25 really, really cool painting tricks to get you started!

to try out painting, you need:
paint, paper, brush

the 3 main paints in our art studio...

watercolor

tempera

acrylic

things to think about as you paint...

color&value

ROYGBV/ Primary/ Secondary/ Warm/ Cool/ Complimentary/ Analogous/ ​Light/ Dark/ Tint/ Shade

line&edge

Diagonal/ Vertical/ Horizontal/ Wavy/ Curvy/ ZigZag/ Straight/ Hard/Soft

texture

Actual Texture/ Implied Texture/ Bumpy/ Smooth/ Rough/ Soft/ Hard

shape/space/form

Geometric/ Organic/ Square/ Circle/ Rectangle/ Triangle/ Positive/ Negative/ Overlapping/ Spaced/ Sphere/ Cube/ Pyramid/ Cylinder

exploring unique 
​painting styles

Teacher 
instruction
There are SO many unique ways to paint...the examples below are just a few. What made many of these artists famous isn't that they earned the title as 'The BEST Painter of All Time', but because they took a creative risk and changed the way we see and experience art.
From the examples below, find a style (or styles) that stand out to you the most. In class, we might start by looking closer at a style you like (see below), choose a subject matter to paint, then switch it up and make it your own. No rules and no mistakes...feel free to explore and take creative risks!

a tree painted in 13 different styles

Picture
Ville D'Avray, Camille Carot

realistic

Realistic painting styles used fine, smooth brushstrokes and details to represent subject matter as it might actually be seen in the real environment.
Picture
Apple Tree, Claude Monet

​impressionist

Impressionist painters represent natural transitions and movement in nature with the shifts of light, color and shadows that change throughout the day. They use soft, painterly effects combined with color and light. The subject matter was still somewhat realistic, while soft and blurred to imitate movement.
Picture
The Tree of Life, 1905, Gustav Klimt

decorative

Decorative painting is highly detailed to create richness and intensity. Decorative painting can be realistic, but are usually more surreal and abstract.
Picture
Swans Reflecting Elephants, Salvador Dali

surreal

Surreal painting styles represent dreams and ideas. While the technique uses realistic details, the subject matter isn't realistic. Lines and shapes are organice and hard-edged.
Picture
Tree, Paul Cezanne

painterly

Painterly styles use loose, soft brushstrokes combines with some hard line and detail to represent the subject matter somewhat realistically, but in a more expressive way.
Picture
Mulberry Tree, 1889, Vincent Van Gogh

expressionist

Expressionist painting styles represent subject matter in a bright, colorful way with rich texture and movement. Brushstrokes are very loose and free to create an almost dreamlike effect. Paint is thick, and colors are swirled together, but distinctive and roughly combined.
Picture
The Flowering Tree, 1912, Piet Mondrian

cubist

Cubist styles use abstraction to reduce and simplify details into lines and simple shapes. They might represent the subject matter somewhat, but not in a realistic way. They are abstract.
Picture
The Tree, 2003, Ibrahim El-Salahi

 minimal

Minimal painting styles reduce everything to the minimum line, color, shape, space, etc.  There are very few details at all in minimal painting. Lines and shapes are straight edged, not organic in nature. Colors are pure and flat, with little to no shading.

here are 12 different ways to explore 'style' in your painting

explore more:
try painting with paper
and create a Paper collage

Watch famous collage artist, MarcPaperScissor talk about his process for creating 2-Dimensional paper art

Create your own collage out of flat paper shapes!

Extend your learning & Fun with more activities!