The answer is the light. The very thing by which we see.
Art for beginners: how to learn to paint
Social distancing and self-isolation has left many of us with much more time on our hands than normal. While no one should feel under pressure to achieve anything under the circumstances, the unexpected free time can also be a good chance to get started on the hobby you’ve always been meaning to try.
Whether it’s painting, drawing or colouring, art is a wonderful activity to take up during lockdown. Not only is it very mindful, helping to ease symptoms of anxiety that the coronavirus news cycle might bring about, but there’s also something lovely about the creative aspect. The satisfaction of having something you’ve painted in front of you, no matter how ‘good’ it is, is truly empowering.
Here’s everything you need to know about taking up art, including how to get started, where to get inspiration from and the tips on doing it from home.
Art for beginners: why learn to paint?
Whether you think of yourself as creative person or not, you should give learning to paint a chance.
“Creative pursuits like painting have massive potential to promote positive mental health, especially at times like these,” says Alice-May, a professional painter and ex NHS worker from Hampshire. “While I would always recommend that anyone with specific mental health issues should seek professional medical advice, on a more general day-to-day basis, building such a creative activity into our schedule enables us to process the stresses and strains around us much more successfully, which ultimately brings a sense of inner peace and well-being.”
“Given what is happening in the world today I am a huge advocate of giving ourselves permission to look after ourselves in this way,” she continues.
It might also be a welcome distraction. “Painting relaxes you, and if you immerse yourself in the creativity it’ll give you a chance to focus on something else,” says Jonjo Elliot, an artist from Leicester. “At a time like this we all need a distraction.”
Art for beginners: how to get started
When it comes to paints, there are many different types you can choose from. The three main ones are watercolours, oils or acrylics. So where do you begin?
“It’s all about what works for you and your situation,” says Alice-May, who advocates trial and error. “If one doesn’t work for you and you have the flexibility, then don’t stress about it; simply move on and try another one.”
Buy a few quality supplies
Paints come in both artist (also called “professional”) quality and student quality, with significant price differences between the two. Choose artist quality for the best results. While it’s logical to think that student paint will be adequate for learning, it may impede your growth. The low pigment load and added fillers in student paint make it difficult to achieve bright, clean colors, and you may be discouraged by the murky paintings you create.
To get started, all you’ll need is a primary color palette—red, yellow, and blue paint tubes. Add a tube of white if you’re working in an opaque medium, such as oil, acrylic, or gouache. With these colors, you can learn to mix a version of every other color that you need: greens, purples, oranges, browns, greys, and blacks. Using a limited number of pigments will allow you to focus on paint application, rather than continually hunting for the perfect tube of color as you paint.
In terms of brushes, a small selection of four or five options in various shapes and sizes will be enough to begin painting. You’ll quickly learn which brushes you prefer, and you can stock up on those in the future. For now, focus on experimenting and discovering the marks that each type of brush can make. You can learn more about brush types in this article.
Get an overview of the painting process
Over the centuries, painters have worked out efficient systems for starting and developing paintings, and you can access that knowledge through how-to books and free online videos. Look for titles that suit your interests, such as “paint like the Impressionists” or “how to paint people.” You’ll discover that there are a few basic ways that artists start a painting, such as by making a drawing and filling it in with color; creating a tonal underpainting; or starting from flat patches of color. By working from the demonstrations in books or videos, you will become familiar with basic painting processes and gain the confidence to tackle a subject of your own.
Painting from real objects is a great way to learn for two reasons. First, it forces you to interpret the three-dimensionality of what you’re seeing on a two-dimensional canvas. Photo references are already flat, so copying them requires much less problem-solving, and you’ll learn less as a result.
Second, painting from life helps you hone your observational skills and teaches you to see the world the way that artists do. You’ll become aware of subtle color, value, and shape relationships in the things you’re looking at, and you’ll be able to use this awareness to inform and enrich your work.
Discover your personal preferences
Set up a small still-life of one or two objects and attempt to paint it using approaches you learned from videos and books. Notice which method feels most comfortable to you. This will allow you to personalize your learning and focus your efforts on that technique in future paintings.
You’ll discover other biases, as well. You may like hot reds and oranges in your paintings, or prefer cool greens and blues. Perhaps you long for a color that you’re having a hard time mixing with your primary palette. This is the time to purchase more paint tubes and explore how the new colors affect your work.
The process of identifying your likes and dislikes is a crucial step in learning to paint; you won’t find your artistic voice without it. When you recognize and respond to your preferences, your paintings will become more meaningful to you, and they will begin to communicate your vision to the people who see them.
Using the Fundamentals to Create Depth
Now that we’ve used all the fundamentals of painting to create this still life, how can we use them together to add depth to the image?
Combining the four fundamentals together can create depth.
Let’s say that I’m putting in a city skyline behind these two objects and I want it to be in the distance. I can use values, edges, or color to push it back.
Values can become more muted by making the buildings closer in value to the background in order to add depth to an image.
For values, I can make its values muted and become closer in value to the background that it’s in.
Depth can be added to make realistic paintings by making the edges in the background softer than those in the foreground.
For edges, I could make the edges soft or blurry in relation to what’s in front of it.
To add depth, you can make the colors of the buildings closer to the color of the background.
And for color, I can make the colors closer in color to the background, or the sky.
The various combinations of values and edges and color can be used to create the impression of your choice as an artist.
I could use a combination of two or all three and mentally toggle how far I push each one to create the impression that I want. How far I push them is going to be dependent on what I do with the other two.
This is a really simple image because we’ve got these objects up front and then the skyline in the back, but maybe you don’t want to have all of your edges blurred out in the same way across the buildings. Maybe you want it to be blurrier in the center and the edges can get a little bit sharper as you go out.
Artistry is revealed in the choices made by the artist of which of these fundamentals are accentuated and emphasized.
As you can see, you’ve got a lot of options. Hopefully this simple example is giving you a sense of how these fundamentals of painting are not only working together but just so effective in creating whatever kind of impression that you want to convey.
Using the Fundamentals of Painting to Make Your Own Original Art
This is where your artistry really comes out because there are multiple destinations that can create that depth you’re looking for. It’s up to the artist to selectively choose what they want to bring out, what they want people to focus on, or what they want to just pull back slightly and accentuate using any one of these fundamentals of painting.
That destination is yours to choose. It’s the fulfillment of the intent that you set from the very beginning of your work.
Conclusion
The four fundamentals of painting help to pave the road for artists to make realistic art on their journey of learning.
The road to taking what’s in your heart and mind and getting it out into the world and sharing it with others is paved by these fundamentals. However, to gain a command over these fundamentals of painting and to realize your intentions, it’s not enough just to read these posts. You have to go and earn the experience for yourself.
Hopefully, this is giving you a frame of mind to approach your work, but in the same way that the light guides us in the decisions that we make for our paintings, we need to have a guide, someone who’s experienced, who’s been there before, and who can keep us on the correct course in our growth and journey in unlocking and unleashing the creativity that’s inside of us.
That’s our goal at Evolve Artist. It’s to create a path that is direct and efficient and to provide a guide every step of the way, including materials, feedback, and guaranteeing results. It’s designed for someone who wants to take their art to a whole other level, getting to a place where you can fulfill your intentions and create art without limitations.
Click HERE to sign up and watch the 3 Things Mini Course.
Fundamentals of painting aside, there are three things that every artist needs in order to gain a command over their art and reach pro level art skills. I have given advice to hundreds of artists and not one of them has even come close to their full potential when just one of these three things is missing.
Evolve’s Daniel Folta transformed his art using the Evolve Artist method. You can start with the FREE 3 Things Mini Course HERE.
And that was the case for me too. I was seriously lacking in one of them, and it wasn’t until I seized it that I began to consistently produce professional level work.
So I have made a free, 15 minute course where you can get out your notebook and get ready to map out some clear steps to reach your art goals.
Learn from these three different artists and what they are missing through the FREE 3 Things Mini Course HERE.
In the course we’re going to look at three different artists, each of whom is missing one of the three things. You might relate to some of them! We’ll talk about why these three things are so essential, and how you can attain these things for yourself.
I’m very excited to share this with you! Click the link HERE to watch this free course.
I wish you all happy, happy painting.
This post is Part 5 of our Fundamentals of Art series. Click HERE to read about values, HERE to read about edges, HERE to read about perception, and HERE to read about color.
