The palette knife and oil cups

This is a long, slender, flexible steel blade rounded at the end, fitted into a wooden handle.  Palette knives are used for taking up the color on the palette, also for mixing tones before transferring them to the canvas. Sometimes artists use the palette knife in painting large pictures, especially in laying in backgrounds and drapery; it is also made useful in painting rough textures, such as stone walls, stony roads, etc. It is better for the student not to attempt this style of painting, but to use only brushes until lie has entirely mastered his craft. Palette knives cost from 25 cents upward, according to size.

These are very small cups, made of tin, with or without tops, and are arranged to fasten on to the palette. They hold either oil or turpentine, or both, and are very convenient in painting. The single tin cups without covers cost 5 cents each-the double cups, which are the most useful for an outfit, cost 8 or 10 cents without covers, and fifteen or twenty with.  The only advantage in the cover is to keep the oil from drying or turpentine from evaporating.