10 essential painting techniques for artists

If you’re looking to improve your painting skills, experimenting with different styles can help you find your voice.

Whether you're interested in working with oil, acrylic or watercolour, there are lots of painting technqiues that can help you enhance your practice.

This guide covers 10 essential painting techniques for anyone looking to take their painting skills to the next level.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how to interpret art, take a look at our guide on where to begin with interpreting art for some advice on how to get started.

Key takeaways

• Learning a few core painting techniques can improve the quality and confidence of your painting.
• These 10 techniques cover a range of mediums including oil, acrylic and watercolour.
• Painting techniques like dry brushing, glazing and stippling can affect texture and depth.
• Think about the overall finish you want to achieve when choosing a technique.

Why learning painting techniques matters

When it comes to improving your painting skills, it's important to experiment with different styles and forget about the ‘rules.’ Studying different painting styles and techniques can help to improve an artist's versatility and is a great way to find personal artistic preferences.

"Across history, painters looking to improve their techniques have done so by twisting the rules and expectations established by previous generations," says Theo Carnegy-Tan, Arts Academic and UAL short course tutor, "this might mean using extreme impasto, or vigorous, gestural strokes as the Expressionists and Impressionists did in the early 20^th Century."

If you’re finding all the possibilities and types of painting techniques overwhelming, remember, as Theo, who leads our Introduction to Modern Art History Online Short Course notes, "you don’t need to follow conventional techniques at all, even in an amplified form."

"John Baldessari famously hired someone else to make a painting entirely of text phrases for him, all of which were drawn from practical textbooks," says Theo. "This kind of approach opened up boundaries for painters of all kinds who abandoned form, gesture, and colour altogether in the post-war period."

The 10 essential painting techniques to master

Discover a variety of core painting techniques designed to work for different mediums and create striking effects. Whether you're working with acrylics, oils or watercolours, these foundational brushstrokes and methods can enhance your artwork.

1# Underpainting

The term ‘underpainting’ refers to the first layer of paint that is applied to a canvas or board. This layer is often used to map out composition, values and light and dark areas before adding colour.

Many famous artists have used underpainting, including Leonardo da Vinci, who would often create a detailed underpainting in dark tones and paint on top to create atmosphere.

Underpainting is particularly useful for oil painting as it can help to build depth. Learn about different painting techniques and develop your painting skills with our Oil Painting Level 1 Short Course at Chelsea College of Arts. Read our tutor interview with oil painting tutor Enver Gürsev.

2# Dry brushing

Also known as scumbling, dry brushing creates a hazy, feathery or textured finish that artists can achieve by using a stiff, dry paintbrush with a minimal amount of paint.

Dry brushing can be an effective way to capture the texture of natural elements like clouds, trees and hedgerows. Acrylic and oil paints work best for dry brushing, while watercolour is less effective.

There are many intricate examples of this painting technique in ancient Chinese art. A brush would be dipped into black or coloured ink and used to create a softer, lighter effect.

Explore creative possibilities with our Painting with Acrylics Short Course.

3# Sgraffito

Sgraffito is a method of scratching through a wet layer of paint to expose a contrasting colour or texture underneath.

It is possible to use any object that will allow you to scratch a line into the paint. You could try using the pointed end of a paintbrush, for example, or you might want to experiment with a piece of card, palette knife, comb or fork to practice your mark-making.

Explore the creative process and learn more about different painting techniques with a short course in fine art.

4# Glazing

Glazing involves applying a thin, transparent layer of paint over a dry underpainting to produce a luminous, rich colour.

If it’s done well, glazing can help to unify the contrast between colours to establish a subtle balance between colour and tone.

This painting technique works best with oil and acrylic paints that have slow drying times and is often used in portrait painting to create smooth, lifelike skin tones. Develop your painting skills on our Portrait Painting Short Course or read our course feature to see what previous students had to say.

5# Gestural

Gestural painting refers to a technique in which paint is applied in free, sweeping gestures. Artists who choose to work in this way paint intuitively and are focused on expressing themselves through the physical act of painting.

Gestural painting is a great way to capture emotion and movement in a raw form. Artists known for their interest in gestural painting include abstract expressionist artists Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell.

For beginners, start with large brushstrokes and quick arm movements to embrace spontaneity.

6# Stippling

If you enjoy working with intricate patterns and creating detailed paintings, you may want to try stippling. Stippling is a technique that involves building up areas of colour, shading and texture using small, controlled dots created with the tip of a brush.

Stippling is one of the different painting techniques commonly used in pen and ink drawings as well as acrylic and oil paintings for shading effects.

7# Pouring

Pouring is a simple yet effective technique that works best with acrylic paint. Rather than using painting tools like brushes or sponges to produce a piece of art, this technique involves pouring paint directly onto a surface and tilting the canvas at different angles to activate the paint and move it around.

Artists can mix acrylic paint with a pouring medium to help it flow more smoothly. This process helps the colours to blend together naturally.

Experiment with pouring to achieve different blends of colour and develop your painting skills as an artist.

8# Splattering

Splattering is an ideal technique to try if you’re looking to free yourself up and enjoy painting as a form of expression. This technique involves flicking or tapping a loaded paintbrush to produce random, expressive splashes and spots over your canvas.

Start by wetting your brush in water, then dip it into an acrylic pigment and flick the brush directly onto the canvas. Use different-sized brushes for varied splatter effects, such as small brushes for fine mist and large brushes for bold splashes.

Discover more painting techniques with a short course in fine art.

9# Dabbing

This easy painting technique involves dabbing paint onto a surface using a stiff bristle brush, paper towel or sponge. The paint should be applied fairly quickly with light pressure.

Dabbing can help to create texture and movement in a piece, making it a good choice to paint treetops or greenery to reflect a sense of movement.

Learn more about the types of painting techniques and get expert guidance with a short course in painting. Options include Painting The Next Step Short Course and Painting and Personal Inspiration Short Course.

10# Palette knife

While you might think a palette knife is just for mixing paint on your palette, this tool can also be used to create unique effects in your work, also known as impasto art. Use a palette knife to apply thick, textured paint heavily onto the canvas for bold, impasto effects.

Palette knives are particularly useful for blending edges by dragging one colour into another to create a rough, textured look. You can also use a palette knife to introduce small bursts of colour into a painting by loading the tip of the knife with paint and dabbing it onto the surface.

Learn more with UAL painting short courses

Learning painting techniques is essential as you develop your skills and find your creative voice as an artist. It is important to continue experimenting with new approaches and learn as much as possible to improve your painting skills.

Here at UAL Short Courses, we run a number of painting short courses, that cater to all skill levels and styles to help you get the most out of your practice. Options include:

• Portrait Painting Short Course
• Abstract Painting Short Course
• Contemporary Oil Painting Short Course
• Painting with Acrylics Short Course
• Traditional Painting Methods Short Course

If you're looking to improve your painting skills, learning to draw is a great place to start. Drawing skills will allow you to have greater control over your work and help you communicate your ideas effectively.

Our Graded Awards in Drawing offer a unique opportunity to develop and test your drawing skills at your own pace. Learn more about Graded Awards in Drawing.

Start experimenting and building your painting skills

To develop your painting skills, choose a couple of these techniques to try in your next painting. You might want to use some scrap paper to experiment with different materials and styles as you build confidence and discover what works for you.

Think of every painting as an opportunity to start anew and trust your creative instincts. Remember, the creative process is all about trial and error, so embrace your mistakes and enjoy the journey!