Ideal paint?

Question

I have the random urge to try and paint. The problem is I know nothing about paints. I plan to do a classical type of painting. Any suggestions about the type of paint I should get? The brand? Quantity? Where to get it? Thanks.

Answer 1

If you are a first time painter my suggestion would be oil paints. The reason is that it is the most forgiving medium to work with. You can rework the painting as much as you want. If you make a mistake you can scrape the paint off while it's still wet and redo it or if it's dried you can paint right over it. It dries very slowly so you have days to change something you don't like. They give you more opportunity to experiment until you get it just right. I personally prefer doing water colour paintings but water colours are not very forgiving. It dries very quickly and you don't much time to make changes. You usually just have to work your mistakes into your painting which can sometimes give you some interesting results but can also ruin your painting if you don't have much experience. You can buy some cheap oil paint sets which will suffice for a beginner and I would suggest just using some cheap canvas boards until you are comfortable enough to buy top quality supplies. Reeves makes a set of 18 tubes of paint for about $10-$15 at any art supply store or Staples if you have that store near you. You can buy a cheap set of brushes for about $10 ( will give you a nice selection of sizes for starting out.) and canvas boards for about $5 at most any craft or art supply store. Other than that , all you need is a small jar of linseed oil to thin your paints and some turpentine to clean your brushes. If you want to buy a pallett for mixing your paints on you can buy a plastic one for about $2 or just use an old plate. Once you have that you have enough supplies to last for months of painting. The nice thing about oil painting is you can leave it for a few days and carry on where you left off which is a lot harder to do with watercolours. I think it's more suited to renaissance paintings as well. Hope this helped. Happy painting to you. You're going to love it!
Note : Once you decide to purchase better quality supplies I would recommend Grumbacher paints and brushes. Expensive but excellent quality.
P.S. You have to excuse the spelling errors...spell check is not working.

Answer 2

most painting newbies like to start with acrylic. it's fairly easy to handle, mixes well, and is relatively inexpensive. it also cleans with soap and water which is very convenient. watercolor is also a very inexpensive route to go and can produce amazing results. oil can be wonderful but is messy and smelly and difficult to clean.
what to buy:
you can pick up almost anything you need at dick blick online. for acrylic the blickrylic brand works fine. buy some acrylic medium to go along with that. it makes the paint smoother and apply better. i think they come in 1 liter containers. buy all the colors on the color wheel plus black, white, brown, and probably magenta and turqoise as well. that will last you a long, long time.
for watercolor i like to use a brand called yarka. it's a 12 color set for around $10. but i know many people who like the crayola sets just fine.
get yourself a variety or brushes. different shapes and sizes. make sure they are the proper material for the paint medium. they don't have to be expensive. the dick blick brand brushes are very reasonable.
for oil i got mine at wal-mart of all places. in their art section (it's 1 row long) there's a set of 12 or 16 oil tubes. it's a nice starter set. make sure you get turpentine or linseed oil to thin the paint and clean the brushes.

Answer 3

Watercolors are easiest and cheapest to start. Get watercolors and paper at dollar store if you really want to be frugal but if you are serious;There are tons of easy "start to paint " books in bookstores, even better at the library. You could even buy colored pencils and start drawing . Set up a little still life; fruit or flowers in a bowl. Sketch on a pad and fill in-- books or classes will teach you about perspective and shading. Have fun!!

Answer 4

paint your image in mirror as you like it.

Answer 5

try watercolours to start

Answer 6

Black