Lena Rivera
There are many simple things that beginners can paint. It is recommended to start small and slowly build up your supplies as you work on more complex pieces. Using a limited palette can help keep your paintings from becoming garish. Fruits, such as watermelons, are great starting points as they have a natural colour gradient that allows you to practice using the fluidity of the paint. The night sky is another simple option as it usually only requires three to five colours, allowing you to focus on learning to blend light and dark paints. Flowers, such as peonies, are another good option for beginners, especially when using watercolours or gouache paints to maintain a light and airy feel.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of colours | 3-5 |
| Subject | Everyday objects, food, flowers, animals, landscapes, self-portraits, etc. |
| Medium | Watercolour, gouache, ink, acrylic, oil, digital |
| Technique | Wet-on-wet free-flow, light and dark blending, limited palette |
| Composition | Rule of thirds, off-centre focal point |
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What You'll Learn
Paint what's around you: a still life, the night sky, or nature
Painting what's around you is a great way to get started with art. Here are some ideas to get you going:
Still Life
Still life is a great way to practice shading and lighting. You can paint anything from the beautiful everyday objects around you to the contents of your painting palette. You could also try painting food with watercolours, like sweet treats such as ice cream and cupcakes. Fruits are another great option, as their natural colour gradients will give you plenty of practice with paint fluidity.
The Night Sky
The night sky is another simple option that only requires three to five colours. You can focus on details and learn to blend light and dark paints to create a beautiful night sky or an eclipse painting.
Nature
Nature is a broad category with many options for beginners. You could try painting simple trees with watercolours or a night ocean scene with the moon on the horizon. Peonies are one of the simplest flowers to work with, and they work best with watercolours or gouache paints.
Remember, you don't need a lot of paint tubes or brushes to create beautiful art. Start small and simple, and slowly build up your supplies as you gain experience and confidence.
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Experiment with media: watercolours, oils, ink, or digital
Watercolours
Watercolours are a great medium for beginners. Start with something simple, like a fruit or vegetable, and gradually add new elements, such as shading. Fruits and vegetables have bright, bold colours and are very forgiving—a lopsided pear or a bumpy capsicum can easily be passed off as nature's creation! You can also try painting flowers in vases, keeping it loose and fun. Animals are another good option, with birds being the easiest to paint.
Oils
Oil paints have a unique, buttery feel and remain manipulable on the canvas for days, allowing you to alter your work. When working with oils, remember to create slow-drying layers over fast-drying ones, or more flexible layers over less flexible ones. This is known as the "Fat over lean" rule. Buy a pre-stretched and pre-primed canvas to make things easier for yourself.
Ink
The intense colours, transparency and fluidity of ink make it a worthwhile medium to experiment with. You can dilute ink with water to vary its effects—thick ink appears deep and glossy, while thin ink is lively and translucent. Beginners should start with a soft brush and experiment with different papers—hot-pressed watercolour papers are ideal for letting the colour flow. Don't be afraid to let the ink flow and find its own edges.
Digital
Digital painting is a fun first step if you're more tech-inclined. You can create realistic artwork using programs like Adobe Photoshop that mimic traditional painting.
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Practise brush techniques and colour harmony
Practising brush techniques and colour harmony is an important foundation for beginners to painting.
Brush Techniques
Firstly, it is important to know your brushes. Pick one brush and find out how many effects you can achieve with it. Try using a dry brush, a loaded paintbrush, or a wet brush. You can try hitting the canvas with it, scratching into the paint surface with the back of it, or pounding the bristles onto a surface. Using an "appropriate" size brush will help you cover more canvas, faster. Using a larger brush for as long as possible will make you a better painter and give you more control.
There are five basic brush strokes: Gradient Blending, Wet into Wet, Optical Mixing, Stumbling, and Smudging. Smudging involves blending more than two non-contrasting colours to produce a neat-smudge effect. The Wet-on-Wet technique involves applying wet paint onto wet paint in a single session, allowing for spontaneous and expressive brushwork. The Stippling technique involves using a densely packed round brush or a stencil brush, dipping it into paint, and then dabbing the canvas like a sponge. Scumbling is a dry brush technique where a thin, opaque layer of lighter paint is brushed over a darker layer, allowing the underlayer to show through.
Colour Harmony
When mixing complementary colours together, they become less saturated but beautifully harmonized. This is useful for creating different values (lightness or darkness) and for painting things in the background. Using a limited palette to mix a wide variety of colours can also help to create beautifully harmonized paintings.
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Learn composition: the rule of thirds and focal points
When it comes to painting, composition is key. One of the most important rules of composition to learn is the rule of thirds. This rule dictates that you divide your canvas into thirds, both vertically and horizontally, creating a grid of nine equal squares. The four points where the lines intersect are the focal points of your painting, where you should place the key elements or subjects of your image. This creates a more pleasing, interesting and dynamic arrangement for your compositions.
The rule of thirds is a useful guideline for beginners to follow, although it should not be seen as a strict rule. It is a tool to assist artists in achieving balance and visual interest in their paintings. It can be adjusted and adapted to fit your artistic vision and the requirements of your artwork. By placing focal points at these intersections, you avoid the common mistake of positioning the most interesting part of your painting in the centre. This off-centre placement will help add visual interest and draw the viewer's attention to the focal point.
The rule of thirds can be applied to a variety of subjects, including landscapes, still lifes, figures, and portraits. When painting landscapes, you can place the horizon along one of the horizontal grid lines, with the foreground in the lower third, the middle ground in the middle third, and the background in the upper third. This creates a sense of depth and perspective. For portraits and figures, consider placing the subject's eyes along the upper horizontal line, with other prominent body parts or points of interest at the intersections.
You can also use the rule of thirds to create movement and life in your paintings. Design elements in the picture to lead the viewer's eye from one focal point to another, using the corners to bring the viewer into the picture. Use elements such as colour, value, and directional shapes to create a pathway leading around your painting to the focal point.
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Paint simple subjects: fruit, flowers, or animals
Fruits, flowers, and animals are simple subjects to paint and are great for beginners. These subjects are not only visually appealing, but they also provide an excellent opportunity to practice basic shapes and techniques.
Fruits
Fruits are an excellent subject for beginner painters as they come in a variety of colours and have relatively simple shapes. For instance, blueberries are very straightforward to paint, and the addition of leaves can make the painting more interesting. Apples and cherries are also good options, as their distinct shapes provide a good foundation for beginners to work with.
Flowers
Flowers, with their vibrant colours and graceful shapes, are a delightful subject for beginners. Simple flowers like daisies, tulips, and sunflowers are a great place to start. Having a reference photo can be very helpful in understanding the shapes and colours. It is also important to create a comfortable and organized workspace, with good lighting and easy access to your materials, to ensure a smooth painting experience.
Animals
Animals can be a fun and easy subject for beginners, especially when painted in a cartoon style. Some easy animals to paint include llamas, with their large heads and big eyes, and mice, with their small bodies and distinctive features. Kangaroos, with their large bodies and small heads, are also a good option, and can be painted using a limited colour palette of beige/brown and black. For a more challenging subject, raccoons are a good choice as they have a lot of interesting features, including their distinctive black masks and furry tails.
Remember, the key to successful painting is practice and patience. So, take your time, enjoy the process, and don't be afraid to experiment with different subjects and techniques.
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