#charcoal and gouache on canvas

[lionofchaeronea]

Twilight, Ramon Pichot Gironés, ca. 1894-1900

[psikonauti]

Andie Dinkin (American, b. 1991)

The Lion, The Fish and the Wardrobe, 2023

Acrylic, ink, gouache, charcoal on canvas

[amorpaints]

Love at First Paint: A Beginner's Guide to Painting

"Almond Blossom" by Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, February 1890

Have you ever dreamed of being like Picasso or Vincent Van Gogh? If you do, you are looking at the wrong blog because I am far from them. But hey there! I'm Eden Amor, a freshman student and a self-taught artist who just loves to paint.

Art has been my passion since I was a kid, and as I grew older, I fell even more in love with it and started trying out different mediums and styles. But there's just something about painting that really excites me! I started with graphite, then moved on to colored pencils, and even dabbled in charcoal (although I never got around to using those charcoal pencils I ordered online). Finally, I found my true love in watercolors, and I've been obsessed with working with wet mediums ever since!

If you are a beginner in painting (like me, have been a skill of a beginner for years), you can enjoy my blog and get some tips that I learned from my starting journey. But if you are just interested in painting or in art generally, you can still read this blog.

Just a disclaimer: I am no expert and just a self-taught artist. Some things might work for me and not for you, and vice versa, so take this blog with a grain of salt.

LEARN ABOUT PAINTING

Since I am a self-taught artist myself, I never applied for workshops in drawing or painting. But most of my art knowledge is from YouTube tutorials, shorts, and IG reels (I have no TikTok, I don’t know why). I suggest learning about the basics before painting whatever you want because you’ll get disappointed after the result or wondering why everything is not working the way you wanted. 

But before anything else, find the medium that you want. Mediums like acrylic, oil, gouache, and watercolor. There might be more but these four are some of the common wet mediums. One thing to address about these mediums is that they all have different properties and the techniques you’ll approach, the materials you’ll use, and the finish or outcome of the painting will depend on the medium. 

MEDIUMS

Watercolor

My recommendation for anyone wanting to start painting with no experience is to use watercolors. The only things you need are watercolor paint and water. Unlike acrylic paint, which, although water-based, can get pretty messy and dries quickly, giving you little time to blend and touch up unless you use an acrylic medium called Retarder, which is a medium that you mix with the paint to slow its drying time, but will cost you more. So, as simple as watercolor can be, it's a great starting point for a beginner in painting. 

However, watercolor painting can be tricky when it comes to water manipulation. The amount of water your brush holds affects in creating an even layer of paint. The drying time takes hours, especially if you are working in layers, if you paint the still-damp surface too early, you will ruin everything and you cannot cover it up since watercolor is transparent. That is why watercolor painting is done light-to-dark because dark colors cannot be covered by light colors. So planning ahead of time is suggested and should not paint with watercolor impulsively.

Acrylic

If you want to take the next level or just explore other mediums, acrylic painting is great for high coverage and textures. What watercolor doesn’t have but acrylic has is the ability to cover mistakes. In acrylic painting, you can paint on top of a painting, which is great especially if you change your mind or decide to start all over again, as long you coat more than one layer of white paint then you have a blank canvas again.

However acrylic paint, as said earlier, dries quickly which can be a disadvantage if you are a slow painter (like me) and especially if you are making a seamless gradient, which is very difficult to achieve and not as easy as you think. Since acrylic is water-based, cleaning is very easy with just water as long as the paint is still wet. Hardened paints can be peeled off easily but only on smooth surfaces, but if you got it on something like fabric, it will be forever on it.

Gouache

I describe gouache (pronounced as ‘goo-aash’) as a combination of watercolor and acrylic. Because like watercolor, gouache is water-activated paint, which means that dried paints can be revived and used the paint again when wet. And just like acrylic, gouache has high coverage and a thick consistency which is great for texture. But unlike acrylic, which has a glossy finish, the gouache creates a matte finish once the paint is dry and it also dries fast giving you no more time for creating flawless gradients.

I use gouache for mini projects, or creating art trends I saw online, but I don’t recommend it for painting a big major project since it can be smudge once wet, and as of now, I don’t know if there’s an appropriate varnish for gouache so if you have any idea please let me know in the comment section.

Oil

The most expensive of the four mentioned paint mediums is oil paint. However, oil paint creates the most realistic paintings. Despite its high cost, what makes me love oil paint is how smoothly the paintbrush glides, like butter. Blending oil paint is very easy, and you can create flawless gradients between colors. Oil paint has a very slow drying time. For small projects, such as those the size of half a sheet of bond paper, it can take days to weeks to fully dry and be ready for varnish. This slow drying time can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the complexity of your painting. It allows you to fix mistakes or make adjustments even the next day. Additionally, a small amount of oil paint goes a long way.

Oil painting can be hazardous because it involves flammable oil-based paints, as well as mediums like thinner and linseed oil. While water is used to dilute watercolor, gouache, and acrylic paints, oil paint requires the use of thinner. It's important to avoid washing oil paintbrushes with water, as it can damage the brushes and won't effectively remove the paint. Additionally, it's crucial to store oil paints, thinner, and linseed oil away from sources of heat and fire.

Since I am only new to oil painting, I cannot give much in-depth information about it and if you do please I beg for some advice and tips in oil painting.

Materials in Painting

Painting can be an expensive hobby given that the materials used (especially the branded ones) are not really as cheap as a pencil and a piece of paper. But aside from being a painter, I am also a cheapskate. 

I will never buy an art supply that is as expensive as my kidney, UNLESS if it is worth it or I can make money out of it. I don’t really have all the money to buy all the art supplies I want, I am still dependent on my parents and have no job yet (currently at college, 18, and an irresponsible young adult). 

That is why I chose to buy art supplies online instead from the art stores near my place. And I think as a beginner, expensive materials are unnecessary because for me an artist should be able to make a masterpiece with his/her skill and not the tools. But that doesn’t mean the quality of materials will not make a difference. So if you are the same as me, you can use my tips.

Paint

The paints I use are not of great quality, but they are good enough. I honestly thought that some of the paints I bought were much better than the pricier ones. 

In watercolor, there are two common types: in the tubes and in the pans. The tubed paints have a consistency of acrylic, unlike the ones in the pans, which are hardened. What I have is the Superior Watercolor in pans set. I bought them online for less than $10, and it is a set of 18 colors with a brush pen and sponge included. The quality is great, it is not chalky, and it doesn’t smudge once dried. I spent my money wisely, and I do not regret buying it even though $10 is already a lot to me.

When it comes to acrylic and oil paint, I suggest buying the primary colors (ultramarine blue, crimson red, cadmium yellow), titanium white, black, and magenta only. I highly suggest buying a large amount of white because you’ll need it most of the time. Buying a set is very costly, but with these 6 colors, you can create any color, save money, and at the same time improve color-matching skills, which is an essential skill as a painter. If you wonder why I added magenta, it is because the combination of red and white is not bright enough to be pink or it is just different from the color magenta, and I think having magenta in the collection is a good addition. I used the Mont Marte brand in acrylic and Marie’s for oil paint.

Paintbrush

There are different shapes of brushes: flat, round, filbert, and detail are the commonly used shapes, and it depends on the medium you are using. For watercolor, a round brush is recommended, and a flat brush is recommended for thick paints like acrylic and oil paint. A filbert brush is also a flat brush, but the trim is round, and it is good for painting clouds. A detailed brush is used for small details like painting dots and thin lines or for small paintings. There are more shapes of brushes out there, but having a variety of brushes can be overwhelming. Get only the brushes you need and have them in sizes small, medium, and large. The size of the brush will depend on how small or big your painting is. Using the appropriate shape and size of the brush will lessen your expenses and you’ll learn to depend more on your skills than the tools.

There are cheap but not too cheap brushes available online. They are not branded, but the quality is good enough (like the ones I use), and the bristles don’t come off easily.

Paper

We can paint on anything, but nothing beats paper. However, the paper used in painting is not just an ordinary paper. The thickness of the paper used in painting, particularly watercolor paper, is important so that the paint would not easily destroy it.

Watercolor paper is usually combined with cotton, making it more durable than regular paper or cardstock. The percentage of cotton in the paper varies as the price varies. It is recommended to use 200 gsm paper, which is what I have because it is affordable and good enough to hold a few layers of paint.

However, I highly recommend using 300 gsm paper because the 200 gsm papers I use still curl up or bend and get wavy, which is a hassle when painting. The higher quality, 300gsm paper or paper containing 100% cotton is easier to work with, as I have observed online, even without taping the paper down, it doesn’t curl up. But of course, high-quality paper costs more, so 200 gsm paper is good enough.

If you are wondering why I called the paper used in painting "watercolor paper," it's because you can also use watercolor paper for acrylic, gouache, and oil painting.

There are two types of watercolor paper:

Cold Press - Cold-pressed watercolor paper has a rough texture, which is great for watercolor painting because it gives more depth to the flat painting (water is water, they can't have shapes and textures like acrylic).

Hot Press - The hot-pressed one is recommended for thick paints because it has a fine, smooth surface, which is great for blending smoothly.

Aside from paper, you can also use canvas paper, stretched canvas, or a canvas panel for thick paints. However, since you are only starting in painting, paper is recommended for practice and is much cheaper than the canvas mentioned above.

OTHERS

Masking Tape

Why masking tape? It is used for tapping down the edges of the watercolor paper so it stays put and flat on the surface which makes painting much easier, and also it creates a clean border. You may see other artists use washi tape because they are less sticky and won't damage the paper once it is peeled off, but I think using washi tape costs more, instead, stick first the ordinary masking tape onto your clothes until it becomes less sticky, and then you are good to go.

Mixing Palette

Usually in watercolor paint sets, the lid of the container serves as the palette. However, when using thick paints like acrylic or oil, a better alternative to a traditional paint palette is a picture frame. Mixing paint on a glass surface is convenient for two reasons: (a) it is smooth and does not absorb the paint, and (b) it is easy to clean. Dried acrylic or oil paint can be easily peeled off the glass or scraped with a blade or glass scraper, leaving a fresh and clean surface for mixing. Additionally, the wood or plastic frame around the glass provides protection against breakage and sharp edges.

Towel/Tissue

A used towel or tissue is not only used for cleaning; it is also mainly used for soaking up the excess water on a brush or for wiping off the excess paint. It is very handy, so you should always have it by your side while painting.

Jar

A brush washer is a must-have for painting. This is where you wash off the paint with water from the brush. You can use an old cup or jar as a brush washer instead of buying the fancy ones which is unnecessary. I prefer using a jar because it is heavier than a regular plastic cup, which prevents it from tumbling or spilling. 

Here's a tip I learned from YouTube: use two brush washers. When you wash your brush once in a single container, the water gets muddy. This can make your fresh paint muddy when you switch colors. To prevent this, wash your brush twice: once in the first container and then again in the second container. This ensures that the water picked up by your brush is clean and not muddy.

ART STYLE

Early in my painting journey, I started practicing by painting scenic landscapes because they seemed easy to me. Of course, I overestimated myself. So I continued practicing more. Painting nature has grown on me, and I realized that my genre is landscape painting. The good thing about it is there is less structure unlike a portrait of a person, and shapes are organic so I will have no problem with imperfections. 

However, I still don’t have the ability to create my own work. I still have to watch tutorials online to have a guide. Most of my artworks were tutored by the artists I follow. Once I start painting with just a reference from Pinterest, I tend to get lost and suddenly don’t know what to do. I end up not continuing the work, which is a waste of time, energy, and material.

Lately, I returned to working with watercolor, but instead of nature, I used a reference photo of a person as a subject. Sketching the face first is my least favorite part, because if I mess up sketching the face, the whole painting is also a mess. Most of my subjects are K-pop idols, especially BTS, because I am also an ARMY! Working with faces is difficult but once you succeed, it is all worth it. 

Social media has highly influenced my art style. The fact that I get envious whenever I see new art trends gives me a push and inspires me to continue doing my art and explore more.

Check Out These Artists I Follow

Correa Art

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CorreaArt

Instagram: instagram.com/correaart_

Jess Chung

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JessChungArt

Instagram: instagram.com/jesschungart

Emily Mackey Art

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmilyMackeyArt

Instagram: instagram.com/emilymackeyar

Genelyn Sandaga

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GenelynSandaga

Instagram: instagram.com/genelyn_sandaga

Socials

If you want to know more about my art, you can visit and support my two Instagram accounts:

@ChiliCheeseLover

@paintwith_amore

💜💜💜

If you have feedback to share, please do! I am eager to hear your thoughts. If not, kindly give this blog a heart; it is greatly appreciated!

💜💜💜

[thunderstruck9]

Constance Tenvik (Norwegian, 1990), I have more memories than if I’d lived a thousand years (Edoardo spacing out), 2020. Gouache, charcoal and saffron on canvas, 100 x 200 cm.

[equ1noxwashere]

“TRY HARDER”

art below the cut!!!

tw for blood and imagery of prayer!

please let me know if anyone would be interested in prints!! ill look into it if there is enough interest

⭐️

ID: charcoal drawings of a man in robes praying, with no head

another charcoal drawing of hands outstretch to meet where the head would be, a single star in its place

red paint stains each hand at the tips of their fingers

red acrylic paint is used to frame the piece, with four eyes filling the rest of the canvas

the eyes, painted with gouache and acrylic paint, show yellow and red reflections, with red coloration in the colored part of the eye, and whites, used to form a sort of ribcage in the whites of the eyes

red + black paint drips from and into some of the eyes

“TRY HARDER” is written at the top of the canvas

[killyridols]

midnight blues by velia de iuliis, 2023, gouache, raw pigment, charcoal on canvas, 48 × 36 inches

[eliabonetti]

Calliope

90x90 cm

Charcoal, ink, gouache, graphite and acrylic on paper applied on canvas.

[monky]

I love when you see an art piece at a gallery/museum and the plate is like untitled, 2021. materials: gouache, canvas, plywood, pencil, resin, charcoal, porcelain, papier-mâché, human hair, horse hair, wax, 24k gold, human hair (pubic), polyurethane, embalming fluid, concrete, moon sand, legos, potting soil, cardboard, styrofoam, milk bottles, Swarovski crystals, bronze, feathers, twine, bone, semen, blood, poop, pee, mercury, silk, fishing line, leather, anthrax, stained glass, grocery bags, digital recording.

[metaphrasis]

WATER AND STONES. [...] artists’ pigments are made from fluids (these days, usually petroleum prod-ucts and plant oils) mixed together with powdered stones to give color. All oil paints, watercolors, gouaches, and acrylics are made that way, and so are more solid concoctions including pastels, ink blocks, crayons, and charcoal. They differ only in the proportions of water and stone—or to put it more accurately, medium and pigment. To make oil paint, for example, it is only necessary to buy powdered rock and mix it with a medium, say linseed oil, so that it can be spread with a brush. Very little more is involved in any pigment, and the same observations apply to other visual arts. Ceramics begins with the careful mixing of tap water and clay, and the wet clay slip is itself a dense mixture of stone and water. Watery mud is the medium of ceramists, just as oily mud is the medium of painters. Mural paint-ing uses water and stone, and tempera uses egg and stone. Even a medium like bronze casting relies on the capacity of “stone”—that is, the mixture of tin, lead, copper, zinc, and other metals—to become a river of bright orange fluid. [...] 

A painting is made of paint—of fluids and stone—and paint has its own logic, and its own meanings even before it is shaped into the head of a madonna. To an artist, a picture is both a sum of ideas and a blurry memory of “pushing paint,” breathing fumes, dripping oils and wiping brushes, smearing and diluting and mixing. Bleary preverbal thoughts are intermixed with the namable concepts, figures and forms that are being represented. The material memories are not usually part of what is said about a picture, and that is a fault in interpretation because every painting captures a certain resistance of paint, a prodding gesture of the brush, a speed and insistence in the face of mindless matter: and it does so at the same moment, and in the same thought, as it captures the expression of a face. [...] 

Paint records the most delicate gesture and the most tense. It tells whether the painter sat or stood or crouched in front of the canvas. Paint is a cast made of the painter’s movements, a portrait of the painter’s body and thoughts. The muddy moods of oil paints are the painter’s muddy humors, and its brilliant transformations are the painter’s unexpected discoveries. Painting is an unspoken and largely uncognized dialogue, where paint speaks silently in masses and colors and the artist responds in moods. All those meanings are intact in the paintings that hang in museums: they preserve the memory of the tired bodies that made them, the quick jabs, the exhausted truces, the careful nourishing gestures. Painters can sense those motions in the paint even before they notice what the paintings are about. Paint is water and stone, and it is also liquid thought.

— James Elkins, What Painting Is

[mybeingthere]

The happiest painting by Ernest Biéler, Mountain Landscape, 1896. Oil on Canvas.

Ernest Biéler (July 31, 1863 in Rolle, Switzerland- June 25, 1948 in Lausanne) was a multi-talented Swiss painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He worked in oil, tempera, watercolour, gouache, ink, charcoal, pastels, acrylic and pencil. He also created mosaics and stained glass windows.

[jinsei-pika-pika]

Andie Dinkin Mermaid Inn, 2023 Acrylic, gouache, ink, charcoal on canvas 48 × 36 in | 121.9 × 91.4 cm

[majikz]

Favorite Art Supplies

Artwork by Ashley Palmer (Me) 2023 24x24 - Acrylic on Canvas Watercolor Markers https://a.co/d/5nvob6x Watercolor Bullet Journal https://mymellowdays.com/en-us/collections/reverie-journals Gouache https://a.co/d/fMvpAjJ - Affordable Option Holbein Acrylic Gouache - Professional/Expensive Option Acrylic Paint https://a.co/d/ivFAwce - Acrylic Paint https://a.co/d/4qRtjwo - Posca Markers Pens https://a.co/d/cMnrzRm - Micron https://a.co/d/eDiHAh1 - Stabilio Fineliner (love but they smear) I was trying to think of other pens that I use, but I honestly just use Microns the most.

Pencils https://a.co/d/hl9kRuO - Mechanical Papermate ClearPoint Pencils (You can grab the graphite size you prefer, of course.) https://a.co/d/25p69yo - Graphite Pencils https://a.co/d/510uIo6 - Prismacolor Pencils

Markers https://a.co/d/emhA4fB - TomBow Double-Ended Brush Markers https://a.co/d/at2dKGh - Crayola SuperTips

Varnish/Sealants https://a.co/d/dbVIaT1 - Pastels, Graphite, Charcoal, or Colored Pencils https://a.co/d/fhLw9QX - Watercolor or Gouache https://a.co/d/e6tQEPZ - Acrylic (Some museums actually recommend NOT using varnish. Use at your discretion.)

[an-american-in-norway]

(en) kunst - (en) art å male - to paint å tegne - to draw et maleri - a painting en pensel - a paint brush (et) papir - a paper et papirark - a sheet of paper en blyant - a pencil et viskelær - an eraser en/ei maling - a paint en/ei akvarellmaling - a watercolor paint en/ei akrylmaling - an acrylic paint en/ei oljemaling - an oil paint (en) gouache - gouache en/ei skisseblokk - sketchbook et lerret - a canvas (et) kritt - chalk (et) blekk - ink en tusj - a marker (et) kull - charcoal

[santoarte]

"Ocho.012". 38x46cm. Gouache, marble dust, charcoal & sand on canvas. 2023

Buy my art in www.artevistas.eu

[k00321183]

Nathaniel Mary Quinn

Nathaniel is an artist who is known for his college-like composite portraits, derived from the sources that are both personal and also found. His passion started at a young age, while he was growing up in the south side of Chicago. In ninth grade, he received a scholarship to attend Culver Academies boarding school in Indiana—but a month after arriving at the school, Quinn received news from his father that his mother had suddenly passed away. He returned to Chicago for Thanksgiving the following month, only to find that the rest of his family—his father and brothers—had abandoned his childhood home without a trace.

This traumatising experience further making him more passionate about his art and his school work, also adding his mother name, 'Mary', to his own name.

Midnight train- 2021;black charcoal,gouache,soft pastel,oil pastel,paint stick

Look over your shoulder-2021;black charcoal,gouache,soft pastel on Coventry vellum paper

Norman-2022;oil paint,black charcoal,gouache on canvas

All of Nathaniel's pieces all contain a bit of something from his real personal life and cut outs from random magazines and such online, morphing them together. In his look over your shoulder painting, it was pieces of his brother that he hadn't seen in years drawn into it, which was shocking to the artist himself.

I find his work to be very inspiring on the path I am taking with my art, wanting to make my pieces to be morphed but with objects more so than with other facial features. He was very interesting to research and learn more about though.

[cosmicgardencreative]

Not all art has to make sense

It's been a really busy couple weeks. We managed to accomplish a couple things in between, but it's mostly behind the scenes and storyboarding, so nothing we can show quite yet.

Even with the break that we could manage this Sunday, I got frustrated that I wasn't in the mode to draw my OCs. Instances like this was a reminder that sometimes you just gotta let your brain defrag itself with warmups that aren't character designs.

I don't know many others who do their art therapy like this, but I get a lot of satisfaction with playing with various brushes and colors.

First round was using the different airbrushes in CSP. Second was mixing some airbush with the realistic watercolor brushes, sort of a digital mixed-media feel.

It got pretty telling afterwards that my mind was brewing some dark clouds. The moody rainstorm I ended up painting, though, wasn't ominous but rather cathartic. Looking back at it now, it's weird recognizing how busy my internal workings can get, to the point where it's full of rolling clouds and flashing lights. Still, it's a pretty accurate visualization as I was then contemplating over how I'll be dropping my two weeks' notice on my manager tomorrow.

Although current budgeting prevents us from investing in a sub, I've gotten to appreciate CSP's unlimited doodle mode sans the export feature. MediBang's one hour free session just doesn't quite compare especially against CSP's brush engine.

When I refreshed the canvas for the next round, I played around a lot between the pen, watercolor, gouache, lasso tool, pencil, chalk, charcoal, and crayon subtools. I couldn't really care what I was doing then. I felt like a tired parent sitting on the bench while I let my hand run free like a 5-year-old at a playground.

This particular canvas session was more fun because I felt like I reconnected with how my hand naturally behaves. Who knew that stimming doesn't have to take fidget spinners and squishing colorful sand.

It was about at this point that I started taking notes on what brushes I was using and how they interacted with colors as I got more conscientious of the pressure sensitivity and tilt angles of the apple pencil.

Even though none of this was related to producing concept art, or finishing my queued WIPs, I'm not mad that it's not usable art. Not all art has to make sense, and we just need to be okay with drawing stuff that no one else would care except yourself.