Can You Teach Yourself Oil Painting With DVDs?

Many people are interesting in learning oil painting as a hobby but don’t the money or time to attend regular classes. Fortunately, we live in an era where technology makes almost all things possible.

No longer do you need to drive over to your community center to take an art class every Thursday at 7pm.

Now you can pop in a DVD whenever you happen to have some free time, in the morning or after work and paint away. This ease of scheduling is something very valuable when it comes to painting lessons on DVD.

So first of all, if you’re considering DVD painting lessons, you need to ask yourself if you’re the type of person who can learn from a DVD. Do you need a lot of feedback? Do you have trouble moving on from something if you haven’t asked all of your questions first? Do you work better when under pressure from others about results?

If this sounds like you, it may be worth investing in an actual painting class where you can talk to the instructor one on one whenever you want, and get their feedback as well as the opinions of fellow students. However, that doesn’t mean that a DVD won’t benefit you. You’ll just have to let go of some of those things and learn to more forward more experimentally.

If you work well learning on your own, like finding the answers to your questions through your own research and experimentation, and are self-motivated, then DVDs may just work very well for you. It is entirely possible to learn painting from a DVD.

The truth is that your improvement in painting will be mostly the result of a lot of practice and experimentation on your part, even more so than what an instructor can do. But basic instruction (especially when it comes to more complicated things like perspective) is invaluable when it comes to painting because it gives you the guidelines for what you need to experiment with.

There are many types of DVD lessons you can choose from. Some are sets of over 20 DVDs which start you from the very basics of painting. You’ll learn about the materials you need, how to take care of them, how to choose colors, set up a palette, choose a workspace, and all of the other basic beginning tasks.

If you already have the set-up for painting or know about how to buy and take care of materials, you may want to jump forward into specific painting techniques. If all you want to do is learn how to make a painting in an impressionist style, there’s no use getting such a comprehensive set of DVDs. So assess what you want to learn and paint, and research what alternatives are available to you in that realm.

In the end, you certainly can teach yourself oil painting with DVDs provided you have the motivation to do so. They’re much less expensive than personal lessons but much more convenient.

 Especially if you’re an absolute beginner, DVD lessons will be a valuable help to get you own your feet and into painting. Maybe once you master all the basics you’ll want to take a more guided course, but when learning, a DVD is great.