Heavy Impasto Palette Knife Acrylic Painting Demo - Gary Garrett - Castaway Island

[msvgrasley]

Hi, Gary

thank you very much about sharing some of the secrets of this beautiful technique which is Impasto. I am a novice painter but with some native talent in understanding the colors and their interactions, but no formal training in painting. I like to use oil as medium and I would really appreciate your suggestion for what kind of knives would you suggest for an Impasto painting on 16x20 canvas. Also, do you apply a first layer with brushes then add the colors mixed with impasto medium?

[bamamaria]

respond to thank you..im trying to learn by atc

[lchristoffer]

Very very nice. My first painting was with a palette knife and it was destroyed in a flood. I miss that painting. I think, because of your painting giving me the inspiration, I'll try it again. Thanks.

[foolsreflection]

Great

[ELPaso1990TX]

Wow, this is really good. I like using the heavy impasto technique, but don't often do it, as it uses up so much paint and is a rather expensive technique. But this is awesome. Thanks for posting it!

[GaryGarrett]

Yes... the LIQUITEX HEAVY GLOSS GEL MEDIUM gives you a "cake icing" thickness, but at the same time dilutes the pigment... so you have to work at it to achieve the stiffness/pigment level you want.... but you can achieve qualities that are difficult to distinguish from oils as well as DEEP impasto effects. It also adds gloss to the mix, which adds dimension to the thick paint by reflecting light differently over the whole painting. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching

[stephenigwe2009]

does the LIQUITEX HEAVY GLOSS GEL MEDIUM make the paint really thick?

[fullofcolourart]

great work!!

[dacke8175]

I love this quick painting demo. Perfect to show my middle school students before they try this.

[MsPlantBuddy]

Hi Gary, Liked it! And am trying to do the same kind of paintings. Like thick and heavy minus details. Hope you will do more soon. My problem is dark areas or shadows--everything turns out middle tones. Help!

[GaryGarrett]

@MsPlantBuddy Hi, thanks for wayching. After I paint in my sky, I usually paint in the dark areas first, then dab in middle tones trying to get as much color as possible (within reason). Then after that starts to gel, paint in the highlights. I love LIQUITEX HEAVY GLOSS GEL MEDIUM for acrylic impasto, and WINSOR & NEWTON LIQUIN IMPASTO for oil impasto. Also, lately i use a limited palette of CadRedLite, CadYellowLight, PaynesGray, Ultramarine, Curelean & Ti-White. Hope this helps :-)

[fojo59]

Nice work! Thank you for sharing.

[MissNessyP]

Very very very good!! Thank you so much for this.

[hollanderlawyer]

very nice ,thanks

[57johns]

Thats so great the colors again are wonderful

[HanaPainting]

Amazing!

[PureSoapCleans]

I admire your artistry and ability to create such beautiful paintings. I have always wanted to be able to paint, to paint anything, but to have that experience. I skipped the earliest grades of elementary school since when I was sent to school at the age of 5, I already knew how to read and write and I was re-located in 2nd grade. So I never was taught to draw. I have always missed that. Is it too late, being in my mid 30's? Congratulations!

[GaryGarrett]

@PureSoapCleans Hi... IT'S NEVER TOO LATE... Anyone can paint, it just takes a desire to do so, and a hunger for the knowledge possessed by others on how to do so. Youtube offers many folks showing demos of how THEY paint, and there are Bob Ross certified instrutors all over the country who can get you into the basics. The biggest thing is, don't be afraid, just have fun with it, and your talent will come forth. HAPPY PAINTING and Thanks for watching

[hechacaldo]

@PureSoapCleans He is right, I am 43 and I just started. I always wanted to paint but never applied myself or put in the time to learn the techniques. Now I am and it feels great. I just painted a couple of starter small projects and even though they are not perfect, I feel proud of them and they look pretty on my wall. If you have a desire, with some practice you will get some amazing results.

[benwitt1]

@hechacaldo Nice job Gary, been painting all my life, and please tell people that there is NO SUCH THING AS A 'PERFECT PAINTING' Chuck

[Fiddleronthehoof]

Thanks for sharing this video. It is really useful and inspiring.

[nanburger]

So fun to watch you paint! You are really talented. I love the build-up of all the textures - makes a painting so much more interesting to look at! Great work!

[SENTUF]

Thank for sharing with me this video...How I can get this video?

[cvasanthk]

That was fantastic and looked very easy. But tell me...if I use oils, should I wait for a layer of paint to dry before I build in the next layer? or should I just go at it all in one shot....one shade/colour over the other?

[angelkubin]

Beautiful Painting... Love your work...

[pepsifxr]

Absolutely lovely! Great van Gogh feel. I have yet to try this inpasto style. This painting really inspires me to try it!

Thanks for sharing!

[theshizirl]

Hey there, sorry to double-comment.

I tried impasto today and decided to come back and ask a question after I ran into an irritating problem.

When I used smaller knives, I noticed the flat bottom of the blades sort of stuck to the paint and had to be forcefully lifted off, which messed with the textures I wanted to get.

This was not the case for the larger knives. Why would this happen?

[GaryGarrett]

The larger knives are relatively more flexible as the steel is the same be it a small or large knife. When I paint with the small knives, i tend to paint with the tip only and then draw the knife down and away. It takes a bit of planning, but can be very rewarding. Thanks for watching, I hope this helps you. Good luck, stay creative!

[theshizirl]

Nice painting, which knife is your favorite for the impasto style?

[GaryGarrett]

For small paintings, 14x18 and smaller, I like the Loew Cornell J-0 and J-11 palette knives. But, i do have a variety of sizes and shapes from many different manufactures. I just keep returning to those two mentioned above. thanks for watching! happy painting

[sharinsangster]

ahhhhh this is amazing!! I wanna do this for my next art project! :p What is heavy impasto anyway? Sorry, I'm a beginner......... can someone help me? :s

[GaryGarrett]

Hi... just happened to be on the computer now. Impasto is the THICK, HEAVY appication of paint ususally oils or acrylics, and leaving it as applied. It's quite often appied with palette knives, but brushes can be used also. You can really FEEL the texture, like painting with cake icing! LOL! Thanks for watching, hope this helps. Enjoy your painting!

[digbycurrents]

It'd be better if you talked us through it & got rid of those bloody birds!

[rross27]

WoW! Super free and wonderful technique my friend!! Keep on paintin'... we lubs ya!

[Dzimini]

In my opinion, this painting was the best, actually finished at 1:06.

You should end painting at that moment! It was perfect! After that you went into description and start loosing balance between dark and light etc...

Greetings!

[ZombieToaster]

I agree with this person. The finished product felt a little overworked to be honest.

Still a very inspirational video :)

[maggiep35]

Love it!

[chilib33nz]

very nice, beautiful work. liked it v. much!

[pierre1122]

Magnifique !

[lemoneeshortcake]

wow that was nice, i'm experimenting with impasto right now

[alliosnp33]

amazing

[Wombat1420]

I loved this! I like your color sense and I loved watching how you did it. You inspired me!  Thank you!

[ArtStopLLC]

I thought it was great to see the layering process, thanks for posting it!

[jamesjaw]

Very useful thanks.

JAW

[ZanBarrage]

nice knife work.

[mlsdd]

Wonderful, very beautiful indeed. Which acrylic brand do you use? What else do you use to make it so smooth and think apart from the gloss/ Thanks a lot for posting of this beautiful art.

[GaryGarrett]

Hi,This one was done with the Winsor & Newton "FINITY" acrylics, but I also like the Liquitex HEAVY BODY acrylics (not their "Basics" as their is too little pigment). Thanks for watching

[naomi0987654]

i like it! i've never used a palette knife but i would love to try

[1created1]

Really nice but WAY TOO FAST...

[Honeybea264]

I have a bad flu and I am not up to a clever comment at the moment. All I can say is. I loved this.

Bea

[GaryGarrett]

Thank you Bea... hope you feel better soon. Thanks for watching. Stay creative!!

[fiercity04]

Wow I just experimented a few days ago palette painting with a plastic mixer..which looks kind of like a palette knife. I've only been painting for a month and half never had classes. I live in Jax, fl too. I'd like an opinion on my palette painting. I'm going to send you a message. I enjoyed this video

[FathersGrace]

While watching, I must've seen at least a dozen different paintings and kept thinking "wow, he can stop right there", and then a split sec later, again, "wow, that's perfect, he can stop there" and so on. The canvas just kept unfolding a new vista every second. By the time you reached the final, it wasn't what I had expected, though it, too, was perfectly beautiful. And yes, I did see the scene before you started. Wow, wow, wow is all I can say. Now I have to buy some knives!! Thanks Gary!!

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks for the wonderful comment! Youtube does not let you know when EVERY comment has been left, just happen to stumble onto this one... THANK YOU! I hope these videos help. Thanks for watching!

[hildamaude]

An exciting demo Gary ... thank you. Would it have the same effect if one used oil paint? I have not, as yet, tried acrylic. Did you prep the canvas with oil?

Thank you again.

[GaryGarrett]

Hi, thanks for watching. I primarily paint with acrylics, but have done a few experiments with water-mixable oils and alkyds. If this were oils, it would take 6 months to dry as it is VERY thick paint... even as acrylics, it took 24 hours to dry, however, the richness of oils would give the painting a quality that is difficult to achieve in acrylics. I prime the canvas with gesso... oils do NOT play well with acrylics, so any prep is done with water/acrylic products. Thanks for watching!

[psychoticxmemory]

Great! Thank you.

[2darbit]

Wow! That's beatuiful! I love the texture and it's so juicy!

May I ask what type of canvas or board you use?

I really love that style...it's so free!

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks for the nice comment. This particular 8x10 canvas board came from Walmart. I also purchase them from Hobby Lobby, ACMoore and Michael's. I usually add three more coats of gesso and lightly sand them with 80 grit non-clogging paper before using... as they all have too much texture for the level of detail work I like to do. For heavy impasto, you could use them straight out of the package as details are not a concern. Hope this helps, thanks for watching.

[Micart33]

i love your work with the knife very versatile and youve worked your darks and lights ace and got real contrast keep it up bro

[GaryGarrett]

Thank you... it was fun to "sculpt" paint again! Thanks for watching

[Eldoradoart]

Bravo Gary . sei sempre un grande!!

[GaryGarrett]

Gracias. Thank you for the nice comment! and THANKS for watching.

[clubsoda921]

Ejoyed the process i likes a lot.

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks Clubsoda921... it was a fun experiment. Thanks for watching

[hannahmjrx20]

anotheer job well done :)

[GaryGarrett]

Thank you, and thanks for watching. Happy painting

[DooleyRamona]

Hi Gary - another lovely painting. I have only used a palette knife for mixing and scraping and very little on the canvas. I especially liked the way you mixed colors directly on the canvas --

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks, a lot of these colors were drying due to the fast drying acrylic, so still did a lot of palette mixing before application. This one was almost like cake decoration! Thanks for watching!

[daromaclub]

great !!!

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks! it was fun! Thanks for watching!

[berryconnell]

dang! Palette knife and acrylics, I'll tell ya. It sounds addictive to me, guy.

In fact...I think I'm gonna go get me some of that action right now!

Thanx!

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks! I like the palette knife with acrylic, as oil would prob take yaers to dry at this thickness! Thanks for watching

[garphik]

This has changed my impression about knife painting. Good stuff!

[retta2587]

i love the palette knife stuff gary, you have such amazing locations there too! in the words of a wise woman from pennsylvania (me!)...that rocks! LOL how are the minis doing?

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks Retta. Florida has a lot of hidden visual treasures, but much of it suffered in the forest fires 6 years ago, so these little patches must be embellished a little to imagine that bygone splendor. The minis are doing great... fiesty at feeding times.. which is good. Thanks for watching

[liwana31]

Thank you,Gary.Your experiments are very interesting for me.Really,the knife is good for painting.Good idea!

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks... I think this is the smallest palette knife painting i have ever done... but it was a LOT of fun to be sp free with the paint. Thanks for watching.

[erictfrancis]

exellent painting and the music is so relaxing

[GaryGarrett]

Thanks Eric. The music is "A Special Place" by Lord & Taylor.; track 2 from their "Centering The Soul Vol. 3" CD... mixed into the voice-over track is a portion of my birdsong recordings from prior paintouts.

Thanks for watching.

[pyramiaou]

Good stuff Gary, reminds me of van Gogh - looking at some of his paintings you can see how he "wove" the paint in thick slabs. I love the effect you achieved.

[PuppyZwolle]

Amazing result for the size it is. I did stuff like this on canvas at least 4 or 5 times that size. Now I wonder if I wasn't a bit to conformist for never having tried this on a smaller scale.

Very nice painting.