how to start a painting: 5 easy steps to start painting

Learn how to start a painting to get ready for an art painting.

Painting adds joy and accomplishment to our lives. Regardless of our background or skill level, we all can all experience the joy of creating art.

Confidently use these steps to start any art painting, your own beautiful creations and also use them to paint the tutorials.

Get started painting!

how to start a painting

#1 Set a Time and Place

#2 Select Your Subject

#3 Get Your Materials Ready

#4 Choose Your Colors

#5 How to Start

Bonus: How to Start a Landscape or a Portrait.

#1 set the time and place

Set aside time to paint. Painters progress rapidly when they paint regularly.

Have a special place for painting.

If it's possible, have an area where you can leave your paintings things out. You'll be more likely to paint often when you have your own special painting space.

#2 select your subject

What are you going to paint?

Paint what you love.

A good place to start painting is to paint something you see around you. We are familiar with our surroundings.

The best bet is to paint from life or use your own photos.

We do a better job of painting the things we know. You may have photos you took on your vacation, a photo of your pets or flowers, etc.

When we don't have our own photos, be aware that pictures on a postcard, calendar or a magazine are under copyright laws.

Do not paint them without giving credit to the photographer. Artist's paintings are also copyrighted.

We may go on line and find free images that have no copyright restrictions.

#3 get your materials ready

It's a good idea to keep a stock of supplies, so we can paint anytime.

Begin painting with a minimum of supplies.

All we need is paint, a palette, a few brushes and a surface to paint on.

Get your paint and brushes.

what size will your painting be?

When you are thinking about how to start a painting, decide how much time you are going to spend painting.

Small paintings are quick!

Small paintings are a good choice when your time is limited.

Painting smaller will still give us the satisfaction of a completed painting.

Large paintings will often take several sessions before the painting is complete.

Sometimes they may take even weeks or months, depending on our time restraints.

Small things like hummingbirds or butterflies normally go into a small format.

If we will be including lots of things in the painting, it makes sense to use a larger format.

So, landscape, cityscape, and seascape paintings usually are painted on a large surface.

#4 choose your colors

A limited number of colors in the painting create color harmony.

Color schemes create harmony.

A painting with too many colors is disconcerting.

When there are so many colors, the viewer's eye doesn't know where to look.

So, it's a good idea to not use all the colors from our paint box in one painting.

There are so many beautiful colors, but two to five colors will create a harmonious painting.

Selecting a color scheme will give cohesiveness and punch to our paintings.

Many additional colors can be mixed from a scheme of only two to five colors.

#5 how to start a painting

The best way to start a painting is with a drawing.

Do several small sketches about the size of a postcard.

Sketch the large shapes, their values and how they will be arranged. The painting will go much smoother, when they are planned out ahead of time.

Pay close attention to the light and dark values because values create stunning paintings.

If your painting includes a lot of detail, draw the subject to scale.

drawings for oil paintings

Paint an outline of the composition on the canvas.

This drawing was done on the canvas.

Do the outline with thinned yellow paint.

If you don't like a line, rub it out with a rag or a paper towel and paint it again.

Pale yellow lines are easy to paint over. The yellow will not show in the final painting.

If there will be a lot of detail in the painting, do a detail drawing on paper first. Then transfer the drawing to the canvas.

Do not use carbon paper to transfer drawings. Graphite paper is best.

drawings for watercolor

Do the drawing for a watercolor on a separate piece of paper.

This drawing was done on paper first.

Transfer the drawing to your painting surface with graphite paper.

People that are good at drawing may lightly sketch the drawing directly on the painting surface.

Use a graphite pencil. A hard pencil is better to use, so there will not be extra graphite to show thru in the finished painting.

If any erasing is needed, do it very lightly.

Strong erasures on watercolor paper rough up the surface of the paper. Then the erased spot tends to absorb extra paint.

how to start a landscape

The logical of how to paint a landscape is to paint things behind or underneath first.

Paint from the background to the middle, then the foreground.

Look at the painting below and imagine yourself painting it in the order of the numbers.

1. Paint the background things like the sky, distant hills or water.

2. Start painting forward. The middleground foliage is closer, so it overlaps the sky.

3. The water was painted before the buildings and boat because they rise up out of the water.

4. Then the buildings were painted. Note how the buildings overlap the foliage of step 2.

Paint from the background to the foreground.

5. The boat and its reflection are painted on and into the water of step 3.

6. Paint the foreground foliage on the sides of the painting. Note how they overlap the water.

7. Finish the details and make any corrections. The water was highlighted and shadows were painted at the base of the grasses.

Painting from back to front is a good way to start painting landscapes.

After we are more familiar with painting, we may approach each painting differently. For example, the sky may be the last thing to be painted.

It's up to the artist and each individual painting, but this is my favorite way to paint landscapes.

start a portrait of close-up subjects

How do we start painting closeup things like people, a butterfly or an animal?

Paint the subject first. Then paint the background around the main subject.

The butterfly was painted first.

Then the background was painted.

This is my preferred method of painting a close-up subject. When the subject has been painted, then it's easier to see how to use values and color to contrast and highlight the subject.

Many artists do it the other way around. And, sometimes I do paint the background first and the subject second.

Either way is correct. It is just a matter of personal preference.

start painting - it's fun!