Avoiding painting people and faces when you learn to paint

When people are learning to paint then they assume that painting a face or person would be their easiest option, because it is a lot smaller than a house or a landscape. The problem is though that getting the features right like the posture and the facial expression is incredibly difficult when you are first starting out, and they often end up looking like an alien!

Your best bet is to get some landscape tutorial books and then work on creating some simple landscapes. You don’t have to paint anything wonderful at first, just put in the sky and some hills with grass on, then start to build features onto that and experiment as you go. Landscapes are beautiful even if they are quite basic because they have an obvious subject matter so you don’t have to try and work out what the painting is about, and they use a wide variety of colors. This gives you a real sense of achievement when you finish one and gives you work to show to people too.

They also give you valuable experience on working with depth in your paintings, as there will be lots of features in your landscape when you progress, like a gate in the foreground and animals grazing on a hill, then you get to practice working on the shapes and proportions so they look right. Plus you get to practice working with light and shading, so you can add in the effect of the sun on the bushes and trees, and add in shadows where you need to. This means you will never get bored with painting landscapes! You will learn something new every time you try one.