Step 1. Consider Why You Want to Take up Painting and What You Want to Get out of It
Before you go out and buy all your new art supplies and start throwing paint onto the canvas, you should consider why exactly you want to take up painting and what you want to get out of it.
Your answers will determine how you proceed and what you should focus on learning. I don’t believe that there is a static learning path that everyone must follow to master painting. Everyone has different tendencies, interests, and natural skills, which determine the optimal learning path they should take.
For example, some people do not have the patience to sit down and accurately render every tone and detail of a subject. Therefore, they may be better suited to learn color and brushwork from the Impressionists rather than the rigorous practices of the Russian academic painters.
Or maybe you have no interest in breaking into the commercial art world and just want a fulfilling hobby. In that case, you may want to take a more relaxed approach to how you learn.
Or maybe you want to become a master realist painter like John Singer Sargent or Joaquín Sorolla. To get anywhere near this goal, you would need to follow a dedicated and rigorous training regime that focuses on drawing and the other fundamentals of painting (color, value, composition, etc).
Joaquín Sorolla, Sewing the Sail, 1896
Joaquín Sorolla, Sewing the Sail, 1896
Whatever the case, it is important that you have self-awareness of why you are doing this in the first place and what you want to get out of it.
If you have not already, take a second to think about it. You may even want to share your answer in the comment section at the end of this post.
Step 2. Pick Your Medium (Acrylics, Oils, or Watercolors)
Next, you should decide on a medium to focus on, at least for the short term. This will allow you to really get a feel for how the medium works, so that you can then pay more attention to the big-picture aspects of painting, like color, composition, value, etc.
The major choices are oils, acrylics, and watercolors. There are some other options, like gouache and water-mixable oils, but I won’t touch on these in this guide.
But there is no right or wrong answer here. Every medium has pros and cons. Here is a crash course on the different mediums to help you decide which suits you:
Acrylics – The Beginner’s Choice
Acrylics are widely favored by those just starting out with painting as they are easy to use and do not require any special supplies. The downside is they dry very fast.
Acrylics may suit you if:
You are a complete beginner and do not want to worry about the complexities of oil and watercolor painting.
You want an easy cleanup time.
You are painting on a limited budget.
You enjoy experimenting with mixed media.
You are sensitive to the harsh chemicals involved with oil painting.
The downsides of acrylics are:
The paint dries very fast. This means you only have a limited amount of time whilst your paint is responsive on the canvas.
Some colors darken as they dry (the colors that are lighter tend to have a greater change).
I personally started with acrylics many years ago. Below is one of my childhood paintings in acrylics.
I eventually moved to oils after getting frustrated by the quick drying time of the paints. But acrylics were great for developing a broad understanding of painting whilst I was a beginner.
Dan Scott, Early Painting - Mountain Reflection
Dan Scott, Early Painting – Mountain Reflection
Oils – The Master’s Choice
Oil paints are the most widely used medium among professional artists for a number of reasons:
They are versatile. You can vary the drying time and consistency of your paint dramatically using paint thinners and additional oil. This allows you to work with a wide range of painting techniques, including blending, glazing, and scumbling.
They were favored by the all-time greats of painting.
Oil paintings seem to be held in higher regard by art collectors compared to acrylic paintings (there are of course some exceptions to this).
You really cannot go wrong with oil paints. If you are not sure where to start, I suggest either jumping straight into oils or starting with acrylics with a view of jumping over to oils once you are more developed. There are some fantastic acrylic painters, but many of them paint in a very contemporary style. The traditional painting techniques which were used by the old masters are much better suited to oil painting.
If you think oil painting is too complex for you, then I urge you to reconsider. There are really only a few ‘rules’ that you need to understand in oil painting and the rest is very similar to acrylic painting.
Tip: For those of you who are concerned about the harsh solvents used in oil painting, like turpentine, then check out odorless solvent. It makes oil painting much more pleasant. You could also look into water-based oils.
Dan Scott, Secrets On The Lake
Dan Scott, Secrets on the Lake, 2017
Watercolors – The Untamed Beauty
Watercolors are generally considered to be the most difficult to pick up due to the untamed nature of water and the fact you are not able to do much re-working of errors (as the paper can only absorb so much water). However, if mastered, watercolors can produce stunningly elegant paintings.
For this reason, I recommend you start out with either acrylics or oils before venturing into watercolors. However, watercolors are a fantastic complement to your acrylic or oil painting as they train a different skill set.
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