Five Most Common Problems Beginner Painters Have

For people who are interested in learning how to paint with either acrylic or oil paint may experience a few common learning problems. These are the most common problems people have when they are learning how to paint. You can overcome these common problems with some basic knowledge and problem solving skills that will eventually get you past these difficulties.

There are five common problems beginner painters have:

1. Very little experience in drawing prior to learning how to paint.

You really need to have some knowledge or experience in beginning drawing before you ever pick up a paint brush. Using a pencil to draw is a lot easier skill than using a paint brush. You should have some basic knowledge about shapes, forms, lines, and values (shading) to enable you to understand how to manipulate colors in your paint. You need to take your time and not hurry through your drawing in order to get the composition of your picture placed in the most effective way in your picture. If you can draw out the picture in a sketch book prior to actually drawing it on your canvas; this will help to iron out any problems that may arise with your composition. Having some skill and practice at the drawing level will definitely help you have a more successful painting.

2. Not being organized from the beginning with how you set up your palette.

When you first learn how to paint you need to be organized with all your paint colors from the beginning. That means to set out your paints on your palette in the same order every time. Try to leave the most room on your palette for mixing your colors. You will have to mix just about every color you use to paint with so you need to have room on your palette for these color mixtures. As a beginner, you will be using trial and error to get the color you want and this will take time and practice to learn which colors you need to mix together to get what you want. If you put your paints out all over your palette with no apparent order, you will not have any room for mixing and will end up having to clean off your palette and starting with a clean palette.

3. Not putting enough paint on your palette the first time.

Many beginner painters will squeeze out a tiny bit of paint on their palette and find that they run out of that particular color rather rapidly and need to get more from the tube again. This can be a problem when you are using that particular color to mix with to make another color with. Don't be stingy with the paint, it is OK to squeeze out a generous amount of paint onto the palette. The paint will stay moist for several days (especially if you put it in the refrigerator) You will use up the paint eventually.

4. Brush work problems of over-doing the brush strokes,

Another common problem beginner painters have is they repeatedly paint over the same area inadvertently ending up with mud. There is a tendency to keep on stroking the same area in the hope it will magically change into something they are trying to do. Unfortunately painting doesn't work that way. Each paint stroke needs to be thought out carefully and done in a way that will not interfere with the other colors. Some of the color do not go together well and this may be the cause of the "mud" in the end. It is very frustrating for the beginner painter to encounter this problem. It is a matter of learning the color theory and learning more skill at handling the paint brush. This comes with time and experience.

5. Forgetting to clean the paint brush frequently and especially between colors.

It is vital to clean your brush frequently while you are painting. Especially when changing to a different color. For a beginning painter it is very easy to forget to clean the brush and accidentally contaminate one of your lighter colors with a previous darker color you were using. This can happen either on the palette or on the canvas. If it happens on the canvas it can sometimes be difficult to fix the area, you may have to just wipe the area off and start again. Even if you don't clean your brush off in the turp solvent, you can still just wipe it off on a paper towel or a rag and that will help.


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