Learn How to Paint Art for Beginners

You can learn how to paint beautiful artwork right at home.

This beginner-friendly guide will help you choose a medium, buy only the supplies you need, learn the basics of good painting, and complete your first tutorial step by step.

Whether you want to paint in watercolor or oil, you can start simply and grow your skills one painting at a time.

Three steps to your first painting:

1. Pick a medium 
2. Buy a simple beginner kit 
3. Paint your first tutorial 

Enter the awesome world of art!

Enter the awesome world of painting art!

Simple Beginner Path to Your First Painting

If you’re brand new to painting, start with Sections 1 and 2, then choose one beginner tutorial in Section 3.

If you’ve already painted a little, feel free to jump straight to the tutorials and come back to the other sections whenever you need them.

1. What Should You Paint?

Keep a watch for things to paint.

One of the easiest ways to begin painting is to choose subjects that feel familiar and inspiring to you. 

Nature, pets, flowers, birds, favorite places, and everyday objects can all become beautiful paintings.

Start keeping a small file of painting ideas.

Look for subjects in your yard, home, travels, or favorite photos.

If you don’t have time to sketch, take pictures so you can return to the idea later.

Need more inspiration? Visit Painting Ideas for simple ways to find subjects for future artwork.

2. Which Painting Medium Should You Choose?

The most popular paint types for artists are watercolor, oil, acrylic, and alkyd.

Watercolor is easy to learn.

Each one has its own advantages, but watercolor and oil are two of the most rewarding mediums for beginners who want to learn step by step.

Watercolor is often used for delicate, intricate works. It makes wonderful paintings.

Oils dry slower, allowing the artist time to blend and rework the passages before it dries.

Acrylic paint is fast drying and relatively inexpensive.

Alkyd is the best of two worlds. It looks and handles just like oil paint, but it dries completely within 24 hours.

Visit an extensive explanation of these 4 popular paint mediums.

Choose Your Medium with a Few Simple Questions:

• Do you want more time to blend and adjust your paint?
  Choose oil or alkyd.
• Do you want easy cleanup and no solvents?
  Choose watercolor or acrylic.
• Do you enjoy transparent, luminous color where the white of the paper shines through? Choose watercolor.
• Do you prefer rich, opaque coverage? Choose oil, acrylic, or alkyd.

Then start here: 

If you want watercolor, begin with the watercolor beginner tutorials.

If you want oil, alkyd, or acrylic, begin with the beginner oil tutorials.

Budget Supplies for Beginners

Start small. A simple kit is enough for your first paintings, and it keeps the focus on learning instead of shopping.

Before you buy anything else, here’s the one concern beginners have.

Do You Need Drawing Skills Before You Start?

No. You do not need to be good at drawing before you begin painting.

As you paint, you naturally become more familiar with shapes, proportions, and the structure of things. That means your drawing skills often improve along the way.

Some beginner tutorials let you trace a simple outline, and others show you how to draw the subject using very basic shapes. So don’t let drawing hold you back from starting.

In some tutorials you can trace the outline from the finished painting like in this dog painting tutorial.

In others, like the butterfly tutorial, I guide you step by step through a very simple drawing.

As you paint, you’ll gradually pick up more drawing skills, so don’t wait to be “good at drawing” before you start painting.

3. Start Painting with Beginner Tutorials

The best way to learn painting is to paint. Step-by-step tutorials help you practice real skills while completing a finished project you can be proud of.

• If you are new to painting, choose one beginner tutorial below and set aside time this week to paint it.

• If you already have some experience, you can browse the full tutorial library.

Beginner Oil Tutorials

If you want more time to blend, soften edges, and build color gradually, start with one of these beginner oil tutorials.

These lessons are also helpful for acrylic and alkyd painters.

Start Here:
Oil Painting for Beginners

A simple first oil tutorial for beginners.

Next Step:
Oil Painting Step by Step

Your next oil painting after the first lesson.

Beginner Watercolor Tutorials

If you enjoy transparent color and lighter setup, begin with one of these watercolor tutorials. They introduce simple techniques in a gentle, step-by-step way.

Step 1:
Your First Watercolor Painting

Start with watercolor for beginners.

Step 2:
Your Next Watercolor Painting

Paint 3 basic watercolor techniques.

4. Painting Fundamentals Every Beginner Should Know

Good paintings are built on a few important basics: composition, color, values, and a focal point.

You do not need to master everything at once. Learn one idea at a time, then use it in your next painting.

How Can I Design Good Paintings?

Composition is the arrangement of the parts of your painting. A good composition helps guide the viewer’s eye and gives your artwork balance and interest.

Composition is easy.

The composition draws the viewers in and guides them throughout the painting.

The rule of thirds makes composition easy for the beginner.

It ALWAYS creates a good composition, so you can concentrate fully on the process of painting.

The painting surface is divided into nine equal portions. The main subject is placed on the lines or intersections.

This automatically creates balance and interest in your artwork.

Get more information on how to use the rule of thirds for good compositions.

How Do I Mix and Use Colors?

Color is one of the artist’s most powerful tools. As you learn to mix and use color well, your paintings become more lively, expressive, and beautiful.

Color is fun!

Practice mixing more colors from the three primaries, red, yellow and blue.

• Mix oil, alkyd or acrylic with a palette knife because it uses less paint.
• Watercolor is mixed with a brush.
• Use small dabs of paint and slowly mix bits of the darker color to the lighter color until you get the desired color.

Color can become one of your most precious tools. 

Learn the ins-and-outs of how to mix colors.

Common Beginner Mistake: Ignoring Values

One of the most common beginner mistakes is paying attention to color while ignoring values.

Values are the lightness and darkness of color, and they give paintings depth, contrast, and strength.

Values make impactful artwork.

Simply ignoring values is easy to do when we are just starting out.

When all the colors in a painting are close to the same value, the picture looks flat and dull, no matter how pretty the colors are.

When you use a range of light, medium, and dark values, your paintings become more interesting and impactful.

Values are used to suggest depth and distance, make objects look three-dimensional, and place one object in front of another.

As you are learning to paint, begin training your eye to notice light and dark values, not just colors.

Try This -

Before your next painting, do a tiny value study with just 3 values; light, medium, and dark. Then use that as a guide when you paint in color.

You’ll see a big difference when you use a good range of light, medium, and dark values in your work.

How Do I Choose the Right Colors for My Paintings?

Each tutorial includes the colors used in that painting. 

This painting used only 3 colors.

For your own original work, a limited palette is often the easiest and most effective place to begin.

A simple way to choose your colors:

1. Decide on the main color for your main subject.
2. Choose a color that's opposite the subject's color on the color wheel.
3. Add a third color that highlights or complements the first two colors you selected.

See the details on how I chose the colors for the turtle painting.

Next Step: Strengthen Your Fundamentals

After you complete one or two tutorials, visit these pages to strengthen the core skills that improve every painting.

• Composition in Art
• Values in Painting
• Focal Point in Art
• Color Wheel / Color Theory
• How to Paint Good Art makes the fundamentals easy.

5. How to Stay Inspired and Keep Improving

The easiest way to stay inspired is to keep painting regularly, even if your sessions are short.

You can also stay motivated by:

• Joining a local art association
• Visiting museums and art shows
• Sharing your paintings with friends or other artists
• Trying new subjects, colors, or mediums
• Paying attention to what you enjoy most

Over time, the things you love painting most may begin to shape your personal style.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve covered what to paint, what supplies you need, the fundamentals, and your first tutorials. Here are a few more quick answers to common beginner questions.

How Do We Clean the Brushes?

Be sure and clean your brushes before the paint dries in the brush!

Clean brushes are a joy to use.

Watercolor and acrylic brushes clean-up with water.

Swish the brushes in a container of water. Acrylic may require some mild soap the get all the paint out.

Oil paint is cleaned up with odorless mineral spirits. Gamsol is recommended for studio painting.

Lay the cleaned watercolor and oil brushes flat, horizontally to dry.

Don't put them upright to dry, stuff will run down into the ferrule and eventually ruin the brushes.

If any of these painting concepts feel unfamiliar, visit the glossary of art terms for simple definitions used throughout painting.

You Can Learn How to Paint

Let your creativity flow!

As you explore the different techniques and subjects, focus on the joy of creating and allow each painting to teach you something new.

Don’t hesitate to experiment, express yourself and find your style. That's the joy of painting art.