There are a number of painting techniques that may improve your practice and give you more confidence when painting, regardless of whether you want to use oil, acrylic, or watercolor.
By examining how an artist produced a specific effect or finish, having some understanding of various painting techniques will also aid in your comprehension and interpretation of art techniques tutorials.
See our guide on where to begin with art interpretation for some tips on how to get started if you’re interested in learning more about art interpretation.
Regardless of your level of expertise or experience, we’ve put together this guide to provide you a general idea of ten fundamental painting techniques you should practice in order to improve your painting abilities.
Beginning
It is crucial to disregard the “rules” and try out various styles and approaches in order to improve your painting abilities. “Across history, painters looking to improve their techniques have done so by twisting the rules and expectations established by previous generations,” according to Theo Carnegy-Tan, Arts Academic instructor, “this might mean using extreme impasto, or vigorous, gestural strokes as the Expressionists and Impressionists did in the early 20th Century.”
As Theo, the instructor for our Understanding Contemporary Art short course, points out, “you don’t need to follow conventional techniques at all, even in an amplified form,” so keep that in mind if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the variety of options and techniques. Famously, John Baldessari had someone else create a painting for him using just text phrases—all taken from useful textbooks. In the post-war era, artists of all genres who completely gave up on form, gesture, and color were able to explore new possibilities thanks to this method.
1. Insufficient painting
The initial coat of paint put to a canvas or board is referred to as “underpainting.” This coating or layer serves as a foundation for other paint coats and can give a painting a feeling of tone and contrast. This straightforward method may significantly impact a painting’s overall mood by enabling the artist to add brightness to regions that could otherwise seem flat and homogeneous, such a section of the sky or water. To highlight particular colors and highlight particular features, such as light or shadow, artists may decide to experiment with the underpainting’s tone.
2. Dry brushing
Occasionally, artists may employ a method called “dry brushing” to create art with a paintbrush that is largely dried to the touch but still retains paint. Brushstrokes will seem to have a more rough, scratchy finish when employing this approach, which is hard to do with a wet brush or when using a lot of paint. From clouds to trees to hedgerows, dry brushing may be a useful technique for capturing the texture of the natural world.
Ancient Chinese art contains several elaborate instances of this painting style. Using a brush dipped in colored or black ink, a softer, lighter look was produced, which was frequently quite atmospheric.
3. Sgraffito
The Italian word “sgraffito,” which means “scratched,” describes a painting method in which a layer of paint is scraped off to reveal what’s underlying. Artists can successfully remove the outermost layer of a preparatory surface by applying a second layer on top, revealing distinctive patterns or forms.
Anything that will enable you to scratch a line into the paint can be used. To practice producing marks, you may try using the pointed end of a paintbrush, for instance, or you could try using a piece of card, palette knife, comb, or fork.
4. Glazing
Glazing is the process of putting a thin coating of translucent or semi-transparent paint to a painting in order to highlight its brilliance. Wide, soft-bristled brushes are frequently employed in glazing, which may be a somewhat complex operation. By adjusting the quantity of pigment you use, you may change the tone of your glaze. You can also choose to apply layers of glaze to create a deeper appearance. When done correctly, glazing may create a delicate balance between color and tone by bringing the color contrasts together.
During the Renaissance, glazing was a common method employed by painters to blend colors. The primary color would be covered with a thin layer of paint, changing the color below and creating a variety of soft, rich tones.
5. Gestural
The term “gestural painting” describes a method where paint is applied with loose, flowing strokes. Working in this manner allows artists to express themselves via the physical process of painting and create naturally. Viewers may take this method as revealing something about the artist’s mood or emotional condition.
Abstract expressionist painters Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning are well-known for their fascination in gestural painting.
6. Stippling
Stippling is something you might want to attempt if you like working with complex patterns and producing detailed paintings. Stippling is an image-creation process that uses tiny dots or circles. Using a pen or brush, one-color pigment is applied to create dots. The arrangement of the dots can imply patterns, forms, and contrast zones that can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
7. Pouring
Pouring is a straightforward yet efficient method that is most successful when applied to acrylic paint. This method is pouring paint straight onto a surface and tilting the canvas at various angles to activate the paint and move it around, as opposed to creating a work of art with painting instruments like brushes or sponges. This technique facilitates the colors’ organic blending and may produce vivid, one-of-a-kind works that capture the way colors interact.
8. Splashing
If you want to decompress and focus on painting as a means of expression, splattering is a great technique to explore. The main goal of this technique is to embrace the unpredictable nature of art and experience a degree of spontaneity that is hard to attain with other, more regulated approaches and techniques. Wet your brush with water first, then dip it into acrylic paint, and then flick it straight onto the canvas.
9. Dabbing
This simple method uses a sponge, paper towel, or brush with stiff bristles to dab paint onto a surface. Light pressure should be used to apply the paint really fast. It is a good idea to dab while painting treetops or other flora to convey a sense of movement since it may assist add texture and movement to a composition.
10. Palette knife
Palette knives may be used to produce some unusual effects in your work that would be challenging to do with a brush, despite the fact that you might assume they are only for mixing paint on your palette. Palette knives are very helpful for creating a rough, textured effect by blending edges by moving one color into another. By filling the palette knife’s tip with paint and dabbing it onto the canvas, you may also use it to add tiny splashes of color to a painting.