40 Easy Mini Canvas Painting Ideas For Beginners To Try | ArtBeek (2024)

FAQs

What is the easiest style of painting for beginners? ›

Pop art or cartoons are a great choice when you're looking for easy things to paint on a canvas. They can be any shape or style that you like, so it's easy to hide any mistakes that you don't feel confident in painting over. Try recreating some of your favorite characters, or be bold and invent one of your own.

Two of the most commonly used paints for canvas art are oil and acrylic paint. Acrylic comes in as an all-time favourite with its favourable qualities; it's easy to work with and dries quickly. Oil paint is another winner with its thick, gluey consistency it is the perfect paint recipe paired beautifully with canvas.

Typically you'll want to use no more than two main colors. Select one warm color and one cool color to gain contrast. You can select a third color such as black, white, or ivory, which are not primary or secondary colors with which to provide a neutral tone which makes the main colors stand out more.

If you're having a hard time beginning, start with simple forms and colors. Also, don't strive for sophistication or complexity everytime. Sometimes, going back to the basics can be refreshing and enlightening!

Priming is the process of creating a barrier between the canvas and the paint. It's typically done by applying layers of acrylic gesso, clear acrylic medium, or oil primer. Prepping your canvas makes it less absorbent, helps your paint sit better on the surface, and protects your canvas from natural corrosion.

When painting in the shapes, you'll want to paint in layers, remembering to paint in the layers closest to the background first then gradually painting in the layers until you get to the foreground and details. This not only gives your painting a sense of depth but also helps you avoid mistakes down the line.

These would be two scenarios that you would want to pre-sketch your canvas, here's why… Pre-sketching in charcoal, pencil, or even thinned paint gives us the chance to flesh out our design, work on proportions, seek balance in our composition and identify any trouble spots before we start building our painting.

What to do when I don't know what to paint? ›

Another way to awaken your inspiration is to look into things that you like: the work of an artist you admire, information about a certain subject that you are interested in. They don't even have to be related to “painting”, maybe you can draw inspiration from a book, or movie.

If you have raw, unprocessed canvas, you do need to apply gesso, which is usually white (this might be what you mean when you ask if you need to “paint” it white first). The gesso protects the canvas from oil paint, which would rot the canvas if you applied it directly without gesso.

An often-used definition is that a piece of miniature art can be held in the palm of the hand, or that it covers less than 25 square inches or 100 cm². Some exhibits require the subjects to be depicted in 1/6 actual size, and in all paintings the spirit of miniaturisation should be maintained.

Because of their small size, you should display mini canvas arts on furniture such as a cabinet, bookshelf, desk, storage furniture, or side table. Hanging it on a wall in a small space such as an entryway or bathroom will make the interior balance nicely.

Priming is the process of creating a barrier between the canvas and the paint. It's typically done by applying layers of acrylic gesso, clear acrylic medium, or oil primer. Prepping your canvas makes it less absorbent, helps your paint sit better on the surface, and protects your canvas from natural corrosion.