Hello, Artenauta! When we set out to start painting easy oil paintings and we lack knowledge or are beginners, there is nothing more discouraging than poor results. However, there are aspects to look at when choosing what we are going to paint that can help us a lot to solve this problem.
There are several themes in painting. And each one has its own level of complexity, beyond the degree of difficulty of each specific image. So we are going to help you with some tips so that you will be able to choose easy images and that, when painting your first pictures, you will get good results.
The first recommendation we are going to make to make easy oil paintings, is that you start copying images already painted instead of starting from real photographs, because it is much easier to paint by looking at the spots and shapes that an artist has already solved, than having to find the way to solve it ourselves before having knowledge of how to do it.
In a previous post, we told you how to apply the technique of oil painting by planes, and it is precisely this type of images that can help us a lot to achieve good results when copying them.
By finding well-defined spots of flat color, it will be easier for us to replicate that work on our canvas. It is not necessary to work in a polygonal way, as we can slightly vary the profiles of the planes and they will still work very well.
Let’s take a look at some tips for choosing easy-to-paint paintings for each theme:
What advice should I follow to paint easy oil paintings of still lifes?
Still lifes are the star theme for the beginner. They are easier to work with when they have few elements. Choose simple still lifes with few objects and shallow backgrounds. Try to look for those who work with paint by plane.
What is your tip for painting easy landscape paintings?
Another good subject for the beginner is the landscape, as it lends itself well to interpretation and, even if we vary aspects of it, it usually works well. Choose landscapes without perspective or vanishing points; that is, without buildings or elements represented in three dimensions. Beaches or landscapes with distant mountains are easier to represent. Remember that what is in the background is usually seen more clearly.
What advice should I follow to paint easy oil paintings of flowers?
Flowers and botany, in general, can also give good results for the beginner. Once again, he chooses images painted by planes, with few vegetal elements and vibrant colors. Backgrounds are less important in this type of painting, although we should play a bit with color and stain on them.
What are some tips for easy animal paintings?
If we want to work with animated beings in our image, things get a little more complicated due to their organic shapes and the variations in their expression or posture. Therefore, try to choose images of animals with simple shapes such as birds or fish, which for humans communicate less subtleties with their looks or movements. Once again, painting by planes will help us to build a clean and correct image.
What advice should you follow to paint pictures of easy people?
The most complex thing that exists in painting is the representation of the human being, due to the preparation that our brains have to capture any change, subtlety or different aspect in people. It is easy to make mistakes if we do not have the necessary preparation to know how to represent coherent factions and postures. Therefore, it is best that if you want to represent people with good results, being inexperienced, you should use abstraction to do so. This will allow you to concentrate on color and composition.
Having said all this, we want to tell you that when we learn from scratch in a school, the right thing to do is to start learning the use of materials, move on to learning the form through drawing and then learn in depth the theory of color and light through simple exercises.
Although it is true that sometimes we simply want to paint for the pleasure of doing it and take action from the beginning, we will tell you that surely after painting a few paintings that you do well, you will be enthusiastic and will want to learn in a more orderly and solid way.
At Arteescuela, we teach you all this and much more in depth in our oil painting course, where you can enjoy the path to become an artist in an entertaining way and at your own pace. In this way, you will always be motivated to continue learning, improving in each work you do, and, above all, developing your analytical skills and creativity.
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