Getting Started with Painting

Painting covers a wide range of materials and working methods, and most painters eventually specialize in one or two mediums that suit how they like to work — but almost everyone benefits from understanding what each medium is actually like to use before committing to one.

The major mediums

• Watercolor — pigment suspended in a water-soluble binder, applied thin and often in layers ("washes"). Fast-drying, transparent, and unforgiving of heavy correction, which makes it popular for loose, spontaneous work.
• Acrylic — pigment in a plastic (polymer) binder that dries quickly to a flexible, water-resistant film. Can be applied thin like watercolor or thick like oil, dries fast enough to layer within the same sitting, and cleans up with water.
• Oil — pigment in a slow-drying oil binder, prized for how long it stays workable, allowing blending and reworking over days. Requires solvents for thinning and cleanup unless using water-mixable oils.
• Gouache — like watercolor but with an opaque, chalky finish and a filler added to the pigment; rewets easily even after drying, which makes it popular for illustration work that needs revision.

Choosing where to start

If you want to work quickly, revise easily, and avoid solvents, acrylic or gouache are usually the most forgiving starting points. If you're drawn to soft, luminous, transparent effects, watercolor is worth the learning curve its unforgiving nature demands. Oil rewards patience and is worth trying once you already have a sense of how you like to build up color and value.

Learning locally

Community art centers, cooperative galleries, and independent studios across the region regularly offer beginner painting classes and open studio time — see this directory's Classes listings and the Painting-tagged Artists to find both instruction and working painters near you.