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Absolute beginners guide to painting (in any medium)- my top 10 tips- cover everything you need to know to start
Hi there, if you’re reading this you’re probably a creative newbie and are wondering about how to get started with painting or what to do next. I want to share my top painting tips that I wish I’d known before I got started to make the process much easier. I have broken down the whole topic into 10 easy to follow steps and I cover painting in general in any medium
Lately I’ve become interested in oil painting. I’ve been trying to find beginner friendly information on how to start, what materials I’ll need etc. I’m surprised that the YouTube videos and blog posts I’ve come across titled ‘for beginners’ use terms that I don’t understand, and expect me to already have some knowledge on oil painting. This has turned me away from trying oil painting for now and I’ve decided I’d rather just practice what I’m already familiar with- watercolours and acrylics. Reading some of these off-putting non-beginner friendly blog posts also encouraged me to write my own little guide to painting for beginners where I explain all the terminology and jargon that The average newbie won’t understand. Some of the questions I was left confused about regarding oil paints: can I use the oil paint straight out of the tube or do I have to use a paint thinner? Can I paint on mix media paper as is or do I have to prime it myself? What does it even mean to prime the paper? Can I use my expensive watercolour/acrylic brushes or will I destroy them and I should purchase separate ones for this medium? There were just too many quieries as a beginner that I felt weren’t addressed properly and honestly I didn’t feel like researching it in so much detail. A beginner guide should have already considered basic things like this rather than assuming everyone else already knows.
Rant aside, this guide is targeted at the real absolute beginners. If you’re more experienced at painting I’m sure there will still be useful information for you too, but I wrote this keeping in mind that the person reading hasn’t bought any supplies yet and is curious to try painting but doesn’t know where to begin. It is extremely in depth and explains very clearly and easily a lot of things I’ve learned over the years, including some unusual things you may not have heard of like using parchment paper in my diy acrylic paint box.
Let’s get started
The things I’m going to discuss in more detail:
- the type of paper to use
- The single best brush to buy first
- Different types of paint and where to start (an overview)
- Paint pallet – read more about how to store acrylic paint (air tight, wet paper, parchment paper)
- Coloured Pencils for outline
- Painters tape
- Painting surface
- Water jars and towels/setup
- Extras (gesso, masking fluid etc)
- How to clean your brushes when done
Firstly, the type of paper you use really does matter. Regular printer paper rips and gets soggy too fast (you’ve probably already tried this and you already know). You can definitely paint with thick acrylic paint on printer paper but my best tip would be to buy watercolour paper or mixed media paper right away, even before you decide on your paint medium (e.g watercolor, acrylic, oil). This is because you can paint with any medium on watercolor paper or mixed media paper and youll have no regrets. On the other hand, say for example you picked up a few canvases from the store (see picture) and then you decided you wanted to explore watercolor paint- you cant get much out of watercolor paint on a canvas and you’ll be pretty annoyed. I want to point out that as a beginner, quality of watercolor paper doesn’t matter a huge deal. While youre practicing you can definitly create beautiful pieces on basic quality paper. I use mixed media paper all the time. My favourite inexpensive beginner friendly paper is probably the canson brand. This is the practice pad I use for watercolor and acrylic painting in size 7 x 10in and this is the same pad in size 9 x 12in
2) buy 1 good round brush from any store. You can also try a beginner multipack, they are generally inexpensive but they’re usually poorer in quality. Don’t substitute your good round brush for one from a multipack, separately purchase this. A good size 6 round brush is perfect to start with and there are SO MANY affordable ones out there. Brands to try include daler rowney, prinston, royal langnickel
3) use a brown coloured pencil to draw outlines with and any regular eraser. I find coloured pencils smudge less than regular pencils especially on canvas and watercokour paper. I even use skin coloured peincils if I really dont want the outline to be visible when painting with watercolor paints because they
4) use reference pictures- its completely normal and acceptable, even the best artists do this! Most of you will probably be thinking ‘well duh’ because this seems obvious, but if youre anything like me, i thought being an artist was all about using your imagination and creating pictures right out of your head. quickly i learned that although using your imagination is a huge part of it, to create the best pieces of art you need to use references to give you a better understanding. I like to use pinterest or even google images. I dont like to ‘copy’ anything but I pull bits from here and there to make my final piece. For example for this painting of a floral arrangment in a gold urn, I used a separate reference picture for the gold urn, and two other pictures for the flowers.
5) decide what medium of paint you want to start with- do you want watercolors? youll typically find them in small pans as dried blocks of paint but they also come in small tubes.