Painting Tips for Beginners: 7 Steps to Help You Begin

Painting Tips for Beginners > Plein air painter Gary Snavely shares his advice to help you organize your thoughts for a greater chance of a good painting outcome.

by Gary Snavely
Hermiston, Oregon

Painting is an art form, like composing music or writing a novel. You can recognize a piece by Vivaldi from a Bach by the way they sound. In the same way, you can recognize a Monet from a Sargent by how they look. The reason is quite simple: a work of art is an expression of reality through a unique personality.

I read that Rembrandt was attracted to the poetry of imperfection. I like that because I can see the poetry of imperfection in his paintings and that tells me something about Rembrandt’s unique personality.

I have never liked the phrase “rules are made to be broken.” I don’t like it because I am not attracted to chaos or anarchy. I am attracted to beauty.

The problem isn’t with rules. The problem is that some people want to make a rule in and of itself. When that happens, freedom and creativity go out the window. There is nothing wrong with a rule if it’s used as a tool to guide us to something greater. We do, after all, call it a ruler, right?

Expressing yourself through painting is what this article is about. I want to share with you some simple suggestions or guidelines that I made up for myself years ago. I hope you will find them helpful.

Here are seven things to think about when you begin a painting en plein air or in your studio. These seven steps are not exhaustive; they’re not a pre-flight checklist like a pilot uses. They are just helpful words meant to help you organize your thoughts so you have a greater chance of a good painting.

To make it easy, remember they all start with the letter E.

1. Essence is what makes something what it is. When you look at the subject you want to paint, ask yourself, “why do I want to paint this? What attracts me to it?” Try to capture and describe the essence in just a few words. Did you feel an emotion? Is the light doing something unusual? Does it remind you of something? If it tugs on your heart, chances are it will tug on your viewer’s heart as well. But try to describe what it is out loud.

2. Before you begin to actually apply paint, you need to establish a value plan. That plan will be the basis of your composition. You need to translate your essential idea into a working plan. Call it composition or design, but give it some thought. Your value plan is what directs the viewer’s eye through the painting. You can refine it as you go, but don’t go too far until you have a basic design with strong values.

3. This step is where you exercise your artistic freedom. Once you have the idea in mind, you can eliminate anything that doesn’t support the idea and the design. Do you need to move a tree or even eliminate a tree? Does the fence help lead the eye or is it a barrier? Keep asking yourself questions like that.

4. The basic thing here is to exaggerate something that will help grab the interest of the viewer. Can you exaggerate a roof line? Can you emphasize a color in one place? Color, values, texture, lines, shapes, and objects are all good ways to exaggerate something. Just don’t overdo it.

5. How do you want to express what you feel about the painting? What is the mood and atmosphere? What dominates the painting? Lines that guide the eye? Is it dominated by the horizontal, oblique, or vertical? How can you use color or a limited palette to express your story? Will it be a high key painting or a low key?

6. Time to execute. This is where all those things you already know about painting kick in. Big masses first. Dark to light, thin to thick. Or if it is watercolor; light to dark, or sometimes dark to light, transparent or opaque. What brushes will you use? Make decisions about all these things before you even begin. Solve as many problems as you can and then paint.

7. Experiment and remain flexible. Flexibility and freedom go hand in hand. Be willing to take a risk and try something different. Every painting will have its own set of problems, but every problem presents new opportunities, and new opportunities require different solutions.

Ask yourself, what if I…? Or, what does this painting need? Look at it in a mirror. Put in a room with a dim light and see how it looks. Turn it upside down and see if the design still holds your attention. Look at it from a sharp angle. Can you still tell what it is

There is a proverb that says, “people without a vision perish.” Well, paintings without a vision perish while paintings with a vision flourish. Whistler said, “an artist is not paid for his labor, but for his vision.”

Editor’s Note: Join us for the 6th Annual Plein Air Live online art conference, featuring Kathleen Hudson, Kevin Macpherson, Kami Mendlik, and many more! The event takes place November 12-14, 2025, with an Essential Techniques Day on November 11. Learn more at PleinAirLive.com.

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