Art Mediums That Are Easy To Learn For Beginners

As a beginning artist the first thing you have to decide upon is what materials you will be working with. The options are almost unlimited if you keep an open mind and willing to try new things.

An important part of making art is to explore the unexplored and trying a new art medium from time to time can help to get your creative juices flowing again.

Trying something new might also help you find your unique art style.

This article features some of the most popular art mediums, so you can easily see which one suits you the best.

Drawing is by far the most accessible art medium since pretty much everyone as some pencils and paper at home. Not surprisingly it’s the first form of art that we teach our children in school.

Although any pencils will do for beginners, you can transition to the more expensive professional pencils that give more vibrant colors when you want to take things more seriously.

Besides the standard charcoal pencil, you can also use pen and ink or markers for drawing.

Common materials:

• Colored pencils
• Pastels
• Charcoal
• Ink markers
• Pen & Ink

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Painting is just as common as drawing and easy to pick up. However, learning good painting technique can take quite some time. Moreover, there are many different types of paint and each of them is completely different.

Of course, besides the paint itself you will need some extra supplies such as paintbrushes, an easel and the right paper or canvas.

Common materials:

• Watercolor paint
• Acrylic paint
• Oil paint
• Watercolor pencils
• Airbrush

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In the past few decades many artists have made the transition from traditional art medium to digital. Instead of a mouse and keyboard, a drawing tablet is used as input device.

A good drawing tablet can accurately mimic the feeling of drawing with a pen of painting with a brush. Whereas some tablets need to be connected to the computer, more expensive tablet come with their own screen so you can draw directly on top of it.

Special digital drawing software is used in combination with the drawing tablet, because we all know that Microsoft Paint is just not cutting it. These programs are what makes working digitally so great. A quick undo button, layers you can change at any time and the free transform option are just a few features that will make use life much easier.

Common materials:

• Drawing tablet
• Drawing software
• Computer/tablet

With wood carving you start with a big block of wood and you slowly remove pieces of wood using a sharp knife or chisel.

There are many forms of wood carving such as whittling, chip carving, etc. All of them require different tools and techniques. As a beginner you’ll probably start making small figurines using a whittling knife.

Not all types of wood are suitable for wood carving. Different types of wood can be roughly classified as either hard wood or soft wood. Obviously the soft wood is easier to work with and more suitable for beginners.

Once you finished your sculpture, you can further decorate it by painting on it, lightly burn it, varnish it, etc.

Common materials:

• Chisels
• Carving knife
• Wood
• Pyrography pen

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Glass being a hard yet brittle materials can’t be carved as easily as wood. Hit is too soft and nothing happens; hit it too hard and it shatters into thousands of pieces.

Instead glass art is normally made by fusing different pieces together or by melting the glass completely and pouring it in mould. This of course takes very high temperatures so normally a kiln is required. If you don’t want to buy a big kiln from the start, you can go with a cheaper microwave kiln. Unfortunately, these aren’t as reliable as the as a real kiln though.

If you don’t want to work with high temperatures, you can still try your hands at glass windows. These can be made by connecting different pieces of stained glass together by soldering pieces of came.

Common materials:

• Stained glass
• Glass cutter
• Glass grinder
• Kiln
• Soldering iron

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Turning clay into cups, pots, vases, etc. has been a worldwide practice for centuries. Not surprisingly pottery has turning from a humble profession into a form of art.

Normally a pottery wheel is used to shape the clay to the desired shape. Due to the continuously rotating wheel it becomes easy to make a radially symmetric shape. Although these wheels used to huge and expensive, it’s not too hard to find a decently priced model for home use nowadays.

After moulding the clay into the right shape, it will need to be fired at high temperatures to harden the clay. After the clay cooled down you can decorate it by carving, painting, applying a glaze, etc.

Although many styles have developed over the years there is still plenty of room to let out and show your own creativity. If you are looking for a different medium of art that is not only beautiful but also practical, then pottery might be the right option for you.