It's easy to avoid common beginner's mistakes...

Are you a beginning painter? It’s easy to avoid these common beginner's mistakes and have your art take some major leaps forward!

Painters of every level of ability make mistakes all the time. One good thing about the mistakes beginners make is that they are easy to spot and fix.

Beginning painters often don’t use enough paint. I still find myself doing it occasionally. Unfortunately, artists’ paints are expensive and many people are thinking of how much it is costing them every time they squeeze out a big dollop of paint. While using more paint certainly doesn’t guarantee a masterpiece, not using enough definitely makes a picture look anemic and weak.

Beginners often use brushes that are too small. Beginners are often amazed to see experienced artists do a demonstration and use one or two large brushes, often even to paint a small picture! Using a big brush helps you learn how to handle a brush, how to use it creatively, and gives your work a sturdy, bold quality that can’t be obtained by using tiny brushes to timidly fill in areas. One reason beginners do this is because they feel they have more control with a smaller brush. And they do. But it is like using a teaspoon to dig a swimming pool. Not efficient.

Beginners often think that painting is mostly about physical dexterity with a brush rather than the specific things a painter pays attention to when painting. In order to show students that brainwork is what actually creates art, I will often have a complete beginner paint along with me. I tell them what colors to mix, where they should put the paint, etc, but I do not put a single stroke on their painting myself. They are amazed that their final painting is as often good as mine. I show them they already have the necessary physical dexterity to paint and need to focus on the learning the artistic thought processes that actually create paintings.

Beginning painters are often more interested in how to achieve realistic surface textures than they are in the basics of painting, like tonal values, drawing, color mixing and composition. They often want to know how to paint weathered-looking barn wood, how to paint water, clouds, etc. The teacher is faced with a dilemma. “Should I answer their question and show them some observations about how I paint water, or should I show them the process to figure out how to paint water, clouds, rocks or anything for themselves?” Of course, the teacher knows the latter is much more valuable to the student. However, it is harder to teach than a few tips about painting water. It is also more work for the student. But that is how students become skilled artists.

Beginners often skip steps in the painting process. Everybody has their own favorite part of painting. For some people it is color; they will skip over spending enough time on the accurate drawing of shapes to get to the part that is most interesting to them. But that can leave their overall compositions unbalanced or their buildings looking lopsided. What is the boring part of painting to you? That is most likely the part you need to give the most attention and care to.

Eliminate all these common beginners’ mistakes and you may no longer be a beginning painter; you may have jumped up to being an intermediate painter!