Palette knife strokes might blend into one another, but they will create distinct streaks that add texture with a build-up of paint near the edges of each stroke. 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 can be created by the palette knife smearing a single color, or paint from previous palette knife strokes can be dragged across and into the stroke to create unpredictable streaks of color.

The artist can also 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.