Posted by Kevin in When people are learning to paint then they assume that painting a face or person would be their easiest option, because it is a lot smaller than a house or a landscape. The problem though is that painting facial expressions is really difficult as you need to make them express the emotion you want, and getting the proportion of the features and the posture right is a real pain!
I think you would have a lot more success if you invested in some some landscape painting books and then started to work on creating them. Landscapes allow you to start off quite basic, just put in some hills, some grass and the sky, then you can start to add in features and detail as your skills progress. Landscapes use rich colors, and they are easy to recognize too, so even a basic painting can be beautiful, which will really help to motivate you as you are learning and give you work to show off to family and friends.
Working with a landscape also gives you lots of opportunity to work with depth, a concept most painters struggle with. As you have features in the foreground like maybe a gate or tree, and other features like a house in the background, then you can work on getting those proportions right to simulate the distance between them. Plus you get to practice working with light and shading, so you can add in the effect of the sun on the bushes and trees, and add in shadows where you need to. This means you will never get bored with painting landscapes! You will learn something new every time you try one.
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