The smeared strokes might blend into one another, but they will tend to create streaks that add texture. The artist generally does not know exactly how the paint on the knife will land and be spread across the painting, so a degree of indeterminacy is introduced. Smooth planes of smeared paint can be created by the palette knife, or paint from previous palette knife strokes can be dragged across and into the stroke to create unpredictable textures and edges.

The artist can have multiple unmixed colors on the palette knife that appear as parallel adjacent streaks when the paint is smeared onto the surface of the painting. With this in mind, the direction of smear can be used to help indicate the form of an object being depicted.

Featured: Antoine Dominique Sauveur Aubert by Paul Cézanne.