Wednesday, February 2, 2022

How Can I Learn Painting Without Art School?


Kausar Mehmood asks: Hi James, what do you recommend for a total beginner who has never held a brush before? Online course, a book which is self-pace learning? Who can't go to art school.

It's hard for me to say without knowing more about you and your circumstances. Here's my own experience. Although I went briefly to art school, I learned mainly from books and lots of practice and trial and error. 

Books, such as Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting and Creative Illustration are extremely valuable, especially for understanding the principles and the history behind what you're doing. 

But for the practice of painting itself, if I were learning today, I would probably watch a lot of YouTube and Gumroad videos. 

My way of learning new skills is to limit the variables and experiment in a playful way so that I can solve the problems one by one and try out new combinations. For painting, I recommend starting off with black and white first, then adding simple complementary schemes, then triads, etc. I would suggest alternating between oil paint and a water medium like gouache, with lots of pencil drawing too.

If you're more of a social learner, you might prefer to join a sketch group or take a class, or just hang out with artist friends who like to paint. Sorry, I can't evaluate virtual online courses because I haven't tried them.

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting  
  

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