What’s Better For Beginners? Painting vs. Drawing:

Being new to art is intimidating for some, but you can definitely find the right skill because there are so many new ways you can get into art like painting or drawing.

Art has a lot of different forms as you can have audio art, visual art, and even physical art. Some people are looking to start with visual art, but there are different forms of visual art that you can look into. In this article, we’ll determine what’s better for beginners, painting vs. drawing.

If you are interested in learning more about painting, you may want to look into paint-by-number kits.

What Is Visual Arts?

Visual art refers to art forms that primarily feature visual works; this can be observed in sculpture, ceramics, sketching, photography, painting, architecture, and film-making. Nonetheless, these definitions shouldn’t be followed too strictly as there are a lot of art teachings such as textile arts, conceptual arts, and performance arts that involve visual arts.

However, you can observe visual arts in graphic design, decorative art, fashion design, and interior design. You can also apply concepts of visual arts in arts and crafts if you want to expand your projects.

Painting and drawing are included in the basic concept of visual arts, and are considered as the two aspects that you can learn on your own. However, the question stands, “painting vs. drawing, what’s better for beginners?” For most adults, drawing can be difficult because it’s a little more complex than just drawing a perfect circle or a straight line. Aside from that, people who want to get into painting can also use paint-by-number kits as a guide for their projects, which makes painting easier to learn.

Either way, both are ideal for learning visual arts, and are great ways to get into the world of art.

What Is Drawing?

Drawing is described as lines and shades, and there are different variations of drawing such as shade drawing, object drawing, and line drawing. Most people who have this skill are referred to as artists, and drawing does not require other mediums like turpentine. You can use charcoal, crayons, and pencils to sketch, and you don’t need to use a palette to draw.

Something that makes drawing a little easier for people is that it doesn’t require any drying time. You can also change how your drawing looks by smudging the lines with tissue or a rubber eraser.

What Is Painting?

Painting is described by designs and colors, and there are multiple mediums when it comes to painting such as oil painting, acrylic painting, canvas painting, watercolor painting, and painting on ceramics. With oil painting, you will need turpentine to be able to use the pigment, or you can use linseed oil if you want to use a base that’s less pungent. One thing that might discourage new artists is that each painting medium has different drying times. Aside from that, some would think that painting is an expensive hobby because you need materials.

What’s the Difference Between Drawing and Painting?

Materials used: Drawing doesn’t require a lot of materials aside from pencils, charcoal, crayons, or colored pencils. Aside from that, you can use any kind of paper you want for drawing. Whereas with painting, you need a canvas or a specific type of paper. There are also different mediums for painting like watercolor, acrylic, oil, tempera, and fresco. All of these materials render different colors and textures, and the medium you use also has different drying times.
Colors: For most drawings, you’ll observe that the lining is done with one color, while painting can be done with different colors to start your outline. However, when it comes to shading your drawing, you may want to use colored pencils to give you more variations.
Focus: For a lot of drawings, you initially focus on lines and shapes, while with painting you focus more on the colors and general form of your image. However, you can also incorporate colors into your drawing if you want more depth.
Definition: Drawing is defined as general outlines and shapes, while painting focuses more on laying down colors and the form of the image you want to paint.

Conclusion:

Painting and drawing are both very interesting visual art forms that have great features if you want to try them out. Whether you prefer the variety that painting can give or prefer making shapes and lines through drawing, both are easy enough to get into if you’re willing to learn.