Acrylic Painting by a Complete Beginner

Acrylic Painting by a Complete Beginner

September 2026

I have decided to take up a hobby and try my hand at painting with acrylics. I did get my Art O level at school but have not done any sort of painting since then, so I am talking about a very long time ago (approx 54 years)

I have my own sort of style and have decided to call it “Cuteism“.  I cannot do landscapes or portraits etc and my imagination is not that great so I search for images of paintngs/pictures (mainly cute animals) on the internet and then interpret them in my own way.

So please scroll through and see my efforts as the weeks go on.

The first thing I did was to purchase some acrylic paints and found a great set on eBay (affiliate link to ebay) which came with 24 tubes of acrylic paint, 10 paintbrushes, a little palette and a very small piece of canvas.  Cost £12.09 (prices will vary of course).

My first effort was of a kingfisher which I painted on to the canvas.

Once I had completed that I decided to buy an A3 pad Cold Press Watercolour Paper Pad 300GSM paper, again purchasing from eBay at a cost of £15.70 (again of course prices will vary).  It has 30 A3 sheets so that will keep me going for a while.I bought A3 size but of course you can cut pages in half so you get A4.  As you can see from the photo it states “Watercolour” but it is suitable for acrylic painting.

As I like to sketch my main subject on to the paper first so I needed to buy some charcoal pencils.  I purchased a pack which included 5 black ones ranging from light to dark and a white charcoal pencil and a sharpener, cost £8.55.  So the total price to start acrylic painting was £36.43 so it is not an expensive hobby to get started.  However I can see the next thing to be purchased (although not necessary) might be an easel.

My next effort was a painting of a vase which has some artificial flowers in it, that I have on my lounge window sill, but I have to say this did not turn out how I wanted it.  Hopefully they will get better.

The next was a lovely picture I found online of a cute little lion, so thought I would give that a go.  However that was so difficult and it turned out nothing like the picture and I resigned myself to the fact that I could not paint fur (in addition to other aspects).

I decided that the future paintings would have to be a little more simplistic with not so much detail as my painting skills are not up to that, so after the disaster of this particular painting I decided just to do a charcoal pencil sketch of the little lion which was a little better.

Next was a multi coloured horses head – no texture needed so it was relatively simple and using bold colours, no mixing of paints was needed.

My next effort cute female giraffe which I have to say came out rather well so I was really pleased.  So much so that it was even put in a frame immediately.  Again a fairly simple design and easy to paint but effective.

I then found a lovely painting of Paddington Bear which I thought I would give it a go, but again had a problem with getting his fur right, but it turned out okay.

My next was a paining of Pooh and Eeyore.  I have two little china ornaments on my lounge window sill which are very colourful so decided to try and paint them.

Acrylic Painting by a Complete Beginner

They are very colourful, but the finished painting was not really that good. I couldn’t get the features of Pooh’s face right as it was hard to paint from a china ornament and Eeyore looks fat and grumpy!!

I then found a cute picture, again another Pooh and Eeyore inspiration which looked fairly simple, but again it did not turn out great as I mucked up the tree they were sitting on.

There is a theme coming so you can see why my form of painting is “cute”.  The next attempt was a cute cow.

Followed by a cute Fox. which I think is my favourite so far

Next is cute donkey

Another Pooh and Eeyore.

Now what was I going to do with all these paintings, hide them away in a folder never to see the light of day again (well yes, some paintings will fall into this category).  However the favourite ones I have mounted in some frames and have adorned our wall on the landing.  Depending on how many more I do and how good they are, we might need some more wll room!!

I decided that the next painting I would divert away from cute animals and do a cute version of a Fiat 500 electric car (I drive one so Ithought as a change it might be a nice idea to do something a bit different.  I have done it in a similar colour to mine and with my number plate. However very disappointed with the end result so this will not be displayed on the wall but stored away a folder and kept in the attic along with the others that did not make the grade.  So I think I will stick to the cute animals.

My next effort is this rather cute tiger cub.Reasonably happy with this one so it might get framed and put on the wall.

My next subject was a rabbit, however this one will be relegated to the portfolio and not displayed on the wall as I am not happy with it.  The picture I adapted was more like a real (although very cute) rabbit, but with my limited experience of painting I could not get his fur right as it was very realistic.  Probably because I have not got the right paintbrushes to do this but here is the end result anyway, but not one my better ones.

Talking of portfolios, as I have a few paintings now that have not made the grade, my husband very kindly bought me a proper artist’s folder, so now all the rejects have a safe and tidy place to be stored. ( He bought it through eBay and you can view them through this affiliate link here ( A4 Art Portfolio on eBay)

My next attempt was a cute little dog peeping behind a gate.  Not sure yet if this one has reached the gallery on the landing or stored in the portfolio!!

My next subject matter is a cute leopard cub holding a teddy bear.  Not sure if he is going to make the wall of fame or not?