Tonking: How to Smooth Paint Strokes or Paint Thickness without Disturbing the Paint

Tonking is a very useful tool to have in your artist tool kit. Named after Henry Tonks, tonking is when a piece of paper (newspaper, rag, or paper towel) is used to smooth painting strokes or reduce the thickness of paint without disturbing the painting surface.

Take the images below, for example. I was unhappy with the colors of the kitten's paws (far left image) and decided to paint a transparent, color-correcting, blue glaze over them (center image). After painting the glaze I had three problems: too much medium, too much paint, and visible brush strokes.

Using a paper towel, I tonked the blue paint by covering the paw, and then rubbing in order to remove some of the blue paint.

I continued to tonk the paws until the desired amount was removed.

In order to remove brush strokes I could have also used a fan brush, but a fan brush would have disturbed the placement of the paint. Use tonking in lieu of a fan brush when you like the placement of the paint but need to:

1.  reduce the amount of paint
2.  reduce the amount of medium
3.  reduce brush strokes without disturbing the paint


For more about painting, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.