Next, decide on the color palette for your portrait. Grays, browns, and blues are popular choices for monochromatic portraits, but don’t let that limit you. Feel free to experiment with other colors like green or purple to give your portrait a unique twist.
26 Simple Painting Ideas for Beginners
If you’re a beginner painter, seeing complex paintings all over social media can be a bit intimidating. When you’re just starting out painting, it’s nice to focus on simpler paintings to start out.
But just because a painting is simple, doesn’t mean it can’t be gorgeous!
If you’re wondering what painting to try next, you’re in the right place.
I’ve compiled a list of 26 simple painting ideas for beginners to try out.
Simple Monsterra Painting
Plants, like this Monsterra, make great subjects for beginner painting since they can be still recognizable when broken down into their most basic shapes. Additionally, this artist used a color-blocked backround which is beginner friendly.
Shifted Perspective Sky Painting
This is one of those paintings that looks more complex than it actually is. It would be a good opportunity to practice a stippling technique for the clouds. As for the tree, layer your paints from dark to light to create depth.
Paint a Sunset
Let’s kick off our monochromatic painting journey with something we all love—a beautiful sunset. While sunsets are typically synonymous with a riot of colors, painting a monochromatic sunset is a great way to capture its essence in a unique and calming way.
Choosing Your Color
The first step in your sunset painting is to choose your color. Remember, we’re going for monochromatic, which means you’ll be using different shades of this color. You could opt for warm hues like red or orange—these are classic sunset colors. But hey, it’s your sunset! Feel free to get creative and use blues or purples too.
Creating Your Gradient
Once you’ve chosen your color, it’s time to create your gradient. This is where the magic of monochromatic painting comes to life. Start with the darkest shade of your chosen color at the top of your canvas. Gradually lighten the shade as you move towards the horizon. Remember, sunsets are all about smooth transitions—you want your colors to blend seamlessly.
Adding Details
Now that you have your gradient, let’s add some details. Think about the silhouette of a tree line against the setting sun, or perhaps the outline of a city skyline. The key here is to use a darker shade of your chosen color for these details. This contrast will bring depth to your painting and make your sunset pop.
And voila! You’ve just created your first monochromatic sunset painting. Not only is this one of the simpler monochromatic painting ideas to start with, but it also sets a solid foundation for the other ideas we’ll be exploring. Happy painting!
Create a Misty Morning Landscape
Now that you’ve mastered the art of the monochromatic sunset, let’s move on to our next adventure—painting a misty morning landscape. The beauty of a misty morning is that it naturally lends itself to a monochromatic palette, making it one of the ideal monochromatic painting ideas for beginners.
Setting the Scene
To begin, you’ll want to envision your landscape. Are you drawn to the tranquility of a forest shrouded in mist, or does a misty seascape call to you? Once you’ve chosen your setting, select your color. Cool colors like blues and greens work wonderfully for this type of painting, but feel free to pick whatever color speaks to you.
Building Your Background
Start with a lighter shade of your chosen color to create the background. Remember, we’re looking to capture the softness of a misty morning, so keep your brush strokes gentle and blended. You can add a touch of white to your color to achieve the perfect misty effect.
Adding Depth with Details
Now comes the fun part—adding depth to your painting. Use a slightly darker shade of your color to paint the elements of your landscape, such as trees, mountains, or waves. This contrast will give your painting a sense of depth and realism, making your landscape come alive.
There you have it—you’ve just painted a misty morning landscape! Not only have you added another monochromatic painting to your portfolio, but you’ve also explored the use of light and shade in creating depth and atmosphere. Keep up the good work!
Capture the Moonlight
Having painted the subtle hues of a misty morning, it’s time to shift our attention to the dramatic contrasts of moonlit scenery. Enchanting and mysterious, moonlit landscapes are excellent monochromatic painting ideas to explore.
Choosing Your Scene
First things first, decide on the scene you’d like to paint. Will it be a serene lake reflecting the moonlight, a peaceful town under the moon’s glow, or a desert bathed in lunar brilliance? The choice is yours!
Embracing the Darkness
Unlike our previous painting, a moonlit scene calls for darker shades. Select a color that you find appealing—deep blues, purples, or even blacks are great choices. Remember, we’re trying to emulate the darkness of night whilst keeping the beauty of the moonlight intact.
Painting the Moonlight
Now, let’s paint that beautiful moonlight. Start by painting the moon using a lighter shade or white. To create the glow, use a dry brush to softly blend outward from the moon. This technique helps create a realistic moonlit glow that will be the focal point of your painting.
Adding the Landscape
With the moonlight in place, it’s time to add in the landscape. Using varying shades of your chosen color, paint your landscape elements. Remember, objects closer to the viewer should be darker and more detailed, while those farther away should be lighter and less distinct. This will give your painting the depth it needs.
And there you have it—your very own moonlight masterpiece! This exercise should have helped you explore the power of contrast in monochromatic painting ideas. Keep practicing and who knows, you might just be the next Rembrandt of moonlit landscapes!
Best Canvas Painting Ideas for Beginners
Exotic Natural Scenery
What makes a scenic painting worth a nod for your first try is the free hand drawing. You don’t have to worry about shapes since there is not defined shape of any natural wonders. Instead, colors convey a huge meaning about what a painter wants to tell his viewers. Use red or pink or green color on a tree, it is for expressing spring while the pale yellow or orange-ish hue will flip down the story to autumn. You can also check these easy canvas painting ideas for beginners.
The Dark Knight Rises!
The night that walks with moon and stars allowing the sun to sleep and have rest to ignite the next day is great Best Canvas Painting Ideas for Beginners. Also, it is simple and confidence imparting artwork for those with burning passion and newbie. No lightning, no thunder, no scariness implies a peaceful night!
The EYE!
Not the Eye of Horus but that of girl is also worth painting. The eyeballs with unique texture and tint are great and inspiring for the newbie artists. You may also make the piece of art inimitable by incorporating other features of a face thereby standing it out differently than others. Expression carries marks for it is the only thing that could fetch the real feeling of a painter he used for portraying his emotions.
The Ballet Dancer
The figure, the positions, the action, the movement, the outfit and the expression of face is what makes portray of a ballet dancer perfect. You give sharpness to the image and your artwork will be hit. Using Dry brush technique is useful since it gives the thickness to colors providing a sort of 3D effect. Subjective paintings like this paintings has to be imparted with spices like passion or mood and has to be thrown into colors with due restraint.
Let’s Chirp…
I’m sure you can see a chirping bird sitting on a branch for hours. How about painting its calmness meanwhile? Not a bad idea though! Make the range of your color shades so wide that the leaf looks natural and the flowers look fragrant giving an innate appearance to the images you paint on a canvas. Any animal or bird when painted is painted by binding it with color that looks original taking of their natural habitat. Like you cannot portray a lion sitting on a cat’s couch or a dog sitting on the branch of a tree!
Walking Hand in Hand
And here comes yet another Best Canvas Painting Ideas for Beginners who have been feeling inspired from the walking lovers all around. Look at this picture with love rolling all over the picture. The color scheme of color blocking which is yet another awesome asset and the color scheme that makes the reflection look original.
