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Artistic painting lesson videos have certainly gained prominence in recent years because of their convenience, availability and low cost. But, are they any better or worse than the typical way of learning painting from a live local instructor in a classroom? This article will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches while giving some insight into the process of learning art.

The older and more traditional way to learn painting, short of going through a university program, has been to find a weekly class with a local artist turned instructor. The lesson topics are often narrowly focused due to time constraints. They might concentrate on one technique, medium and subject. A series of classes could revolve around impressionism, oil painting and outdoor scenes for example.

The Disadvantages of a Live Local Instructor

This type of program does not necessarily have the luxury of enough time to teach a novice student all of the theory, techniques, styles and media needed to produce a well trained and well rounded artist. The pace of live lessons are often dictated by the slowest students in the class.

It is almost like playing the lottery when it comes to finding a local instructor that has enough experience and teaching ability to present a balanced education. In the absolute worse case scenario you may learn to produce only a few specific paintings while just mimicking the instructor.

It is usually more expensive and less convenient to pack all of your supplies and drive to a classroom then it is to stay at your home studio and learn from a video instructor.

The Advantages of a Live Local Instructor

Instructor feedback can be important. Sometimes, while learning a new skill, we may be doing something wrong and not realize it. Other times a student may just get stuck and need a few suggestions to get moving again.

The Disadvantages of Painting Lesson Videos

Most video courses do not offer a way to for the author to critique a student’s work or to answer questions. There is, however, at least one exception where the publisher of a top painting course makes it possible to download student artwork photos to an internet based forum. The author of the videos as well as other students from all over the world are then able to offer feedback and answer questions.

Students of painting lesson dvds must be self-starters because they must work independently. Some people absolutely flourish in this environment but others need the pressure of a classroom setting to get any work done.

It can be difficult to determine which painting courses are of high quality and thorough enough before you buy. Only buy a dvd set if they offer at least a 30 to 60 day refund if you are not satisfied for any reason.

The Advantages of Painting Lesson Videos

Video technology makes it possible for the average student to receive lessons from some of the best, most celebrated, award winning, professional artists and gifted instructors on the planet. Without these dvd programs, this high caliber of teaching in a live setting would be unavailable and way too expensive.

Video also allows you to determine the best possible pace for your learning style. You can start, stop, rewind and review at almost any point in a video course. If you wish to refresh your knowledge from 10 lessons ago, just pop in that specific dvd. If you wish to push ahead and conquer many lessons in one week there is no reason to wait for a scheduled lesson time. In fact, if its 2:00 a.m. in the morning and you can’t sleep, you can just head on down to your home studio and dive in.

Dollar for dollar the best video courses are actually less expensive per lesson hour than live instruction.

So If You Could Only Pick One Method Which Should It Be?

Hands down the best video painting courses can be a more complete, thorough and logical way to go from a rank beginner to an advanced, polished artist.

The Ideal Method

Consider combining the personal feedback and encouragement of a competent local instructor with the advantages of systematically working through a complete video painting course. As mentioned previously, the painting lesson videos need to cover fundamental art skills and theories while practicing on specific projects utilizing many of the popular techniques and media. Some students may prefer to first get some experience with the video lessons in order to have something tangible to discuss with a live instructor.

One thing is for certain, however, any method of learning to paint, whether it is from a live instructor or from painting lesson videos, will always be far superior to no method at all. Now isn’t it time to take that first step?

John Mackinnon, having grown up in an artistic family, has had a passion for art for over 40 years. If you wish to find a good set of painting lesson dvds, John has posted a series of detailed reviews and comparison charts of some of the top courses. Learn which Painting and Drawing Lessons are gems and which to avoid before you buy. http://www.MasterPaintingLessons.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/visual-art-articles/painting-lesson-videos-vs-a-live-local-instructor-which-is-best-1465419.html

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Understand that Art (in this case painting) for the making of money is like any other business. You need to market your product or have someone else, like an art gallery, market your work. There are thousands, if not millions of very good painters out there trying to sell their work. Those that have the best marketing system will sell the most for the most money. It is as simple as that.

Now if you are interested in just learning from scratch how to get started as a painter, I can do that. I have been painting for about fifteen years without any formal training. Everything I have learned is from “how to” books or trial and error. I started painting in 1994 when, as a Department of Defense employee, my wife and I were stationed in Israel.

Since we were limited by weight of what we could ship as household goods, we did not pack much in the way of wall hangings. The bare walls of the apartment we were assigned soon became annoying so we started to look around for some paintings to hang. Israel is kind of an artsy country and there is a great deal of art available. The wife and I both have fairly good taste so of course anything we could agree on, which wasn’t much, was really expensive.

After some searching and thought, I finally opened my mouth and told the wife that I thought I could do as well as most of the paintings we were viewing. Unfortunately, my wife threw down the challenge to prove it. Now my male ego was at stake and there was no way around my having to live up to what my mouth had said without consulting my brain. There you have the story of how and why I started painting. As the saying goes, that’s my story and I am sticking to it.

I went to an art supply store and bought a starter oil paint set a few brushes, a couple of how to paint books and a canvas. I finally selected as a subject a picture of the apartment building in which we lived. Mistake – it was too complicated for a first time artist. I finally got it finished but it was a mess. I would suggest you start with something more simple and work your way up.

Let’s discuss what you need to start your new hobby. That depends on what kind of painting you want to start with. The choices are: Oil based paints, Acrylics (water based paints), Water colors, or Pastels. All of these have their good and bad points and people chose one or the other for a variety of reasons. People pick the one with which they feel most comfortable and which results, in their opinion, in the best product.

As a starter I would suggest Acrylics. There are no fumes, they are not flammable and they dry very fast. Fast drying can be good or bad, depending on what you are attempting to do on the canvas. With Acrylics you can sprits on a bit of water or use a special additive to delay the drying process. This medium is also great when it comes time to clean the paint off your hands and brushes because you only need soap and water and not a paint thinner.

From an expense perspective Acrylics are a bit less costly. The average cost for small tubes of these paints is about five dollars. A starter set of paint will usually have about six to eight colors so you are looking at about thirty or so dollars. There are a lot of different brands but not to worry. Pick the cheapest or the ones on sale. All the brands will mix together.

Next buy a set of cheap brushes. You should be able to get five to ten in a package for about five bucks. Buy a couple of one and two inch brushes also. If they are expensive at the art supply store go to a hardware store. You will also need a canvas or canvas board to paint on. The canvas boards are less costly and can usually be purchased in two or three to a pack. The draw back to the boards is that they must be framed for hanging. Canvas cost will vary widely based on size and quality. Buy the cheapest you can for the size painting you want. If you start selling your paintings for large sums of money then you can concern yourself with high quality supplies.

You will need a place to work and something to prop your painting up while you work. An easel is the obvious choice with a large floor standup costing about fifty to one hundred dollars. A table easel will run from about twenty to fifty dollars. If you don’t want to put that much into your hobby at this point, all you really need is a place to work, a table and a wall, books or some other way to prop up the canvas to work.

All you need now is a subject and some self confidence. I find photographs to be the best means of providing your chosen subject matter. I would recommend that you chose a simple landscape photo, preferably with a tree or a small patch of trees. If you chose a picture of buildings or other structures it will be necessary, at least to begin with, to draw a grid on the picture and the canvas. After that you will need to do a rough sketch of the subject matter on the canvas to insure you have a close approximation of where parts of the structures belongs in the painting as compared to the photo. In other words if you have a church steeple in the upper middle of the picture you want to sketch it in the upper middle grid of the canvas. This will save you a great deal of time having to correct a misplaced item about half way through the painting. If you start out with a portrait photo of a person, good luck. I have never been able to do portraits to the degree I would actually show it to another human.

Alright, you have your supplies, equipment, place to work and subject. You are ready to paint. There you sit or stand staring at the blank canvas confidence wavering and wondering where to start. The easiest thing to do is just take some paint on your hand or a large brush and smear it on to the canvas. It doesn’t really matter what color but I usually use the prominent background color of the subject matter/photo I am working from. If I am going to do a landscape painting I will usually just smear a thick layer of blue across the top half of the canvas and a light brown across the bottom. Once you splash the first color onto the canvas you have become a painter. I have seen pieces in museums that don’t look any better than what you just did.

Once you get started and have painted a couple of works do not be afraid to experiment. Buy some “how to paint” books and try different approaches and different mediums. Your first works likely will be categorized as “primitive”. That is not a criticism, just a category of painting. There are many artists that sell their “primitives” for thousands of dollars. Read and learn from books and the internet, where there are many free art clips you can view. Just Google search or go to You Tube and search under art instructions. Look at possibly doing some impressionist and expressionist works when you have built up your self confidence.

If you do something and you don’t like the finished product, you can always paint something else over it. Paint for yourself and do whatever with your paints and brushes makes you happy. Do not worry about what other people think of your work. No matter what you paint some people will love it and some will hate it. You will eventually come to consider any comment, good or bad, on your work as validation that you have produced a work of art that someone looked at with enough interest to comment. It is the people that look at your work and say nothing that are most frustrating.

.     I have about taken you as far as I can in a short article on how to get started. The bottom line is just do it. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I do not know how many times I have heard people say they would love to learn to paint but they could not even draw a straight line. My response to that is you do not need the ability to draw a straight line to paint. If a straight line is needed that is why someone invented the ruler. They work just as well on a canvas as on a piece of paper. The real reason people do not follow up on a desire to learn to paint is that there is work and the possibility of criticism involved. If you really want to Paint do it now. Do not wait until some time in the future because the future never comes. When it gets here it is no longer the future it becomes the present and quickly becomes the past. Past accomplishments are notable but people are more interested in what you are doing today. Good luck and happy painting.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/no-more-excuses-start-painting-now-1321691.html

Often you see pastel paintings in exhibitions and wonder how the artist arrived at the finished product?

PENCIL – When you go to a shop to choose pastels they often appear quite gaudy colours or very dull, so I think people are often unsure which to choose.

As a contemporary artist I would say you are better not to choose too many colours to start with. In our modern times you can choose ready selected boxes to suit a certain type of subject. It rarely happens that you need to use all the colours in the box.

Generally you are better to choose just a few colours that you know you will use. For example – initial colours for say landscapes, a nice variety of different greens, but some neutral colours maybe to blend in or to highlight various areas.

PALETTES – You are the artist so you need to choose wisely, but generally, I personally would include the following: Cadium Yellow, French Ultramarine, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, Olive Green, Crimson Lake, White, Lamp Black and perhaps another shade of yellow and red. There are also different variations of pastels, so this has to be taken into the equation.

OIL – These do not crumble, but you cannot mix them with other pastels. On the other hand they are nice because they do not smudge easily, superb for fine work, because they do not crumble.

SOFT – These are crumbly, colourful, they smudge, are nice to blend with and will cover quite large spaces.

HARD – Easy to erase, not so crumbly and great for first sketches.

I am a contemporary painter and would recommend to you that it is better to pay a tiny bit more for your paints if you wish for your work to last well. The pigments are normally better and therefore less likely to fade. If you want to keep your pastels clean keep them in a box.

However cover the box inside with ground rice. The roughness of the rice rubs against the pastels, it cleans any dirt they may have picked up which they often get from rubbing against each other. Clearly you need to wipe them over before you use them.

Usually a lot of people just keep them in a box lined with corrugated paper or in improvised supermarket package trays. It is often better to work with your painting on a tilt as then, specks of the pastels that crumble will simply drop off.

Last but not least it is better to have your paper secured to a board wider than the paper you are using.

Make sure to take time to choose the paper you use and most important of all – enjoy your art!…

Pastels are generally a good medium to start painting with and everyone has to start at some place. They are easily accessible to the general public to buy, whether in the stores, art shops or maybe a local stationers. They vary in price considerably, but some sell on the market really cheaply.

So there is something within the range of all pockets. Adults and children alike love experimenting with them, they take up little space so they are so easy to carry on your person together with a small sketchbook.

This article was written by Anna Meenaghan of http://annameenaghanart.com

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Materials are important to the artist and like most things in life, it is better to obtain the best that you can possibly afford. Painting isn´t always an easy craft—so your tools are very important to you.

For example, if you choose mediocre materials the final result obtained will probably reflect this.

If you go for quality it should certainly obtain improved results.

As a contemporary artist I can tell you that you require a firm support to paint on, together with a mixed selection of colours and certainly high quality brushes. Brushes are important! You need one that is both clean, a naturally good shape, but that is also flexible. With a good brush you can draw freely and not simply make a certain size brushmarks.

If you use short, bristled brushes they do not usually seem to give a particularly good finish.

If, for instance, you want to draw a persons head you require an amount of flexibility and a precise touch. To achieve this you need to be drawing with the paint continually and in small accurate strokes.

As brushes go I find that it is good to have a few sables that are pointed, as well as a few hog hair brushes. If you use a flat brush you can get delicacy by lying it on its side.

If you wish to draw well and put down patches of colour, you need brushes that have fairly long hair, filbert, round or flat, so they are flexible.

When you purchase good quality brushes then they should stay in shape well, but it is a requirement that they are washed at the end of each painting session. It is pretty clear they will not be good for long unless you treat them well.

What will help you? Well, being a contemporary painter, I often keep an old jam jar filled with turps substitute at my side. This you can use for cleaning out the brushes whilst you are painting and of course when you finish your work for the day. It is recommended that you should clean them sufficiently in this, preferably dry them on an old piece of rag and then finally it is usual to give them a wash with some soap and water.

It is useful to hold the soap in one hand and rub the brushes across it, then clean them gently in your hand with your fingers. The second step is to rinse in water and then start to reshape the bristles with your fingers.

This sounds a lot to do, but really should never take long to do, but it is important.

Sometimes if you are tired you may forget to do this and then find you will be mad with yourself the following day.

Actually most people seem to collect quite a large collection of brushes but end up using only six or seven at a time. As with everything else you have your favourites and really you do not necessarily have to acquire a large stock. You find that you still use your very old ones. These are very nice on wide areas of painting as they are well worn and this saves on your newer brushes as it tends to wear them down.

This article was written by Anna Meenaghan of http://annameenaghanart.com

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As a contemporary artist I only know too well that oil paintings always ought to have varnishing. Firstly they need protection.

Once varnished the painting has a strong layer over the paint, so it is easier to handle as it can then be cleaned. If the painting is left unvarnished it may easily get damaged. As the painting dries out the oil paint tends to get duller and gives a matt finish. However, you cannot varnish until the paint is completely dry and this can take a considerable amount of time.

I think at times you would probably need to clean it first. Ordinary liquid detergent should be quite sufficient to do this. Using only a very small amount diluted with cold water to cover the surface of the picture, rubbing it very gently with a soft soaked piece of rag. Then maybe do the same with clean water, so there is no residue of the detergent used. It then ought to be left to dry thoroughly in a warm atmosphere.

Personally I would like to make clear that it is better to do your varnishing somewhere that has a good dry atmosphere with warmth. If the atmosphere is moist, the varnish often might appear to go into patches of white, which I personally find infuriating.

Now it is possible to get good spray varnishes which dry fairly quickly. A contemporary painter would probably prefer to apply varnish with a brush. Probably a fairly wide, soft brush is best. Generally better if the varnish, brush and painting have been near heat so there is no damp. Put the painting on a flat surface. I pour some varnish into an old tin lid and then very carefully and gently brush on.

It is tempting to go backwards and forwards and overbrush – not so good – as the varnish tends to create bubbles. Easier if you have a small painting, because you can go straight across from one side to the other. You have to endeavour to get as even and as thin a coat as you can. Tendency is to overvarnish, giving a thick layer and an annoying glossy finish.

If your painting is large it is somewhat easier to divide it into square sections and work laboriously on one section at a time. Once you have applied the varnish do try not to disturb it.

Then you need to find a place to put the picture where, while you are working on it, you can see where the light shows on the varnish. This way it will enable you to see any parts that you may have inadvertently missed.

Your picture then needs to be in a hopefully dust free area if possible, with the face side up.
Then you may find that you need to retouch your varnish. Obviously for this you need a thinned down varnish, especially where you may have what appears to be dull parts. Just be careful not to use too much, but it is quite alright to use it on top of half dry paint.

It is fairly usual to think the painting looks dull as it is drying – this is often the result of overpainting layers.

This article was written by Anna Meenaghan of http://annameenaghanart.com

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