you will be equipped to take your practise further and continue to develop the skills you need to improve your artwork.